Cultivating the Garden
Page 62
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COURJFESY and bland resignation are on the mask that British Road Services turn towards the public. The features behind may be distorted with impotent rage and an undying determination for revenge, but these passions, if they exist, are not allowed Lo disturb the serenity of the surface. Maj.-Gen. G. N. Russell, in his recent paper, even pays a bluff tribute to the independent haulier and gives him one or two hints on the correct way to run his business. Coals of fire, indeed, although the haulier may fail to appre
ciate the gesture in this spirit. ■ This decline in the fortunes of B.R.S. need not. con tinue indefinitely. A day or two after Gen. Russell spoke, the Labour Party in conference at Scarborough paused from their mutual slaughter for a moment in order to agree a policy that would return the haulier to where he was a year ago and put the C-licence holder where the B.T.C. wanted him. • Nothing of this disturbs Gen. Russell's meditations.
He continues to cultivate his shrinking garden, and avoids dwelling on any subject that might provoke an argument. He establishes that most haulage businesses are small, "not large enough to give a comprehensive national service on all forms of road haulage." He hastens to add that most hauliers, "even the small ones," try to give in their area or areas a good service of the type they select.
Not So Easy
,Gen. Russell ascribes the small size of the average undertaking largely to the fact that not much capital is needed to set up as a haulier. All the small man has to do is to buy a vehicle, probably on hire-purchase, and get a licence to run it. Now that Gen. Russell himself requires a licence for any extra vehicles, he may come to appreciate that the task is not as simple as it sounds. Later in his paper we catch a glimpse of Gen. Russell, the licence-holder, or it may be the baffled applicant, complaining that the industry is largely a closed shop, "and competition is limited as a result of the supply of transport being limited by licensing."
Lack of money is not a crime, or even a cause for reproach, but it seems a curious reason to advance for the attraction of the small man towards road haulage. There are many types of business that require little capital but are largely in the hands of big concerns.
If it is easy, as Gen. Russell says, for a small operator to get one vehicle and a licence, it should be more an encouragement than anything else for the larger operator o get several vehicles.
A more simple explanation may be that the small operator is better able to give the " service " that Gen. Russell stresses_ One can hardly expect him even to entertain this notion_ He has to put forward some reason, however, why the small operator "has been able to set himself up to do good business in a cornparatively small area and on certain heavy traffic routes, thereby aggravating the problem of the general obligation of the railways to give an overall service."
The fact that the paper was presented to a Section of the Institute of Transport may explain why the railways are brought in at a point where Gen. Russell R28 might be expected to complain of the effect on his own undertaking of the competition from outside hauliers. Moreover, "comparatively small area" is an odd term of reproach to use when the 25-mile limit is still in force. The impression we are perhaps intended to get is that B.R.S. are consciously repudiating their role of satellite to the railways and are identifying themselves as a haulage undertaking like any other.
Later on, Gen. Russell refers to the division of traffic according to its suitability for either road or rail, and to the possibilities of co-operation between the two forms of transport so as to combine the advantages of both. The main part of his paper is devoted to the road haulage industry. He speaks as a haulier carrying the kind of traffic that requires a large undertaking, and he expresses his admiration for his fellow hauliers, both large and small. Most of them are "pretty tough realists," who have learned "as a result of severe competition that first-class service is essential to the success " of their business and the achievement of their main object—the main object being to "make a living."
Suitable Vehicles
Naturally, Gen. Russell has most to say about the
trunk haulier of general goods. He indicates several types of vehicle that are suitable for long-distance work in appropriate circumstances. They all have oil engines, and consist of the 14-15-ton rigid eight-wheeler, the 14-ton and 10-ton articulated vehicles, the 14-15-ton eight wheeler with 7I-8-ton drawbar .trailer, the 7-8-ton rigid vehicle with 6-ton drawbar trailer, and the 6-ton 30-m.p.h. rigid vehicle. There may, in addition, have to be smaller feeder vehicles.
B.R.S. have already made a good deal of progress in forming companies intended to operate trunk services. It would be interesting to know to what extent the companies come up to the ideal laid down by Gen. Russell. The vehicles he describes have been included but sparingly in the transport units so far offered, and unless there is an improvement the suspicion will grow that most of what is worth having will, in fact, be retained and that, in describing the perfect fleet, Gen. Russell was discreetly advertising his own exclusive Model.
Ears to the Ground This is not likely. Prospective buyers are alive to every hint from B.R.S. or from the Disposal Board. They are now able to compare what is offered with what Gen. Russell himself thinks ought to be offered. Any glaring discrepancy will need an explanation, and it will no doubt be demanded by the hauliers' representatives.
As he is entitled to do, Gen. Russell will keep some of the best things for himself. He enters the era of competition without expressing an outright opinion upon the change. He admits that nationalization created "a partial transport_mono,poly," whereas now many of the restrictions and obligations are removed from both forms of transport so as to "promote intensive competition all round." He draws attention to fears expressed by the chairman of the coastal section of the Chamber of Shipping, but leaves us to guess whether he shares those fears.