Action by Government to Prevent Rate-cutting
Page 57
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Close Working between Private Enterprise and B.R.S.: Road Transport Associations to be United?
THE likelihood that the Minister of Transport woilid take action to prevent indiscriminate rate-cutting by hauliers was foreseen on Monday, by Mr. R. Morton Mitchell, chief executive officer of the Road Haulage Association.
He was reading a paper, "Road Haulage and its Trade Associations," to the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Section of the institute of Transport at Reading. While he was doing so, the Minister of Transport was announcing plans on the lines forecast by Mr. Morton Mitchell (see page 102).
Referring-to the relationship between British Road Services and privateenterprise hauliers, he said that whether or not B.R.S. ever became members of the R.H.A., there was machinery for formal joint consultation which could he revived and revised to meet present-day conditions. Apart from the formal liaison machinery, consultation had always taken place between the. R.H.A. and B.R.S. on current problems. As denationalization had progressed, more points of mutual concern had arisen to cause joint consultation and common action.
No Hasty Action
"In view of this development it is important today that neither party should by any precipitate action prejudice the possibility of still closer association in order to make more efficient the services that road haulage, as a whole, can render to the community," said Mr. Morton Mitchell.'
" For instance, ' B.R.S., as a Stateowned organization, should maintain economic rates, and not enter into a ate-cutting war that can only bring loss n) itself and disaster to independent hauliers endeavouring to maintain a proper standard of costs and service. carnilarly, wise road hauliers should give the utmost attention, to covering their costs by their charges."
The Disposal Bill included a clause io deal with the problem of rate-cutting. It provided that an A or B licence held ny the British Transport Commission, o,any of their companies, could be .._:spended or revoked because rates did not COM' COStS.
" In the debate on the commipee stage in the House of Commons," Mr. Morton Mitchell said, "the Opposition adopted the view that this clause should :poly equally to independent road hauliers. It was only because of the :ethnical difficulty of inserting such a clause in this particular .Bill that the Minister did not apply it to independent road hauliers, and it Seems likely that, ai a result of the pressure of the Opposition, he will find means of apply ing the same provision to all operators of A or B licences."
There would be the utmost difficulty in administering the clause, but its existence might act as a deterrent to rate-cutters.
Mr. Morton Mitchell thought that the form of the haulage industry would remain more or less settled for at least five or six years. B.R.S. had a substantial fleet which, properly organized, could make life difficult for independent hauliers in any particular section.
On the other hand, the B.R.S. fleet constituted less than a tenth of the total number of vehicles operated for hire or reward, and there was no reason why independent hauliers should not once again build up medium-sized and large fleets capable of competing efficiently in long-distance work with all other forms of inland transport.
B.R.S. were trying again to expand more effectively into Scotland, and competition with private "'enterprise might become keener.
Independent hauliers had 5,800 vehicles over 6 tons unladen on A, contract A and B licences. B.R.S. had 3.881 such vehicles, plus an unknown number on long-term contracts. Consequently there appeared to be a fair measure of equality between the State and private enterprise, subject only to the fact that B.R.S. retained the more important depots.
By comparison, there were 8,827 C-licence vehicles over 6 tons unladen in competition with about 9,500 similar vehicles run by B.R.S. and independent hauliers.
After outlining the activities of the various associations concerned with road transport, Mr. Morton Mitchell said: "It may be that, at some stage in the future, steps could be taken to bind some of the organizations representing road haulage more closely together than at present. On the question of uniting the whole of the road transport trade associations into one organization, there are many matters of common interest to justify such a step."
United Representations
He pointed out that the various classes of operator had their own special problems, but commented: " All trade associations serve useful purposes in their own way, but from the point of view of Government consultation and 'influence on Government policy, representations on behalf of operators would always be stronger if each of the three main sections [C licensees, professional hauliers and passenger vehicle operators] were organized in one comprehensive body for each section.
"In addition, one national road transport organization to speak for all sections of road transport could strengthen the weight of the industry's influence on national transport policy."