Hiring problems under 0 licence
Page 26
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
from a special correspondent • A restrictive interpretation of the need to specify hired vehicles on operators' licences is. it appears. being applied in one or two traffic areas, if the experience of one large haulier is any guide. This operator, applying for 0 licences in two traffic areas. not only hires from professional hiring companies but also cross hires between his group subsidiaries in the two areas.
In his applications he is seeking authorization for a number of hired vehicles, which he will need from the starting date of the licences (March I); but because he cannot specify the individual registration numbers of these vehicles in his applications he has been told that his licences will be withheld until such time as he is able to provide a correct list of all vehicles hired or owned which are to be authorized for use from March I.
The problem appears to arise because the reference in the Transport Act to the specification of vehicles differs from that under the Road Traffic Act 1960. Hired vehicles can be authorized on a carrier's licence by total permitted number, and the identity discs simply state, for instance, "one vehicle not exceeding two tons u.l.w.. by hiring" and so can be switched at will from vehicle to vehicle so long as the total hiring allowance is not exceeded. But the 1968 Act (Section 61) makes it clear that vehicles may only be authorized for use under an operator's licence if they are specified in the licence. Only after a licence has been granted is the addition of further vehicles not exceeding a stated maximum number permitted without individual specification in advance.
In the case of the haulier referred to, the two traffic areas in which he is applying are insisting that "specified" means by registration numbers. An application form and supplementary forms specifying the to-he-hired vehicles by body type and unladen weight have been found unacceptable by one of the traffic areas. Also, an offer to supply details of the registration numbers as soon as possible after March 1. and certainly within the periods specified in the regulations, has been judged inadequate.
Now, says the operator, he is faced with the possibility of having to conjure numbers out of the -air in order to get his initial licences, and then provide the LAs with a list of the actual numbers as substitutions as soon as he knows them.
From a check round the traffic areas, this situation does not appear to apply in other than the two areas already referred to. Elsewhere, it seems, "specified" is being taken to mean notification of type, within an authorized maximum number, and operators are being allowed to specify by actual registration number as soon as possible afterwards.
Whatever the problems at the application stage, it is clear that in all traffic areas operators who frequently change their hired vehicles are going to be faced with a considerable administrative chore in continually notifying Licensing Authority offices of changes in the hired vehicles specified, now that all must be specified by registration number and cannot be covered by a more general disc which could be switched from vehicle to vehicle.
This may also raise problems for professional vehicle-hire companies, if they find that casual customers cannot obtain authorization to use a hired vehicle unless they are able to specify the registration number in advance—a situation which does not arise at present.
One of the Ministry's aims was understood to be the elimination of non-specific discs on hired vehicles. It looks as though the new situation may be worse than the first, with companies who have a big turnover in hired vehicles busily sending and receiving discs, and meanwhile running vehicles with wrong discs or no discs at all: It is also likely that companies with vehicles hired across traffic area boundaries will at times commit the sin of having a vehicle apparently specified on two 0 licences at once, because discs are "in transit".