The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has renewed its appeal to all State transport departments to give wide publicity to the Carriage by Road Act 2007 and Carriage by Road Rules 2011 to educate the transporters about the urgency of abiding by the provisions of the Act and the Rules “for running their activities smoothly to meet the present day requirement.”
Although the Act came into force from March 1, 2011, following the notification of the Rules on February 28, 2011, not a single common carrier has yet registered with the State-level transport department as required under the Act. This is despite two extensions, the first till May 31, 2011, and the second till August 31,2011. In other words, no common carrier with valid registration should be engaged in the business of transportation of goods from September 1, 2011. But the common carriers have defied the Act and the Rules with impunity as they merrily go on doing their business without their names having registered with the transport departments concerned.
The term common carrier covers a wide gamut of service providers including transporters, transport agents, brokers, transport contractors, goods booking agents, that is, anybody involved in one way or the other in the business of road transportation of goods.
The Ministry, in its recent note, has urged all State transport departments to impose a token fine of Rs 500 “in accordance with Section 18 (1) of the Act,” the purpose being “to encourage the common carriers to get themselves registered.”
The State transport departments have also been told to furnish the fortnightly status report to the Ministry with effect from February 1.
The Ministry had earlier made similar appeals to the State transport departments but with little effect so far.
This was because most State governments felt that the Carriage by Road Act 2007 being a Union Government Act, the Ministry should take the initiative in this regard.