TAKING THE LONG VIEW
Page 26
Page 27
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
:74 HAULAGE REQUIREMENTS Answering the Spoken Q the Unspoken Question of Movement, Ltd., Describec Expedient, Explained. A
in
r Hundreds of Hauliers and Is. The Principles of Traffic Usefulness, as a War-time I That It Can be Employed Field HAULIERS all over the country, whenever I meet them, ask me two questions. What do I think is going to happen to the industry after the war? What is my opinion of Traffic Movement, Ltd.? I have, for long, been giving more or less evasive answers to both questions—sort of " wait and see" replies—because I have wished for time in which to make up my mind before committing myself.
I am now, as the saying goes, ready to talk—and write—on both subjects. To my mind, the two questions are linked, for the answer to the first depends upon that to the second.
As to the first question, I may say that, in some respects, I take a serious view of the after-the-war prospects of the rank and file of the road-transport industry. They are in for a hard time, and many of them will fail to survive, unless something special be done to help them. I link the two questions together, because, in my view, that " special something" will be a peace-time equivalent of Traffic Movement, Ltd., which is designed, in the first place, as a war-time emergency organization.
I am, indeed, in linking the two subjects, thinking not so much of what Traffic Movement, Ltd., is now, as of what I think it might become after the war. The present purpose of that organization is to help the country to deal with unprecedented traffic problems which arise out of the war and, incidentsally, to help those hauliers who help themselves by becoming part of it.
Company to Cease to Operate Soon After the War It is the intention of its organizers that it should cease to be within one year of the termination of hostilities. If that intention be implemented, it will not be able to do what I hope to relieve the difficult situation which will develop within our industry when the war is over.
In order, therefore, to avoid confusion, I must first deal with Traffic Movement, Ltd., as it is, and give my opinion of it as such. I reserve to myself the opportunity later to develop my conception of what it should become, with particular regard to its use as a means for helping the rank and file of the industry to keep their feet and their hold on their businesses after the war, for that is going to be difficult.
The underlying principle of Traffii. Movement, Ltd., is similar to that of a co-operative society. Such a society buys goods as a wholesaler would buy them and retails them to its members. The profits made are periodically distributed amongst those members. Sales are also made to members of the public who are not in the society, but they do not, of course, share in the profits.
Similarly, Traffic Movement, Ltd., obtains contracts for the movement of traffic, essentially new traffic, the movement of goods which cannot be handled in the ordinary way by hauliers, either large or small, and are not being so handled, It distributes the traffic obtained amongst its members, so far as that is possible, holding, for the time being, an agreed percentage as commission for so doing. That commission, after deductions for expenses, is to be redistributed amongst the members, just as a co-operative society distributes its profits.
Obligations of Members The members are under no obligation to do anything for the company other than to carry, efficiently and well, such traffic as it places with them. They pay only a nominal subscription as members. They are not asked to surrender the whole or any part of their businesses, their vehicles, their goodwill or their freedom and independence of action.. Indeed, the contrary is the case, for the members themselves actually control the company. Provision is made for that in the Articles of Association.
The need for some such organization as this arose long before the organization itself came into being. It has grown because of the need and will increase in importance and strength as the need develops.
One of the biggest internal problems of the war is traffic movement— the movement of goods on 'a scale and in a manner which is unprecedented in the history of the world. Traffic, just now, is not flowing along its customary channels. Imports are arriving at ports other than those used in peace-time, and the goods imported are, as to some of them at least, of an unusual description. Exports, similarly, are being dispatched through these same unaccustomed seaports.
Moreover, these conditions are liable to unexpected and almost instantaneous changes. A port which may be safe on one day is out of bounds the next. The tonnage arriving at any one time is much greater, as the result of vessels coming in convoy, than ever happens in peace-time. Much greater bulk of traffic has to be moved at one time than is normal, and it has to be conveyed to unusual destinations.
The peace-time organization of transport is hopelessly inadequate to deal with it. The railways cannot handle it, and most of what they do haul must go part of the way by road. The help Of road transport on a wholesale scale is urgently and imperatively needed in strange and unaccustomed parts of the country.
On the face of it, the duty of dealing. with this problem lies with the Ministry of Transport. The Ministry wifl wish to-do so by contacting with hauliers. But how? It is impossible for a Government Department to seek out and negotiate with the thousands of individuals and firms whose help will be needed. The need of the Ministry in this matter is for some organization which is already in touch with them, some central organization, led by experts in transport, which can call upon the service of hauliers who are capable of doing the work to the best advantage.
Road-transport's Part in Distributing Air-raid Shelters
Examples of this may be cited. There was the case of the distribution of steel air-raid shelters. This was, in the first place, a Government problem. Fortunately for the Government, it was possible, at once, to hand it over to the railways—a united transport organization. That was so because the initial movement of the shelters had to be by rail.
The railway organization was immediately faced with the really difficult part of the task, the distribution of the shelters from railhead to the millions of homesteads which were their ultimate destinations. How was that to be done?
