 Road freight operators had no legal restrictions and could turn down work that was uneconomic, which BR could not, and could easily undercut BR's carriage rates which the railway could not alter without legal consent.The common carrier requirements also saddled BR with the necessity to maintain thousands of goods yards and other facilities, plus rolling stock and staff to service them, even when there was ever-decreasing actual demand for those services and such traffic as did exist was very rarely profitable.This issue had been identified during the Great Depression and the Big Four had campaigned for repeal of the common carrier legislation as a 'Fair Deal' during the 1930s.