The Executive in jackboots
Page 30
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ATRANSPORT consultant complains, in this issue, of the discourtesy and arrogance of the Road Haulage Executive in lodging sweeping objections to applications for the continuation of hauliers' licences without modification, without giving any indication of the line of attack. The Transport Arbitration Tribunal also had reason, last week, to comment on the improper attitude of the Executive in arrogating to itself the right to postpone putting into effect the Tribunal's decisions on matters of principle involving agreements for compensation.
Both the Executive and its solicitor were acquitted of any intentional discourtesy, but the Tribunal commented in strong terms on the action of the R.H.E. in submitting for confirmation agreements bearing dates some weeks after the Tribunal's decision in the Maggs case, but entirely ignoring the effect of that ruling. The Executive had apparently taken the view that it was entitled to defer action on a decision if there were a likelihood of an appeal against it. That illusion was effectively corrected.
High officials of the British Transport Commission have complained that their work is conducted in a hostile atmosphere. If the attitude which the Executive is adopting towards applications for licences by free hauliers and agreements for compensation to acquired undertakings, indicates a general and deliberate disregard for the interests of those outside the Ivory Tower, little public sympathy can be-expected. The Commission has in its hands an instrument which, if used ruthlessly, can make the lives . of independent hauliers untenable. Those who watch the interests of free enterprise must take every step to ensure that the Commission's power is adequately curbed. They have unassailable champions in the Transport Arbitration Tribunal, the Appeal Tribunal and the Licensing Authorities.