a licensing system for commercial heavy goods vehicles and their operators. This was soon followed by Chancellor Neville Chamberlain who significantly increased the fees due for road tax and fuel. These changes were applauded by the railway industry, whose price restrictions were partly lifted. They saw the road tax changes as a way to help them redress a common problem that was affecting railway companies across the world at that time. The costs and conditions attached to the new licences and vehicle duty were contentious to road users as they were based on axle weight and could be very expensive; many municipal corporations who ran their own fleets, bus companies, vehicle manufacturers, hauliers, showmen, trade unions and the coal industry protested and predicted crippling increases in fees. The former Transport Minister, Herbert Morrison claimed that using: "the weapon of taxation of road transport as a means of putting the railways right was a foolish and idiotic policy". The new charges were blamed for driving heavier steam traction off the road in favour of the lighter lorries powered by internal combustion engines using imported oil. This was at a time of high unemployment in the British coal industry, when the steam haulage business required 950,000 tons of coal annually. It also introduced an unpopular requirement for hauliers to produce paperwork to show that their drivers were operating safely and not being overworked. Previous attempts to impose safety rules on hauliers had been nearly impossible to enforce. The threat of withdrawing a licence was viewed as the best way of ensuring the new regulations were respected by the industry. It was planned that the new charges on vehicles and petrol duties would contribute the £60 million needed annually for the Road Fund, and more besides in order to pay more of the social costs associated with motor traffic. Critics claimed that this would increase the cost of transport during the Great Depression and keen foreign competition. Supporters countered this by noting that it was merely redistributing the burden from the ratepayer onto the haulier. The Treasury would make motor vehicles solely responsible for road costs, and levy these charges on motorised traffic, rather than through local government or penalising the railways. In doing so, it recognised that road vehicles had been "using the common highway for private profit, while endangering public safety, amenity, and capital". Legacy The UK railway infrastructure held its