RHA chairman's (three-point plan
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CHALLENGE ON MORE DRASTIC REORGANIZATION
• A three-point programme for the coming year was outlined by Mr. Noel Wynn (Robert Wynn and Sons Ltd.) in thanking the national executive council of the Road Haulage Association for electing him as chairman of the Association on Wednesday:
1. Opposition will continue to the quantity licensing provisions in the Transport Bill.
2. The shape, scope and purpose of the road transport industry must be reviewed to meet the situation which would follow the introduction of quality licensing.
3. Urgent steps should be taken to make further progress with the re-organization of the RHA.
Mr. Wynn said the Transport Bill would continue to engage hauliers' attention, unless and until the Government saw fit to drop the clauses of the Bill which related to quantity licensing. Opposition to the quantity licensing provisions of the Bill, which the RHA would continue, was neither politically inspired nor intended to support any political party. It was purely an industrial campaign waged by those engaged in the road transport industry solely against those parts of the Bill which they considered injurious to the vital service which hauliers provided to trade and industry.
Mr. Wynn said the national executive council must give consideration to the shape, scope and purpose of the road transport industry in the immediate future following the introduction of quantity control—"to which we are not opposed, and indeed welcome. In particular he felt that members must be made aware of the opportunities which existed for them with the abolition of the difference between own-account and hire or reward transport and, above all, the dangers which existed if they did not seize those opportunities.
The new chairman, who was chairman of the study group which recommended sweeping changes in the RHA, went on: "The council, I consider, must also give serious and early consideration to the future of this Association. Steps were taken some 12 months ago to rationalize certain parts of the constitution. It is my opinion an opinion I feel is shared by the majority of members—that great benefits have already been achieved.
"Now, however, it appears to me that urgent steps must be taken to make further progress with re-organization in the light of present circumstances. In short, gentlemen, we must decide, before long, whether this Association is to revert to being a loose confederation of 15 separate areas and eleven functional groups or if it is further to consolidate into an even greater national trade association than it is now."