A Haulier Looks Back Over 1944
Page 29
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A Critical Review of the Outstanding Events of the Past Year as Seen Through the Eyes of a Practical Haulier
By E. B. Howes,
Vice-chairman, Hauliers' Mutual Federation ; Chairman, A. Saunders and Son, Co-operative Group.
THE year 1944 will.go down in the history of road trans .I. port as the time of the consummation of the merger, that mstrumunt by means of which all those engaged in the industry are enabled to speak with one voice, and further, as the year in which there appeared the " Book of the Eight." • Had the book in question been taken as seriously as 4:ts authors probably intended it should be, it would possibly have destroyed all chances of the merger being brought about. The authors of that piece of propaganda were, as to some of them at any rate, the leaders in the movement for the merger, a circumstance which did not help towards unity.
No one with any interest in road haulage can do other than hope that the merger will be a success, and it will be if it accomplishes but one fraction of what has been promised on its behalf. In my opinion the extent to which success will be achieved depends, not so much upon the new organization's self-appointed leaders, its councillors and officials, as upon the rank and file—the ordinary members of each of the constituent associations. Leaders are, in most associations, expected to lead, but experience of some now in office teaches that action more often comes of a push from below—or behind—have it as you will.
-Hence my frequent exhortations in the Press during the past year, in which I have consistently advocated that heed be paid to the desires, sometimes expressed, often, unfortunately, left to be understood, of the small man.
I.R.T.E.—A Really Progressive Step
Foremost amongst the really progressive steps of 1944 was the creation of I.R.T.E., a body which, when it begins really to function, should help us materially towards obtaining the kind of vehicle we really want.
I see that in the first issue of "The Commercial Motor" for 1944, the Editor was throwing out feelers ; testing the attitude of his readers, no doubt, but it was not until later that he disclosed more precisely what was, in his mind. The Institute was, of course, officially inaugurated in April.
As a matter of fact. I really thought that hauliers at long-last had got to the point of getting together and revolting in unison during the early months of the year.
Exasperation at the working of R.H.O., and particularly at the scant remuneration which hired-vehicle operators were receiving, had brought the majority of operators almost to the •pitch of mutiny. Councils of Action were formed in various parts of the country, Luton being, as usual, prominent, and the upshot was a mass meeting of hauliers held in the Caxton Hall, Westminster, in February.
Whether it was as the result of this or despite it, terms to hired-vehicle operators were improved, but one important outcome was the affiliation of Hauliers Mutual Federation, Ltd., with the Council of Retail Distributors, having the effect of bringing to the support of the small haulier some 100,000 or more small traders throughout the country.
It was in February that the "Hauliers' Sectional Board of A.R.O. published a statement of policy embodying some 'lather remarkable provisions for which I was able to see neither cause nor justification. Had the Association been strong enough to bring this policy into effect, and to obtain the co-operation of the Government in the way it hoped, the result would have been that every operator would have had to become a member of the Association and, in ' the event of his failing to comply with a so-called "code of conduct," would have been deprived of his licence and his livelihood. Fortunately for all of us, and particularly for the small operator, this development of totalitarianism did not develop beyond the initial, or what I call the talking, stage.
-The position of the S.J.C., appointed by the Ministry as representing the industry, was giving a considerable num
ber of operators food for thought. What many hauliers felt was that whatever the Government, or the Ministry might think, the S. J.C. was not, in the true sense of the word, really representative of the rank and file of the industry.' To me the solution of that difficulty appeared to be the election, by referendum, of a special body, truly representative, and thus entitled to speak for all. Nothing came of my proposition, and, on the face of it, it appears that now, with the new Federation in being, the S. J.C., as such, will cease to function. In this connection the old saying comes to my mind that a rose by any other name will smell as sweet.
I had an interesting, if not, perhaps, enjoyable, day in the House of Commons when Mr. Noel-Baker was presenting part of the Civil Service estimates which comes within the province of the M.O.W.T. Two things in particular struck me on that occasion; one was the facility with which Mr. Noel-Baker could, by the exercise of an undoubtedly outstanding capacity for verbal window dressing, make a display of a very poor stock-in-trade seem like a worthwhile show of desirable goods.. The other was the paucity of attendance of Members of Parliament when so important a subject as transport, the third largest industry in the country, was under discussion.
Curiously enough, it was a reference of mine to what I really considered a minor matter, that is how few representatives of the industry there were in the House, which roused the ire of one of our leaders. His communication, however, was, in effect, merely the drawing of a red herring across the trail, to wit, reference to my activities as vice-. chairman of Hauliers' Mutual Federation and, in his view, the comparative ineffectiveness of H.M.F.; 1, had not much difficulty in dealing with that criticism.
Association of Road Transport Groups
I am pleased and gratified to observe that, at long last, the industry has come to appreciate the virtues of grouping, something which I have advocated, in and out of season, for 10 years. I have no doubt that he newly formed Association of Road Transport Groups will shortly become a powerful force, possibly the most powerful in the industry, and so long as the Association and those groups which are its members adhere to the ethical principles of grouping, avoiding the risks involved in stressing too much the financial side and eschewing the fallacious idea that bulk buying is of any value to them, I think the Association will be a force for good.
I am not so sure that they are, as to all of the groups, on the right lines, and it was with a view to giving guidance in that direction that I wrote an article which was published in " The Commercial Motor" for July 14 of last year, setting out what I consider, and have found by experience to be, the sound principles of group working. The importance which is being attached to this development may be gathered from the leading article which appeared in "The Commercial Motor" on September 15, under the title of "Amalgamation or Co-operation? " Needlesi to say, I agree with every word of that article, and would recommend hauliers, who may, by chance, have overlooked or forgotten it, to refer back to that issue. Notwithstanding all that has been written and said on the subject, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is still fixed in his determination again to exact from road transport, in all . its branches, the vast sum of E90,000,000 per annum in taxation. The modifications which he has accepted in regard to the method of assessment of the tax will not relieve our industry of a heavy and unfair burden', nor will it help our manufacturers of private cars, heavy goods vehicles or passenger vehicles, to gain what is so essential to our future 'welfare, namely, the foremost place in the export market for such goods.