ANUS . . depict the haulier and the WRITES C-licence holder, warts and all'
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OBERT BURNS suggested that there might be advantages in seeing ourselves as others see us. If so, 'these advantages should be enjoyed by road transport ators who, each year, are confronted with the verdict t them of a panel of experts only one fewer in number the traditional jury. In their annual reports the rising Authorities depict the haulier and the C-licence er, warts and all, and may even be said to concentrate cularly upon the blemishes.
te recently resumed practice of publishing the reports ill has justified itself. The reader can see for himself vhich points most of the authorities agree and where are differences of opinion, In the latest reports, for tple, covering the year up to the end of September, , there are several references to the emission of black Le, all of them deprecatory; but whereas Mr. W. P. S. ond in the Eastern area fails to notice much improve:, Mr, J. A. T. Hanlon in the Northern area reports ,rked reduction.
me and again there are criticisms of the standard of qe maintenance. One or two of the authorities are mt to give the figures of inspections and prohibitions leave them to tell their own story. Others speak of concern or regret. Mr. D. I. R. Muir, Metropolitan goes so far as to warn A-licensed operators that he examine reports on the standard of maintenance of vehicles before determining their applications for pal. His subsequent intention is to extend the arrange • to cover contract A and B licences.
)es this mean that A-licensed vehicles have the lowest lards? Elsewhere in his report, Mr. Muir says that is "no cause for complacency" over the whole range aods vehicles and refers particularly to delivery vans trucks used by C-licence holders and to vehicles on ;. services. His decision to begin his inquisition with 2ences may therefore be for administrative reasons h the report does not make clear.
ruE ITS OWN REWARD?
nre precise and detailed information on this kind of might have its uses in the struggle for better standards rhich many operators, as well as the Licensing orities, are taking an active part_ There is nothing : discouraging for the operator who may have made )stantial improvement within his own undertaking to himself included in a general condemnation. Virtue be its own reward, and as Mr, W. F. Quin points out Scotland: "There is a growing awareness among dors that vehicle maintenance is sound business mks." But some appreciation for those categories erator whose record is good might also be worth while. tssification might present some difficulty. In several areas vehicle maintenance committees meet periodicto discuss problems with senior traffic examiners o advise operators on the appropriate steps to protect vehicles from prohibition. The existence of these nittees presupposes that in each area there is a contble number of operators keen on improving their ards. The Licensing Authority might not find it prac ticable to distinguish those operators when he is reporting on maintenance, even if he makes a point of saying that the committees themselves are doing good work.
On the whole the reports make no attempt at a detailed analysis of maintenance statistics or of any other subject. They are for the most part random observations under a number of given headings. In some ways this is desirable in that the individual differences in each report provide the basis for a character study of the authority himself. But the process can militate against building up a clear national picture of what has happened during the year, especially where figures are involved.
Most of the reports provide a summary of the results of vehicle inspections, but it is seldom made clear what form the inspections have taken: whether the vehicles have been selected at random or because they looked as if they might be defective; how many roadside checks were made and how many visits to the premises of operators; or whether the inspections were concentrated, for example, on the heavier type of vehicle, or on a certain class of operator.
SORT OUT OFFENDERS Even without this kind of information it is clear that the average standard of maintenance is far from satisfactory It is also reasonable to assume that, whatever method of selecting vehicles is adopted, the number that escape inspection is something like 15 times the number that undergo it. If all the examinations were analysed, perhaps nationally, it might be established that certain categories of operator rarely fail to pass the test, whereas others are consistently penalized. If this were the case, the examining officers—and it is a familiar complaint that they are too thin on the ground—might be used to the maximum advantage where standards are most likely to be bad.
As often happens, there is a political consideration here.
The intentions of the Labour party are not always made as clear as they might be, but they are generally thought to affect most of all the heavy goods vehicles engaged on longdistance work. Among the reasons put forward for interfering with the operators of those vehicles it is sometimes said that they are not kept in a proper condition. Nobody knows whether this is so, and the reports of the Licensing Authorities do not help. From South Wales, Mr. Ronald Jackson makes a personal assessment. Larger companies are renewing their vehicles at more frequent intervals, he says: " But the small operator with one or two vehicles still causes some concern, since lack of maintenance facilities and premises necessarily affects his standards." Other Authorities are less specific and do not necessarily agree.
There are many other questions apart from politics which might be answered, wholly or in part, if the tables in the annual reports were a little more detailed. This does not mean that the reports as they stand are not useful and informative. If one looks carefully enough, there are hopeful signs. One of them. I cannot help thinking, is the fact that the number of convictions under the Construction and Use Regulations has fallen from 3,048 in 190 to 2,350 in 1962, a drop of more than 20 per cent in two years.