THE PRICE OF RED TAPE
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Inside the Department of Trade and Industry's bureaucracy-bashing bible Deregulation-Cutting Red Tape there's a snappy foreword from the President of the Board of Trade Michael Heseltine. Among the gems offered by El Presidente is the following: "The road to hell is said to be paved with good intentions. The same can sometimes be said of regulation." Judging by the Department of Transport's proposed charges for Operator Licences quite a Few owner-drivers will endorse his views. If this is the price of Continuous 0-licensing, where's the benefit? Why the DOT needs to penalise small operators in this way is hard to understand. Of course big fleet operators would claim that they should receive a discount on 0licence charges as they run more trucks and pay more VED. It's an argument that's difficult to refute, but weren't all men created opal? The real irony of the new system is that far from being easier to understand, with fewer individual charges for licensing, the number of separate charges which will have to be paid before a licence is granted has actually increased. Where's the cut in red tape here? Continuous 0-licensing was designed to reduce the administrative bill run up by the Traffic Area Offices—but some insiders claim the new system will be no cheaper to run. There's more. When Commercial Motor originally quizzed the DOT about the likely cost of Continuous Licensing we were assured that it would not involve a major increase in charges because "hauliers had taken a lot of pain with the recent 2100 increase". However, unless the DOT stands by its charges, it's difficult to see how it is going to tackle the current £2m deficit on the Goods Operator Licensing Account, which covers the costs of enforcement and administration of the Traffic Area Co-ordination Division at Marsham Street and the TA0s. Unfortunately the people who are being asked to pick up the bulk of that tab are in the same group of hauliers, that is making the least return on revenue—and also the most likely to skimp on maintenance because of a lack of cash. Keep pushing up the costs of the small operator and he'll face a stark choice: go bust legally; or stay in business illegally. And that could include ignoring the small matter of applying for an 0-Licence altogether. Which way for the road to hell?