Out of the frying pan
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loT president warns of inexpert chefs' in transport it will be on landing—or even if still in Monday by Mr. R. H. Farmer in his Transport. He titled his paper "Transport "TRANSPORT is like a good French soup; you can lift the lid occasionally A to have a look, chuck in more ingredients, or even stir it gently. It is not a pancake to be tossed by chefs who are not expert enough to know which way up the pan". This was said in London on presidential address to the Institute of 1966: Comment and Inquiry".
It might be that the time had arrived when, as the White Paper suggested, the commercial interests of the Transport Holding Company and the British Railways Board could be merged into a national freight organization. Provided that the effect was to produce a flexible organization with accountability to the lowest practicable level it might well succeed. The danger was that the organization might find itself unable to achieve the major savings which must take place if present THC profits are not to be swamped by the BRB losses.
If this were to happen the Government might bolster its ailing child, which could hardly be comfortable for the surviving independent operators of goods vehicles. The method of control would be of the greatest importance. Until the Government's intentions became clear it seemed inevitable that the attitude from the road haulage industry was hardly likely to be more than "wait and see".
Referring to possible changes in the licensing system for goods vehicles, he said it was not that the industry felt that the present system was incapable of improvement but that it feared the changes might result in loading the dice in favour of the national freight organization.
If the Government could accept the principle of being responsible for the cost of providing and maintaining railway tracks the accounting problem of charging BRB for their use of the tracks (on a basis which would roughly equate to the charges levied on road vehicles for road useand fuel duty) could surely be solved so that at least this sterile argument between the two major arms of inland transport would be removed.
Nobody should seriously suppose that Liner Trains would either cure the railway deficits or significantly affect the total number of vehicles on the main trunk roads • of the country. Nevertheless, they could become an important and efficient part of the total facilities for moving container loads between principal centres more than 150 miles apart. Obviously forward-looking road hauliers would use Liner Trains but only if the cost and service enabled them to maintain or improve on the standards they were already offering customers. This could be achieved. It was very much to be hoped that the labour difficulties which had so far prevented rapid development of these trains would be overcome.
Second only to the railway problem was that of congestion on the roads. Contrary to the general impression most big lorries moved by night, their drivers were on the whole well-mannered and helpful road users, and Removal of bottlenecks in towns. Extension of present parking meter areas and the cost of them to the user. they had confidence in themselves and the vehicles they drove. No amount of compulsory switching of freight from road to rail would significantly affect the number of road vehicles required for urban collections and deliveries. A more determined Government effort on the following lines would help:— • • Removal of bottlenecks in towns. Extension of present parking meter areas and the cost of them to the user.
• Ruthless insistence that all new buildings provide adequate car parking and off-street lorry access for present and future needs.
• Building no more three-lane highways and marking existing ones in alternating stretches so that two lanes are reserved for traffic in one direction. The efforts by the Ministry and the operating industry were now bearing fruit in that operators were giving much greater attention to the question of vehicle maintenance.
There appeared to be doubt in some people's minds whether inland transport as a whole was truly competitive. Mr. Farmer stated categorically that competition, in service and in price, was genuine, continuous and, in the absence of Government interference, would remain so. Even if there were attempts by road and rail public carriers to adopt a common charging policy this would be subject always to the direct challenge of C-licence operation. • • Realty on the move Although progress in international transport affairs sometimes seemed agonizingly slow because there was so much to do and it could not all be done at once, we were now really on the move and because we would succeed in getting our transport arrangements right our exporters would be able to fight their battle.
There was plenty of evidence of a new spirit of enterprise in the ports to cut down the amount of waiting time for lorries. Not only was there the enormous impetus of the rollon/roll-off developments on short sea routes but the whole concept of unit loads showed that Europe was not so far behind America in these techniques as might be supposed. Significant relief would be brought to the ports by the proposed inland clearance depots; it was hoped that within a year one or more of them would be in operation.
The problem of accommodating vehicles suitable for 35 ft. and 40 ft. containers on some of our roads was understandable but it did seem necessary that in this matter our standards should at least comply with those generally applied in Western Europe. If we did not accept this view we ran the risk of becoming a "branch line" only to the transatlantic traffic scheme of containers.
We must see to it that the transport links with the Continent were so simple and efficient that a manufacturer could sell and deliver his products in Cologne and Milan as easily as in London or Birmingham. In this connection a final decision on the matter of the Channel Tunnel would greatly help everybody.
Rewarding the driver
Although relations between employers and workers in road haulage have been very good, both sides were at present stuck with a prewar statutory wages system in which an uncomfortably low basic rate had to be counterbalanced by excessive overtime earnings to produce an acceptable pay packet. It was important to find a way in which to reward drivers as an individual and not as a number on a clock card. This could only be achieved by applying principles of work study in some form to what the driver did. Obviously his acceptance of that must depend on trust between himself and his employer. Transport was an industry where human ingenuity and personality were at least as vital as technological progress.
Since the war there had been some very considerable improvements in road transport's productivity record. On the main traffic routes the charge per ton mile was often lower today than it was a decade ago. Further progress in this direction depended largely on improvements in buildings to provide adequate receiving and despatching facilities off the roads and willingness on the part of trade and industry to extend their hours of receipt and despatch.
Sooner or later the individual's hours of work must be reduced and at that stage the industry would have to adapt itself to twoshift working—provided that customers had by then extended their reception and despatch period. Drivers could then work eight or nine hour shifts and thus provide 16 to 18 hours' productive use from the vehicles, still leaving ample time for maintenance.
In closing his paper, Mr. Farmer looked at the Institute itself. He suggested a good look at themselves to stimulate an even more important role for the Institute in its second half century.
There was a possible danger of taking themselves too seriously and missing opportunities to expand the work and influence of the organization. "I ask myself whether sometimes we tend to give the Institute too much the air of a learned society when perhaps its most important functions should be to provide first an educational base for young men of promise to enter the transport industry and subsequently a forum where young, midd le-aged and elderly can cheerfully and without too great a fuss freely exchange opinions and try out theories," he said.
Did the examination system, excellent as
it was, do all the things necessary to produce a professional transport man? Were the qualifications more of an academic than a practical asset? Could senior executives from other industries be accepted into the Institute without lowering its own standards? Did they do enough to encourage contributions from some of the able.men who had built up sizeable businesses in road transport but who would be unlikely to tackle the examination syllabus?
Ought they to consider having an overseas lecture as one of the major papers every year or in alternate years?