Road and Rail Traffic The publication of the text of
the Road and Rail Traffic Bill shows that the Government have decided to adopt the essential recommendations of the Salter Report so far as they apply to the regulation of road traffic. The question of new tax-rates is a matter for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and remains to be dealt with in the Budget. The Bill now drafted divides the users of goods vehicles into three classes—public carriers, private carriers, and dual users who carry their own goods and also, under certain conditions, other goods—and each of these must apply for a licence to the Chairman of the Traffic Commissioners for the area. Various conditions are attached to the obtaining or retaining of a licence—vehicles must be lit, weight and speed limits complied with, hours of duty observed, and exact records kept—and examiners will be appointed to see that the conditions are not broken. A heavy responsibility will rest on the licensing authority regarding the grant of licences in cases where there are deemed to be already sufficient facilities by road or rail. Here the Commissioners will be confronted with the same sort of probleths as have already had to be thrashed out in the case of passenger coaches. There will inevitably be difficulties in the early stages, but the Bill is on the right lines.
Previous page
