Road Transport—Economics and the Law
| Published date | 01 June 1939 |
| Author | Gilbert Walker |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1939.tb00743.x |
| Date | 01 June 1939 |
ROAD TRANSPORT
21
ROAD TRANSPORT-ECONOMICS AND
THE
LAW
HE
Road and Rail Traffic Act,
1933,
following on the
Report of the Royal Commission
on
Transport,
1928,
and
on the recommendations of the Salter Conference on
Road and Rail,
1932,
is a measure designed to regulate the
carriage of goods by road. Section
I
(I)
of the Act forbids the
carriage of goods by road except undcr licence. Section
2
(I)
divides licences into three classes, the A “public carriers” licence,
the
B
“limited carriers” licence and the C licence for private
carriers who do not carry for hire at all. Section
3
(I)
determines
the period for which licences are valid,
5
years for A licences,’
2
years for
B
licences and
3
years for C licences. Section
4
charges the Chairmen of the Area Traffic Commissioners, con-
stituted by the Road Traffic Act of
1930,
with the duties of
Licensing Authorities. Section
6
(I)
gives them “full power in
their discretion either to grant or to refuse the application for
an A or a
B
licence.” Sub-section
(2)
requires the Licensing
Authority “in exercising his discretion to have regard primarily
to the interests of the public generally, including those of persons
requiring as well as those of persons providing facilities for
transport
”
and certain other minor conditions. Section
11
(2)
requires the Licensing Authority, when hearing applications
for licences, to take into consideration any objections to the
application which may be made by persons who are already
providing facilities, on the grounds that suitable facilities in that
district, or between those places are or would be (were the
application to be granted) in excess of requirements. Section
15
allows disappointed applicants or dissatisfied objectors to appeal
against the decision of a Licensing Authority to an Appeal
Tribunal, consisting of three persons, one of whom must be a
lawyes.
A great many appeals have been heard since the .2ct became
effective in
1934.
It
is the object of this paper to examine some
of the tendencies revealed by these decisions. The author has
been trained as an economist, and not in the law, and in what
follows he has confined himself to the economic consequences of
legal decisions. Legal rule and precept can deflect, promote and
discourage economic tendencies-the law indeed, must be
counted
a
fundamental economic force in itself, for all economic
activity presupposes some type of social organisation, and the
As
amended by Ministerial Order under authority
of
the Road Traffic Act,
1937.
T
To continue reading
Request your trial