LORRY OPERATORS COMPLAIN

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 256, 27 July 1939, Page 11

LORRY OPERATORS COMPLAIN

Alleged Persecution By Department THREAT OF INCREASED CHARGES Dominion Special Service GREYMOUTH, July 26. There is grave dissatisfaction among operators of timber lorries on the West Coast with the administration of the transport regulations, according to a statement made today by the president of the West Coast Transport Association, Mr. J. J. Shannahan. An invitation was given by Mr. Shannahan to the Minister of Transport, Mr. Semple, to visit the coast and investigate the position for himself. His organization, Mr. Shannahan said, represented almost 100 per cent, of those engaged in transport work on the West Coast from Inangahua to Jackson’s Bay, and had a membership of 125 persons, with 200 lorries. “We are being persecuted by the Transport Department,” Mr. Shannahan said. “That department might very well take a lesson from the Minister of Labour, Mr. Webb, who insists that his department be administered without persecution and pin-prick-ing. If Mr. Semple knew what was going on we feel sure he, too, would insist on his department ceasing such tactics. Our main trouble is that the regulations are too strictly enforced by traffic inspectors. They will not adopt a spirit of give and take, and they are not tactful in their dealings with operators of lorries. It is up to Mr. Semple to see that his men live up to the description he has given them of ‘gentlemen of the highways.’ They have a lot of leeway to make up.” Case Cited. Recently, Mr. Shannahan said, a firm had been prosecuted and fined £lO for a breach of the regulations Yet, almost as soon as the inspector who had prosecuted the case had left the court, he stopped two lorries, owned by the same firm, and notified the drivers of fresh offences, before the management had had time to instruct its drivers how to conform to the regulations in the light of the verdict of the Court. Also it had come to the knowledge of his association that private persons had said that traffic inspectors had boasted how many prosecutions they had obtained. “To show how serious this persecution business by prosecutions has become,’’ Mr. Shennahan added, “we have, by public advertisement, asked any. of our members, served with prosecution notice by the department, to give us all particulars. In cases where legal assistance to fight a case is merited, we will provide it. Our men are to be protected in future.’’ His organization, Mr. Shannahan said, was not concerned to be critical of the department and its officers simply for the sake of criticism. Rather it wished to co-operate in every way with the Minister, who, it was felt, wished the operators of lorries to receive a fair deal. Overloaded Lorries. One more of the chief causes of complaint 'by operators, Mr. Shannahan said, was their repeatedly being prosecuted for overloading lorries. In most cases this was not the fault of the drivers at all. The lorries had to leave a railway station, go empty for miles out into the country and pick up a load at a timber mill. Usually a load of about 2200 super feet complied with the regulations, but difficulty arose for drivers because the timber was loaded by measurement, whereas the regulations were based on weight. One day the load would conform to the weight allowed, and next day exactly the same measured load of timber would be found by an inspector to exceed the authorized weight, because it had been cut in wet country. No consideration was given that difficulty. Both loads returned the operator the same amount in transport charges. 9 “The only way out of the difficulty,” Mr. Shannahan said, “is for the regulations to be relaxed or administered' less strictly. Failing that, they should be amended. One would think they had been drawn up without any practical knowledge of the difficulties of the transport industry. Lorries, because of the economic position, are forced to take the greatest possible loading on every trip. If nothing can be done about it, then operators will be obliged to fix higher charges for carrying timber, to compensate them for the smaller load which has to be carried under the regulations. “We are thoroughly in accord with the transport policy established by the No. 3 Licensing Authority, Mr. T. H. Langford. That policy is aimed primarily at benefiting the general public by getting the best service at the lowest cost. “However, Mr. Langford does not administer that policy. That is done by the Transport Department, and, unless the department can administer it in a sympathetic manner, we fear we shall have to increase our charges. That can only result in increased prices for timber, increased prices for all building work, and an increased burden for an already over-burdened taxpayer.”