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Welcome as is the publication by the RHA of "Productivity in the road haulage industry" it would have been more appropriately issued three years ago. It is full of unexceptionable generalities but in terms of what the industry can do for itself the pamphlet does not take us much further.
The speedy turn-round of vehicles is largely out of the control of hauliers, not least because of their general reluctance to apply sensible demurrage charges. It seems pointless to exhort traders, manufacturers and dockers to work—or have appropriate staff available—all round the clock on seven days a week without the resolution to apply the salutary demurrage lever.
As for the pious hope that motorways or equivalent standard roads will be carved through towns, with no restrictions on commercial goods vehicles there is no country in the world where this is possible. Even if such roads were built, the growth in motor traffic would point to grouped distribution facilities from peripheral warehouses rather than the present unco-ordinated methods. Has the RHA calculated the additional land that would be required in congested towns and cities to allow space "for a number of vehicles to be dealt with at the same time"? Has the industry no concrete plans for cooperative working for town deliveries or for encouraging out-of-hours deliveries?
The improved status of drivers, to which the pamphlet makes reference, should be one immediate priority, and it should be recognized that the esteem of drivers in society depends largely on the image of professional efficiency created by the industry in its dealings with its customers.
In pressing for proper planning classification for road haulage depots the pamphlet echoes a theme well ventilated by this journal, but the authorities are given singularly little guidance on the RHA policy line. Does the industry want its depots sensibly grouped to allow for combined maintenance, shared mechanical handling, common communications services or not? The industry grew like Topsy; today it is in need of imaginative statesmanship and some practical detailed plans.
Planning for the passenger
It is especially appropriate that just when delegates from 40 nations are assembled in London to discuss public transport at the UITP Congress, the OECD has issued its thoughtful and thought-provoking report.
The need to avoid wasteful duplication of effort, not only in urban transport research but in vehicle engineering and operational systems and equipment, is an obvious one; and it has been aired by Congress speakers this week. Of more fundamental importance is the need to identify accurately the factors which now and in the future will attract passengers to public transport. It is interesting to see that the OECD specialists echo the remarks of the (non-transport) speaker at this year's SRPTA Conference in giving service, and particularly good timekeeping and predictable journey times, the highest priority. They also relegate fares levels—for commuters at least— to a much less important place.
Increasingly one is forced to wonder whether our British limelighting of fares increase applications is not a self-defeating "safeguard".