The publication of a 20th edition of Kitchin, continuing the trend of virtually annual publication, is testimony to the steady stream of law issuing into the area of road transport. The developments in 1978 have required no less than 22 pages to be added to this edition. As another writer has commented with a hint of regret—

“It would seem that the tide of legislation cannot, and will not, be stemmed even for a brief period to allow the industry some respite from pressure and change, from new restrictions and burdens”.1

This rapidity of growth makes the need for a comprehensive and clear statement of the legal requirements a great one, and the purpose of this book is to fill that need as far as possible. On the whole it does so but not without requiring considerable effort and not just on the part of the learned editor.

Basically Kitchin consists of a detailed statement of the Acts and regulations which govern road transport. It is stated to be a summary of them but this belies the fact that it is totally thorough and complete, taking in almost every legislative detail. The trick lies in distilling the actual rules from the morass of statutes, regulations and orders which go into making them and shaping them into some degree of order. Also, even though the rules are stated as concisely as possible, even at times cryptically, the statement of them remains faithful to the form and phrasing of the actual regulations— there is hardly ever any attempt to give a more informal statement of them.

This makes the book a valuable guide to the legislation and its actual terms which is enhanced by a handy system of reference employed in the text to identify the legislative source of every rule. Finding one’s way around the material is eased by the fact that topics and sub-divisions as far as possible follow an alphabetical sequence.

The book deals with the nuts and bolts of transport law and any temptation towards a wider conception is resisted. Its scope is confined to the technical matters involved in operating a vehicle of any type on the road, leaving aside the general context of carriage law or wider aspects of personnel matters not directly related to transport. The concept of law is also restricted to statutory rules and the case law interpreting them. Thus much material useful to those in the business is excluded, such as for example the code of practise of the chemical industries association for road tanker operations involving dangerous chemicals. Connected with this possibly is the omission of the Agreement on the International Carriage of Perishable Foodstuffs (APT) which the United Kingdom acceded to by virtue of the International Carriage of Perishable Foodstuffs Act 1976. This will only, however, be in force from Oct. 1, 1979, and so will probably be included in the next edition.

The latest edition incorporates the notable changes introduced in 1978—the important EEC regulation 543/1969 controlling drivers’ hours of work which has also involved the harmonisation of British law with it. The changes made to psv licencing