Hauliers begged Foster for help
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"CAN you help us?" This was a question put by some operators to the Foster Committee on Operators' Licensing, Professor Christopher Foster told the Chartered Institute of Transport luncheon last week.
He recalled that at one meeting in Wales some owner-drivers did not know where their next vehicle was coming from. So the question was raised: "Can the committee alter the licensing system to increase our profitability?"
The committee had to decide whether help was needed. and the general conclusion was reached that almost all British industry was unprofitable. But in the case of transport, could this be attributed to the licensing system? The committee found it very difficult to say yes.
Arguments were put to members that the industry had become more fragmented be cause of unprofitability. But this, he thought, was untrue. Eighty-five per cent of hauliers' vehicles had been in the hands of operators with five or less vehicles for many years: certainly this had been so in the 1930s.
"We were not persuaded that liberalisation of the licensing systems could be blamed for declining profitability. We were very reluctant to recommend the resumption of quantity licensing, and very few urged this," he added.
S. F. Wheatcroft, Cif president, who thanked Prof Foster for his talk, revealed that CIT and the IRTE were hoping to co-operate more closely in the future. A step in this direction would be to submit a joint opinion of the .Foster Committee recommendations to the Department of Transport, said Mr Wheatcroft.