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• As forecast exclusively in CM in July, the application
Page 56
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form for an operator's licence, for completion by existing carrierslicence holders during the transitional period, will call for details of convictions over only the previous three years, and not five as originally intended. This is revealed in questions 8 and 9 of the new GV76 form. Details will have to be given of offences relating to roadworthiness of vehicles, overloading or drivers' hours or records.
The new form differs in several respects from the pilot form produced earlier this year and used for an exercise in several traffic areas. Following that exercise, the Ministry promised simplification of some sections and this has been done. But in simplifying the maintenance section, for example, the Ministry has made the questions more direct, and the form now calls for straight "yes" or "no" answers which commit the operator far more decisively than the lengthy but bland questions about facilities that appeared in the earlier form.
A facsimile of the new application form, reproduced here, shows how direct are the maintenance questions.
In asking for general particulars of the applicant and his vehicles the new form differs little from the old, seeking mainly to establish who are the truly responsible operators of the vehicles and the numbers and types involved. As before, supplementary sheets (GV 77 and 78) will be provided for the operator to list his vehicles and trailers in detail; information required for each vehicle includes the unladen weight, MoT plating certificate number (where relevant), MoT gross plated .weight or manufacturer's gross plated weight, body type, and class of existing carrier's licence applicable to the vehicle.
On the supplementary sheets GV77 and GV78 the applicant must enter details of the motor vehicles and trailers in his possession, or hired without a driver, which he wishes to have specified on his operator's licence. One sheet has to be completed for each operating centre in the traffic area for which the application is being made. Continuation sheets (GV77a and GV78a) are available for use where the supplementary forms are not big enough to contain all the vehicles and trailers to be listed.
As will be seen from the facsimile, a new question (7b) now specifically asks for the number of extra vehicles which the operator wishes to have on licence during the next three years. This is to encourage operators able to support extra vehicles in a roadworthy condition to apply for them initially and thus avoid variation applications to add vehicles later on. (The notes add an explanation.) This not only will save the MoT area offices some paperwork but, if taken up by those able to forecast likely growth, will avoid operators having to risk a public inquiry, and more onerous investigation by the Licensing Authority, in the early stages of the licence's currency. Where such vehicles exceed 16 tons gross weight (or 5 tons unladen if unplated), operators will still need to make separate application for the respective A, B or C licences, even though the vehicles have been specified in advance on the initial operator's licence.
Question 7 also asks for specific forecasts of the number of hired vehicles required to be specified under the licence.
The application forms from the Ministry will be accompanied by a booklet of guidance on the whole scheme, while the application form itself is accompanied by two and a half foolscap pages of explanatory notes. These stress the circumstances surrounding applications for extra vehicles, the importance of understanding the commitment which is entered into when answering the maintenance questions, and the explicit details of vehicles which are required to be specified. Some of the explanatory notes are published here.
Hauliers can expect to start receiving the invitation to apply for operators' licences in the fairly near future, since they are due to hold "0" licences by March I next year. Own-account operators will have a longer wait, since their licences do not have to be obtained before June, September or December, according to which numerical group the serial number of their existing C licence falls into. Those who hold C licences with serials that end in 000 to 333 will need an "0" licence by June 11970; those with lastthrees of 334 to 666 by September 1; those with 667 to 999 by December 1. There will be exceptions, notably for fleets on mixed licence categories.
The Ministry this week gave an assurance that application forms would be sent to existing operators automatically, well before the dates when their carriers' licences are due to be converted to operators' licences. Operators will be expected to return the completed application forms within three weeks of receiving them; late-arriving forms will not be given special treatment, and operators could find themselves without a licence on the due date.