What does the R.H.A.
Page 49
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
want with a licensing inquiry?
By W. HIGHAM REID
; November 3 issue The Commercial Motor reported endid, outspoken attack upon one aspect of the goods :le licensing system—the Transport Tribunal. It was est official attack from the Road Haulage Association listant memory. Mr. George Newman, the secretarymade it abundantly clear that. even in his relatively nod of office, he has mastered the technicalities and the character of an undeniably confused outline of sat descends from the highest transport authority in the
ierfectly clear that he and those others who assist him a doubts about licensing generally. IL is not surprising. down the country the Association has officers in :nt touch with what is going on in the traffic courts. intacts with the offices of the Licensing Authorities, the fransport Commission and their own local professional are unrivalled in opportunity and variety of subject It follows that the Association has at its elbow ng that it needs to reach mature and well-considered upon any aspect of licensing.
t the R.H.A.'s Brighton conference last month it was :ed that yet another committee, with some 15 members.
set up to consider these very matters. If that ee embarks upon its labours now, it may (if it is able in all the information of detailed technicality that it , and is.capable of assessing its importance or otherwise ; same skill as the permanent officers) reach the same ons in a year or so hence. That its remit may be an the compass of the secretary-general's assessment is t to defend its appointment on that ground is to beg ;lion.
Saved from Suicide?
iLssociation, then, owes a special debt to Mr. Newman almost immediate answer to the doubts that many .s must have felt that, in the 28 years of licensing that far elapsed since the passing of the Road and Rail ket, 1933. the R.H.A. had not yet discovered the defects ystem or been able to keep up with the consequences indgments of the Transport Tribunal. By this timely .t, the utterly embarrassing disregard for its public hat the Association has so recently showed has been almost at suicide Point on the end of Brighton pier. toad Haulage Association already knows all that there • known about goods vehicle licensing. It is not posSible )ne to make a contribution to R.H.A. knowledge -that been received before. If the Association is .to gain one )rth of advantage from its larger expenditure upon the and maintenance of its public image, then it must first if its way to destroy the shadow of less worthy size that 555 the scene from time to time. If rules, red tape and es back pass as the machinery of the democratic process :hen. it is time' that those which interfere with the public without should be allowed to expire. The democratic is not served by self-strangulation.
time like this, to play into the hands of every enemy of the commerdial user of the roads is the plainest folly. What can any commercial user get from any inquiry into the licensing system, other than a lessening of existing freedoms?
In blowing a broadside through the procedural rigmarole and the myth of administrative unawareness of the facts of life. Mr. Newman has let sufficient fresh air into the rotted timbers either to dry them out or to destroy them, if they are too far gone. The result would be equally beneficial either way.
Not infrequently, the Road Haulage Association loses sight of its responsibilities. At best, it represents numerically only 60 per cent. of the "hire or reward" operators, yet it must always act as if it represented them all.
A solid chunk of more than 30,000 vehicles is in the A-licensed fleet of the British Transport Commission. At most the support of the B.R.S. is only tacit, and when vocal it is limited to token contributions of acceptable cliches allowed by their masters. This compulsory neutrality is not, perhaps, all to the liking of some of their not-too-deeply buried freeenterprise roots, but is nevertheless a mere ghost of its giant numerical strength. Equal in vehicle strength to B.R.S., the railways are of necessity fence-sitters. The burden, then, lies heavy on the R.H.A.
It becomeseven heavier as the little men combine into groups; those groups become less articulate as they grow larger for they, too, become fence-sitters. With each passing, the already not-too-strong chorus becomes thinner. The deep voices become silent, leaving the boy sopranos and falsettos. A monotone of reference-backers is the dreary tune and the mania for committee-making is the resort of those who want nothing done but want it to appear that they do.
Speak Clearly or Stay Silent
The voice of an Association that speaks for so many more than it represents should be crisp and clear, never uncertain. diffused or confused. The advice to the young man that silence sometimes betokens the image of wisdom, and if it is really an illusion it is better not to break that silence, applies to trade associations..
Governments the world over have vested interests in both road and rail. In this country the road user, even the commercial user standing on his own, pays the railways' losses and gives a handsome profit after paying for the making and wear and tear of the roads. What poses as erudition in governments (of all parties) .on the so-called economics of transport is really eyewash and nothing more. The national road-rail housekeeping account speaks for itself in the simplest language of all--E s. d Such simple truth, lacking logarithmic profundity, will never he admitted and the voices of the commercial, users must ever persist in their protestations to preserve their rights and freedoms. Only the R.H.A. speaks for the public carrier, and its public image becomes blurred when its executive announce-. ments are in conflict with its administrative knowledge and skill. Gifts to the devil's advocates should not be gratuitously bestowed.