the common room
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by George Wilmot
uSeninvicierrsLeityetoufreLroinndoTnransport Studies,
What to read Annual reports
I UNDERLINED last week the inevitable difficulty of road transport books becoming so quickly out of date, in view of the changing momentum of legislation and developments in the industry itself. I emphasized that one of the important factors in selecting textbooks was to see whether frequent revision had taken place. Another way of gaining a quick, contemporary and practical picture of the industry is to consult Government annual reports and those of private and public road transport companies.
Yet, surprisingly, those following transport examination courses rarely consider annual reports in their reading programme. Perhaps these reports are thought to be highly turgid reading, or perhaps, it is the sheer volume of printed matter which leaves this material badly neglected. It is particularly unfortunate that the idea of wearisone reading should take root as many annual reports are increasingly being written in a lively style, well indexed with statistics usually summarized in a number of quite attractive ways. Maps, photographs and diagrams are usually added to enliven the text. There is, however, need of guidance about which reports to consult.
The most important representatives in the public sectoi are those of the National Freight Corporation (which reviews each of its constituent organizations), the National Bus Company and the Scottish Transport Group, plus the reports of the Traffic Commissioners and the Licensing Authorities. All these can be obtained through Her Majesty's Stationery Office but for most purposes it is not usually necessary to obtain an individual copy as they can be perused in the reference sections of all major libraries.
These are all attractively presented and the Reports of the Traffic Commissioners and the Licensing Authorities can be looked through quickly, although there is always sufficient detail for concentrated attention to be given to a specific regional area.
The London Transport Executive produces a most informative annual report and it will be especially interesting to read (from next year) the early reports of the four new Passenger Transport Authorities, based on Merseyside. Manchester, the West Midlands and Tyneside. Annual reports of individual bus operators and the larger road haulage firms can usually be acquired by writing to the head office of the company. Reports of municipal cbmpanies' undertakings are lodged in the reference libraries of the area concerned.
Annual statistical digests of the Ministry of transport (published by HMSO) appear quite frightening at first. Closer inspection, however, reveals that useful summaries are made and that the larger tables of figures bring out a number of fascinating points of• detail. What is confusing are the titles of the various Reports. Highway Statistics has nothing to do with road mileage or construction but refers to the use of vehicles and contains the best numerical data about goods vehicles. Unfortunately, the work contains no information about the movement of particular commodities. A wide\ range of information on the work of public service vehicles is found in Passenger Transport in Great Britain which covers the \type of work done by municipal undertakings, London Transport, the national sector and nearly 5000 independent operators. Road construction, new plans and costs of maintenance is found in the annual survey entitled Roads in England and Wales. A summary and a most useful quick reference to all types of operation is contained in Basic Road Statistics, published by the British Road Federation.
Annual reports are, generally speaking, not sufficiently well known. Certain sections of these reports are more apposite than others and reading should be for major impressions rather than for detailed data. Reports are not, of course, light bedtime reading but they are often easier to work through than a host of transport books written by individual authors.