Transport Act 1968

26 General powers of Scottish Group

(1) Subject and without prejudice to the provisions of, or of any enactment applied by, sections 47 to 52 of this Act, the Scottish Group shall have power—

(a) to carry passengers by road, subway or water or by hovercraft, whether in or outside Scotland;

(b) to carry goods by road or water or by hovercraft within, or to or from any place situated within, the counties of Argyll, Caithness, Inverness, Orkney, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, Zetland and Bute;

(c) where any vehicle or vessel is used for the carriage of passengers in pursuance of paragraph (a) of this subsection, to carry also luggage and other goods in that vehicle or a trailer drawn thereby or in that vessel;

(d) to consign goods on behalf of other persons ;

(e) to store goods which have been or are to be carried by the Group or by a subsidiary of theirs and—

(i) so far as any premises provided by the Group for the purposes of that or any other part of their business are not required for those purposes, to use them to provide facilities for the storage of other goods;

(ii) with the consent of the Secretary of State to provide such facilities at any other premises;

(f) to carry on business as travel agents ;

(g) to enter into and carry out agreements with any person engaged in the provision of transport services, by whatever form of transport, for co-ordinating the activities of that person with those of the Group, and in particular for the provision of combined services for the through carriage of passengers or goods, whether by the same or partly by one and partly by another form of transport, for the quoting of through rates, and for the pooling of receipts or expenses ;

(h) to join with any person engaged as mentioned in paragraph (g) of this subsection in forming, promoting and assisting a company for carrying on any activities in connection with such combined services as are so mentioned which the Group or that person have power to carry on;

(j) either alone or together with any other person, to provide maintain and operate depots for the sorting of goods, with facilities for the reception, storage, weighing and handling of goods and for compliance with the requirements of the enactments relating to customs and excise ;

(k) to let for hire any vehicle, vessel or other means of transport;

(l) to operate harbours ;

(m) with the consent of the Secretary of State, to carry on any activities which the Group would not apart from this paragraph have power to carry on but which a subsidiary of the Group was carrying on immediately before it became such a subsidiary.

(2) The Scottish Group shall not be regarded as common carriers in respect of any of their activities concerned with the carriage of goods.