£4 a year fee for '0'
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icence Forth tolls
• A flat rate of £4 per vehicle per year is proposed for operators' licence fees, the Minister of Transport announced on Wednesday. This would be accompanied by slight reductions in the fees for carriers' licences, which will still apply to vehicles over 16 tons gross in addition to the operator's licence.
Annual rates for licences are quoted because, at least initially, currency periods for '0' licences may vary from two to seven years to spread the administrative work.
At present an A licence costs £2 per vehicle per year, a B licence £2 lOs per vehicle per year and a C licence 6s per vehicle per year. The new annual rates for
A, B and C licences will be 10s, lbs and 4s, respectively.
This means that, over the normal five-year currency period, an over-16-ton A-licensed vehicle will pay a fee of £22 lbs compared with £10 at present. Those not exceeding 16 tons g.v.w. will pay £20. A B-licensed "heavy" will pay the same (E22 10s) over five years, compared with £12 10s now, while a big C-licensed vehicle will cost £21 over five years, compared with £1 10s now.
Presenting the proposed fees to interested organizations for comment, the Minister said that, even without operators' licensing, a sharp increase in carriers' licence fees would have been necessary to meet increased costs. The new fees, he said, were designed solely to cover the cost of licensing and enforcement—which had included a doubling of the outdoor enforcement staff in recent years.
The proposed fees would take effect from March i next year. Newcomers can expect to get a five-year licence; it is existing operators who will be given licence durations of from two to seven years at the start, and five-year licences on renewal.
Reaction from the operator associations was swift. The Freight Transport Association described the £4 fee as exorbitant, and went on to back its opinion with facts. It calculated that in 1968 the 1,474,000 goods vehicles licensed contributed an annual total of around £800,000 in fees. For the estimated 670,300 vehicles covered by '0' licensing to produce the same revenue, said the Association, the fee would not need to exceed El 4s a year per vehicle.
The Road Haulage Association's immediate comment was that the figure seemed very high. A meeting of the executive board yesterday was expected to discuss the fees, and a very strong protest to the Minister was anticipated.
• -The Secretary of State for Scotland was merely paying lip service to democratic procedures when he instituted a public inquiry on the Forth Road Bridge tolls." This opinion was expressed by representatives of the Confederation of British Industry, the RHA and FTA at a Press conference in Glasgow on Wednesday. The objectors claim that the findings of the official reporter, Mr. D. C. Anderson QC, were discounted by the Secretary of State.
The RHA's Scottish area chairman, Mr. G. Telfer, said that if the Government persisted with the 10s toll, the bridge authority might be faced with administrative disorder and diminishing returns, His Association was pressing for receipts to be issued for each toll; any receipt system would disrupt traffic flows. In many cases, he said, hauliers would pay over £500 a year in tolls. Operation of the 6s concession rate was criticized as cumbersome; not only had claimants to make a deposit but they had to print concession-rate tickets.
Mr. A. Hunter, FTA Scottish chairman, foresaw diminishing returns and feared further toll increases in the not too distant future.
The CBI proposed that, instead of hauliers having to forecast individual vehicle crossings under the concession scheme, a fleet forecast should be accepted, The objectors agreed that toll dues must rise, but contended that 4s toll for a commercial vehicle was more than adequate.
Mr. Leslie Stokoe, RHA Scottish secretary, told CM that the bridge would be boycotted by many members. The FTA's Scottish secretary remarked: "Today's Press conference was a launching pad; the fight against the tolls is only starting".