Too cosy
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Your Editorial "The customer counts" (CM, March 12, 1976 was timely, though I feel CM could have done much more lin the past to campaign against the out-moded system for licensing public service operators. • You do not need to be reminded that the present system has its roots firmly in the 1930 Road Traffic Act, and as far as one can judge, the principles of priority, protection and "public need" are still rigidly adhered to. Although the circumstances and the structure of the industry have changed, its machinery of regulation has not.
Compare this With the situation in the air transport sector, where the system of licensing has been continually updated to keep in step with the changing structure and requirements of the industry. Indeed, one has only to compare a hearing at the Civil Aviation Authority, with its easy informality and prompt decision making, With an application to the Traffic Commissioners, to understand how far the psv licensing system has marked time.
The time has come surely to end the cosy "special relationship" between the Traffic Commissioners and the established operator.
They should both stop fighting a rearguard action against declining demand and rising costs with precepts established before the second world war. We need more than ever, a healthy industry which is willing to experiment and, more important, willing to re-examine itself within the wider context in order to reappear in a modern idiom. T. A. G. 1-1ALFORD-MacLEOD, B.A., M.Sc., MCIT, London, W12.