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Not For Sale
Page 54
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OFFERS of contract-hire units for sale by the -British Transport Commission have become a farce. Inquiry by The Commercial Motor has revealed that only 19 per cent. of these units in List 4 are likely to be handed over to private enterprise, although official figures suggest that 40 per cent, have been sold.
Of the 64 contract-hire units in List 4, 30 attracted no bids. According to official information, the highest tender was accepted for 26 units, but in fact 14 customers have refused to assign their contracts to the successful tenderers and only 12 sales are valid.
To issue figures showing the number of units for which the highest tenders have been accepted is misleading unless the number of cases in which customers have agreed to assign contracts is also stated. The qualification that acceptances of tenders for units are subject to the willingness of customers to transfer their business does nothing to remove a misleading impression.
Before offering units for sale, the Commission are stated to have inquired whether, if the units found buyers, the other parties to the agreements were willing to transfer the business. What, then, has happened since that time to make users change their minds? Is it implied that the successful tenderers are men of straw, or is there some other explanation? Some of the bidders are known to The Commercial Motor and were conducting well-respected contract-hire businesses long before the creation of the Commission was contemplated.
The B.T.C. have some 2,600 contract-hire vehicles for disposal and officially they propose to retain only 278. If the criterion of List 4 is to be accepted—and the Road Haulage Disposal Board believe that it would be unwise to form firm conclusions until the results of List 5 are known—the Commission will be left with nearly all their contract vehicles. The Board have good reason for the comment in their second report, "The first testing of the market for such units has been disappointing."