Tribunal Order Vehicle Suspension
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AFIRM who appealed to the Transport Tribunal in Edinburgh on Tuesday, suffered the suspension of one of their vehicles for three months.
Messrs. Alexander Hayton, Dumfries, appealed against a decision of the Scottish Licensing Authority. The respondents were the British Transport Commission and Road Services (Caledonian), Ltd.
Sir Hubert Hull, president, said that on April 16, 1959, Mr. Alexander Hayton, now deceased, applied for an A licence in respect of three vehicles with containers, stating that the facilities he proposed to provide were general haulage, including the carriage of livestock, within 40 miles of Dumfries, and potatoes to the north-west and Midlands of England.
The Authority had been willing to grant the application if the firm had been prepared to have the districts they would serve restricted by the deletion of "potatoes to the north-west and Midlands of England" from their normal user.
This was because the Authority held that the applicants had departed from their previous declarations of normal user, and because there was insufficient evidence of need for the carriage of goods beyond 40 miles. In addition, the railways had discharged their onus as objectors.
Sir Hubert said that the Tribunal's view differed from that of the Authority. "We _think that, excluding entirely the past irregularities of the applicants, there was a case which justified the grant of a vehicle upon return of the application," he stated.
Announcing that the firm's third vehicle should be suspended for three months, Sir Hubert said that, subject to that suspension, the licence should be granted as sought.
For three months, the other two vehicles on the A licence could be used for potato traffic into Shropshire :and Cheshire, but after that period all three vehicles would be free to operate as described in the application.
GRAVE CONCERN OVER . VEHICLE 'MAINTENANCE
THE question of vehicle maintenance was of grave concern, and many small operators, particularly those outside the Road Haulage Association, had no maintenance system whatever, declared Mr. C. R. Hodgson, East Midland Licensing Authority, at Nottingham on Tuesday.
He was speaking at the annual luncheon of the East Midland Area of the R.H.A. The problem might be eased now that a vehicle maintenance advisory committee had been formed, he said. A scheme had already been devised, and consultations were to take place with the Motor Agents' Association: Mr. R. N. Ingram, R.H.A. national chairman, described haulage as a personal service. A haulier had to avoid idle vehicle time and keep his fleet fully operational. The most swift and efficient vehicle in the world could never be really economic if too great a proportion of its time was spent in empty running, he added.