• The failure of the Freight Transport Association's attempt to
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
engineer a merger between itself and the Road Haulage Association should come as neither a surprise nor a disappointment. It would have been a most agreeable development had the two bodies agreed to merge, thus providing the road transport industry with one single representative body— but the chances of such a body having a united viewpoint would best be described as minimal.
It is well known that, at least at executive level, the FTA and RHA are poles apart on issues such as 40 tonnes, and that there is significant internal disagreement within both bodies over subjects such as the transfer of road fund tax into the price of fuel Beyond that, of course, the two bodies have differing roles at the moment: one nominally representing the providers of transport, the other the users of transport. Again, the RHA is centred only on the road haulage industry; the FTA has a remit to cover all forms of goods transport, on road, rail, sea and air.
It must be hoped that those who were behind this ultimately ill-starred merger attempt will not be completely put off by the RHA's rejection of it, because the road haulage industry needs a united voice to put before other special interest groups and before the many tiers of government which affect the industry. For such a single organisation to work, however, there would have to be a wholesale re-arrangement of the representative transport bodies. A merged road transport body, after ail, would have little attraction for sea, rail or air transport operators. Whether or not those areas of interest are well enough organised to form their own representative bodies is open to question. If they are, then a strong, united road haulage organisation and its counterparts in other transport fields would make impressive pressure groups on their own— and a formidable transport lobby acting in concert when required.