I N spite of the shrewd and imaginative analysis by Mr.
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A. F. Beckenham (CM, last week) of the shortcomings of transport education in Britain and the consequent harmful effect on the image of the transport industry it is difficult to accept his contention that transport as such should be recognized, in his words, as a "separate department of knowledge" and as a suitable subject for graduate and post-graduate study.
Mr. Beckenham is senior lecturer in transport studies at North Western Polytechnic, London, and was speaking to members of the Institute of Transport in Maidstone. He had a special interest in the subject and a special audience Likely to be in agreement with him. To road operators as well as to people in other spheres of transport there is considerable attraction in the idea that their various activities can ultimately be linked on the highest academic level.
Such a prospect might give the impetus that is now needed. To the aspiring student the facilities for education seem scattered and varying in quality. It is not clear what advantages are to be gained from the sacrifice of time and effort. Plans for improving the situation are still in the early stages and there is no certainty that they will succeed. The Road Transport Industry Training Board is as yet untried and may prove to be an expensive fiasco.
SIGNS OF MOVEMENT
There ...ve one or two signs that events may be moving in the direction of Mr. Beckenham's hopes. Mr. R. H. Farmer, president, Institute of Transport, has set up a committee to inquire into the future of the Institute and the committee will naturally concern itself very much with education. The Road Haulage Association is to have its own education and training committee. The chairman of the RHA, Mr. P. H. R. Turner, has proposed special arrangements for training higher executives whose studies and research will surely range over the whole field of transport and not be restricted to road haulage.
These developments are worth encouragement and should have the interest of all serious students of transport. Mr. Beckenham would go much further, perhaps further than is justified. To analyse trends and problems in greater depth and breadth than is at present possible, and to co-ordinate the study of the various forms of transport into a whole, there should be, in his opinion, a national college of transport studies and research. The first step would be the appointment of a committee on which the Institute and the Ministry of Transport were represented as well as other organizations within the industry.
Formation of such a committee would be an excellent thing. The drawback from Mr. Beckenham's point of view is that it would possibly not agree with his conclusions. The terms of reference would have to be sufficiently wide to allow the committee to decide whether the proposed educational establishment was desirable. Their verdict would probably be unfavourable.
WEAK APPROACH
The weakness in Mr. Beckenham's approach is revealed at the outset in the definition which he frames for his new academic subject of transport studies. It is as follows: "The detailed and analytical study of all forms of transport and ancillary activities; the organization, operation and management of each form and the relationship between the various transport agencies; ai -1 the economic, geographical, social and political aspects of transport in relation to society and business as a whole."
Such a programme might well be borrowed gladly by the Institute of Transport. It could have constituted the over-optimistic epigraph of the White Paper on transport published by Mrs. Barbara Castle so many months ago. But is it likely to start the buds burgeoning in the groves of Academe?
In drafting the White Paper, the Minister had the advice of numerous economists and experts specializing in transport matters. She was unable to avoid the conclusion that there is not one but several separate transport problems.. They are inter-related and should not be tackled in isolation, but the idea of a single master plan is an illusion. It was largely responsible for the folly of the 1947 Transport Act.
Mr. Beckenham's definition would be more convincing if it could be transposed easily into the terms of an already accepted university subject. It more readily lends itself to comparison with certain other industries, notably the fuel industry. Here also there are alternative forms available to the public, the establishment of a proper relationship between them is essential, and there are innumerable economic, geographical, social and political aspects.
As with transport there is an Institute of Fuel and a Ministry. There is tiøt, I believe, the kind of educational establishment that Mr. Beckenham suggests. Instead there are ample opportunities for degrees and research in the various branches of the fuel industry.
Here may be the proper lesson for transport. More pressure should be put on universities to establish chairs for the different forms of transport and for special aspects such as traffic engineering. One of Mr. Beckenham's complaints is that almost all the pitiably small number of chairs in transport or transportation are concentrating on one branch of the subject. There may be better reasons for this than he imagines.
There is still much food for thought in Mr. Beckenham's paper. "Despite its importance to society and industry," he says, "transport lacks a good image; it has a poor ethos. As some of the more enlightened senior transport managers have said recently, there is a need to instil some professionalism—systematic full-time study— into the business."
INDIRECT PLEA
This could be an indirect plea for road transport to wake up to its own strength. In education as in other fields past indifference has been damaging. The explanation may lie simply in the fragmentation of the road transport industry. There are no companies large enough to meet the cost of establishing, say, a readership or fellowship or some other educational foundation. Efforts to persuade operators to take joint action through their associations have had little success.
The railways have not suffered from this handicap. As a result the higher levels of study and research, such as the Institute of Transport, have been rail-dominated. This is a ludicrous situation when it is remembered that the 2m. or more people engaged in road transport and ancillary industries constitute about 10 per cent. of the entire adult working population and outnumber many times over all the workers in all other forms of transport. Mr. Beckenham has performed a useful task if he has helped to arouse the sleeping giant,