It was impossible for the railways to negotiate with all the thousands of hauliers whose services would be required; that was almost as big a task as the distribution itself. Only by dealing with some central organization, which could act as an inter
mediary and was already in direct contact with the hauliers, could that problem be solved.
Fortunately, A.R.O. was, on that occasion, able to serve that essential purpose. it entered into firm agreement with , the railway companies in respect of rates and conditions, an agreement which has been scrupulously observed. The outcome is well known. The distribution was carried out smoothly and efficiently. Thousands of hauliers reaped the benefit.
The distribution of meat and livestock by road is another example of the same principle. Here, the Ministry of Food placed the task in he hands of the Wholesale Meat and Provisions Transport (Defence) Association. That Association, however, was experienced only with the dead meat; the livestock traffic was something outside its orbit.
Fortunately, the right organization existed and was able to help. Through combined efforts a scheme was evolved in a matter of days, and 'commenced to operate, simultaneously throughout the country,. in hundreds of cattle markets. Apart from a few hitches, most of them the result of misunderstandings, that scheme has been, and continues to be, an outstanding success.
Experience Readily Available for Government Use Similar problems are being faced and will continue to present themselves with increasing frequency. Traffic Movement, Ltd., now not only in being and in action, but fortified by unexampled experience— experience not elsewhere to be gained—can deal with them. It is, in effect, a powerful weapon available to the Government for use in prosecuting an important branch of its war-time activities.
It has been suggested that one, or, perhaps, several of the larger haulage-contracting concerns could have undertaken the tasks just described and those which are arising at the ports. No individual concern, or group of concerns, could have handled the distribution of the steel shelters. Still less could the livestock transport have been so dealt with.
Nor can the present and future tasks of dealing with large blocks of traffic be so handled. Every large concern suffers from the disability, so far as these problems are concerned, that its activities and its contacts are limited. to certain precise routes and districts.
Alternatively, large companies are accustomed to deal with only specific kinds of traffic. Anything outside their own practical experience and involving the use of equipment not in their possession would create a problem like that involved in the movement of livestock. Sub-contracting would be the only solution and these very concerns would then find themselves in the same need of some organization—such as Traffic Movement, Ltd.—to which they could go for assistance.
Drawbacks of Clearing Houses
It has also been suggested that the work could be done by clearing houses. This suggestion is accompanied by the complaint that Traffic Movement, Ltd., is, in effect, nothing more nor less than a clearing house. The objection to the use of clearing houses in this matter is twofold. They suffer from the same disabilities, individually, as the larger haulage concerns, in that their contacts, the hauliers with which they deal, and the class of traffics to which they are accustomed, are
limited. The same objections as those already outlined would, therefore, apply to clearing houses either singly or in batches.
There is also the objection that, in dealing with clearing houses, the Government would be treating with middlemen and might be handing over, to a comparatively small number of individuals, a possibly excessive, and certainly incalculable, share of the payment for the traffic moved. The haulier would do the work : the clearing houses would take the profit. That objection does not apply in the case of Traffic Movement, Ltd., because the net commission charged is known precisely. Moreover, any profit made is to be handed back to the haulier members who do the work.
Traffic Movement, Ltd., is a representative body, in closest contact with the road-transport industry, collectively and individually, so that whilst, in this matter, it is acting as an intermediary between the Government and hauliers, it is also
acting for the Government in the best sense of the word and for the benefit of the hauliers, too. It arranges for the work to be done expeditiously and efficiently, at low cost, and, at the same time, ensures that the haulier shall reap the maximum benefit. '
I have already stated that the control of the company will be in the hands of its haulier members. That is arranged in this way. It is provided, in the Articles of Association, that there shall be not more than '25 directors. Of those, 13, that is to say, a majority, shall be "elected directors." One is to be elected by the members, from amongst themselves, in each Traffic. Area, also one in the Southern Area and in the
Devon and Cornwall Area. The electors, and the directors elected, must he holders of A or B licences. That provides for 12 elected members. The 13th is to he elected by members who are not holders of licences under the Road and Rail Traffic Act, that is to say, by the clearing-house members. Additionally, there are to be local committees, one in each of the above areas and one for the clearing-house members. They will deal with questions affecting local traffic_
One point, already suggested, must be emphasized_ Lt is not the intention of Traffic Movement, Ltd., to quote against or compete with either its members or other operators for the movement of existing traffic, already passing and being handled by those members or non-members.
New Traffic, Created by the War, Cared For New traffic, arising out of war conditions, is in the care of this organization.-That it may, here and there, serve the ends of members by puffing one into touch with another, for the mutual exchange of traffic, when fuel restrictions make normal working impossible, is probable, but this will be a minor activity.
That is my view of Traffic Movement, Ltd., as it is. What I think it should become and how it could, in so becoming. be used for the salvation, not merely for the benefit, of the industry is a subject apart from the present article. I think Traffic Movement, Ltd., is a good thing, that every haulier should become a member, and that those who neglect to do so are blind not only to their own interests but to those of the industry as a whole and even to those of the country at large.