Throat-cutting in Short distance Work By Harold Firth,
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Roadway Services, Ltd., Haddersfield ; Chairman, North-Eastern Area, National Conference of Road Transport Clearing Houses.
TIslfiER the Bill as drafted, clearing houses appear to be faced with immediate extinction, and it seems to me that the 25-mile limit on Aand B-licence holders will ultimately lead to the virtual annihilation of the private haulage contractor.
The nationalized services will undoubtedly cater for short-distance as well as long-distance traffic, and there will be so much competition for the remaining short-distance work that I cannot see a living in the haulage business for anyone but the coal carrier and the very local haulier with light vehicles. If the limit were put at 60 miles, as when the Ministry of Transport's Road Haulage Organization was in operation, I think there would be a chance both for hauliers and clearing houses to make a livelihood in road transport, at any rate.
Unless the Bill • is drastically altered, it is going to make chaos of everything and everybody, Indus-' trial production, the increasing of Which the Government is constantly urging, will be checked by obstacles erected by the disorganization of transport.