And Now a Transport Code? Political Commentary By JAN US
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ONE must sympathize with the dilemma of the Minister of Transport, who plans to revise the Highway Code but hesitates to make nonobservance a criminal offence. He may find little difficulty in imposing a few extra regulations upon the motor user. It would be less easy to take drastic steps to limit the activities of the pedestrian. The mildness of the Highway Code, its air of being. no more than a gentleman's agreement, acknowledges the fact that there is one law for the road and another for the pavement.
A legal expert has recently given the opinion that there is one law for the British Transport Commission and another for road transport operators under free enterprise. In the pirssenger-carrying and in the shortdistance goods field, he states, the operator is tied down by licence and regulation and at the same time subjected to unlicensed and unregulated competition from the nationalized undertaking.
Despite its fortunate position, the Commission still complains from time to time that it is at a disadvantage, much in the same way as the pedestrian continues to gird at the police-haunted driver. As a companion piece to the Highway Code, therefore, there may be room for a Transport Code which will teach us, gently and without tears, how to treat the Commission with the courtesy so noticeably lacking in the recent diatribes emanating from bodies of traders and other interested parties.
The Transport Code may begin with a gentle reminder that the infinite prevision of the Transport Act anticipated a certain measure of mild criticism. It provided for the setting up of users' consultative committees, and the Minister has lately been busy appointing representatives in every part of the country. The central committee has been functioning for some time, and its uncontroversial reports set a splendid example in civility and eagerness to guide the first faltering, or even shambling, steps of its three-year-old nursling.
Nursing Grievances
Traders should certainly refrain from manufacturing their own machinery for complaints. Let them once learn to make use of the consultative committees, and it will soon be found that those who came to scoff remain to pray. In the same way Members of Parliament, nursing grievances on behalf of their constituents would be recommended by the Transport Code to take up the matter privately with Lord Hurcomb, rather than seek to put down a question in the House, Here the Minister is in a position to back up his own Code, and so far he appears to have done the job very well. During the whole of 1950, only 77 questions on any subject concerning the Commission were allowed past the stern Parliamentary guard, whereas no fewer than 1,800 replies were given to M.P.s by the Commission's chairman.
The recent report of the Commission provides many points admirably suitable for inclusion in the code. There is, for example, the appeal for "a greater willingness to accept changes, whether in conditions of work or in types of service, or in proposals to integrate the Commission's services, and to avoid costly delaying action on each proposal for re-organization." The Commission allows itself a mild grumble on this point. During 1950 it was "faced with law-suits, appeals to the a16 Consultative Committees, a constant propaganda through various organizations, and a great deal of correspondence, when even quite small changes have been proposed."
The code is also violated when free-enterprise operators refuse to fade quietly out of the industry. One unsportsmanlike haulier, faced with objections by the Commission in the licensing court, kept recordings of conversations, in the course of which the Commission showed itself unwilling to do the work in respect of which his application had been made. In such circumstances, it is no wonder that the Commission, in high dudgeon, withdrew from the proceedings.
There is, of course, a powerful battery of legal weapons ready to be trained upon anybody who transgresses certain portions of the Code. The Commission, perhaps because of dislike of the resulting publicity, often seems unwilling to go to the extreme lengths of the law. It has good reason to thank the general tendency of the citizens of this country to comply with rules and regulations, however unfair.
Strong Temptation
The temptation to transgress certain sections of the Code must be very strong, particularly where public opinion would appear to be opposed to the law. Mr. S. W. Nelson, the Northern Licensing Authority, made no secret of his sympathy for a former R.A.F. pilot, the renewal of whose licence was contested on the grounds that he was operating outside the 25-mile limit without a permit.
According to the evidence, the applicant remained in the Forces after the war as the result of an appeal for pilots to help in ferrying home Servicemen returning from abroad. He thus failed to restart the family haulage business until after the date, November 28, 1946, when he no longer had any right to apply for an original permit or to claim compensation for the restriction of his activities.
Mr. Nelson looked in vain for any indication that such a case would be classified in the Transport Code as one of hardship, deserving special treatment such as the granting of an ordinary permit. He recognized in fairness that, if British Road Services made an exception in this case, they might be opening the door to a good many others. "They are dealing with the taxpayers' money and they are really not free agents," Mr. Nelson commented
Where the Transport Code runs parallel with the Transport Act, the law must be obeyed. It is when the Commission manufactures a few sections on its own account that one may find the public blandly taking no notice. To expect traders and the Press to stop harassing the Commission is rather like trying to get pedestrians to use a subway when they do not feel so disposed.
I look forward to receiving my complimentary copy of the Transport Code. The Commission asks for the co-operation of all sections of the public, and in every contingency we all like to be told what is expected of us. Even the Socialists can learn something about the etiquette of nationalization, and they appear to have been taking some sharp lessons recently from the Middle East.