Dangers of the "Lift" System
Page 14
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WHEN "lifts " are given on a wholesale scale a variety of difficulties is bound to arise and in the very nature of things the commercial-vehicle operator is likely to be affected to a greater degree than the private driver by any such trend. In our " Passing Comments" on October 11 attention was drawn to the need for explicit instructions to goods drivers on the question of whether they• should carry passengers. / However, even if the driver knows the position, members of the public are not generally blessed with similar knowledge, and whilst he can cheerfully ignore the stony looks cif the ordinary would-be liftee, the employee's position is more difficult when he is accosted by an acquaintance or, more particularly, a customer.
The legal position was the subject of comment by Mr. Justice Stable at Manchester Assizes recently. The action was one in which a woman passenger claimed damages for personal injury against a dairy company and a firm of bakers. The evidence showed that she was given a lift by the driver of the dairy van and'a collision occurred with the baker's van. She was acquainted with the dairy driver and was one of his customers.
Negligence was denied by both defendants and it was said on behalf, of the dairy company that drivers were forbidden to give lifts to anybody, so that the plaintiff was trespassing. Mr. Justice Stable expressed the hope that somebody might take the particular question to the House of Lords. Drivers must take precisely the same care of anyone to whom they give lifts as an ordinary driver would and if the driving was within the scope of their employment their employers were liable for what they did. He was aware that this was not what the law decisions gave them; those decisions all seemed to concern whether the passenger was trespassing, which appeared to him an entirely irrelevant consideration. The case was dismissed against both defendants with costs, the Judge saying that he was satisfied that the dairy company was doing its best to see that the rule of " no lifts" was being enforced. The driver was not the agent of his employer in relation to the passenger when he was doing something forbidden by that employer.
In view of the current expectation of free lifts, transport owners would be well advised to make the position quite clear to the public. This can be done by painting on the near-side cab door either " Free Lifts At Your Own Risk" or "Definitely No Lifts." It is a safeguard that would be well worth the expense involved and would often avert embarrassing situations.