Britain: An official handbook > 1956

TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
227
road transport industry itself. In 1928 a Royal Commission on Transport was
appointed to consider the issues involved, and following its recommendations legis¬
lation was introduced. The Road Traffic Act, 1930, provided either directly or by
regulations for (i) a reclassification of motor vehicles and the re-enactment of the
licensing system for drivers; (ii) the prescription of speed limits and a variety of
‘safety’ measures, including a restriction on the hours during which drivers of
public service and goods vehicles could remain continuously on duty; (iii) safety
requirements governing the construction and use of motor vehicles; (iv) compulsory
insurance against third party risks; and (v) the introduction of a comprehensive
licensing and inspection system for public service (passenger) vehicles, under which
bodies of Traffic Commissioners (now called Licensing Authorities for Public
Service Vehicles) were created to have the duty, within defined Traffic Areas, of
licensing vehicles, drivers and conductors, and services operated. Each licensing
authority consists of a full-time chairman appointed by the Minister and two part-
time members chosen by the Minister from a panel of persons nominated by local
authorities. Applications for licences for road services are considered at public
sittings at which competing operators or local authorities can exercise a right of
objection; the licensing authority has power to suspend or revoke a licence in
certain circumstances. Although the Minister can issue general directions to
licensing authorities he has no power to intervene in their decisions, unless an
applicant or an objector, being aggrieved at a decision, appeals to him. The effect
of this system has been to ensure for road passenger transport the regularity and
reliability which has been a feature of railway services.
In 1933 the Road and Rail Traffic Act was passed; it was based on the recom¬
mendations of the Royal Commission and on those contained in a report of a
conference of experts, known as the Salter Report. A system of licensing for road
haulage vehicles was introduced and three types of carriers’ licences were instituted:
the ‘ A ’ licence for general public haulage; the ‘ B ’ licence for public haulage
limited to certain goods or certain areas and covering also the carriage of the
licensee’s own goods; and the ‘ C ’ licence for the carriage by traders of their own
goods alone. The licensing authorities for goods vehicles are the chairmen of
the licensing authorities for public service vehicles in each traffic area, and
applications for ‘ A ’ and ‘ B ’ licences are considered at public inquiries as in the case
of road service licences under the Road Traffic Act, 193° > C licences are granted
on application without public inquiry. A licence can be suspended or revoked by a
licensing authority for breaches of licence conditions committed frequently,
wilfully or to the public danger. There is a right of appeal against a decision of a
licensing authority to an independent tribunal, the Transport Tribunal, and not
as under the Act of 1930 to the Minister. The effect of this system has been to relate
the operations of vehicles under ‘ A ’ and ‘ B ’ licences to approved needs and to
eliminate wasteful competition between the different forms of transport.
During the i939—45 war commercial vehicles were subject to a considerable
degree of direct control through a system of permits and fuel rationing. The
Ministry of War Transport’s Road Haulage Organization, set up in i943> came to
control many of the bigger undertakings and hired a large number of vehicles
engaged in long and short distance work. Vehicles were handed back to their
owners when the Organization came to an end in 1946 and the carriers licence
system, which had been suspended, was resumed. At the end of 1946 there were
90,683 vehicles on ‘A’ licences, 58,386 on ‘B’ licences and 3^3>73^ on C licences,
a total of 532,807 vehicles.
The Transport Act, 1947, as already noted, established the British Transport
Commission, which took over ‘A’ and ‘B’ hauliers predominantly engaged on