Seeks Co-ordination
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By a Special Correspondent BELGIUM, having for long been faced With the roadve.riutrail .problem. has 'tended to subordinate road haidag,e to the 'State railway system, rither than try to co-ordinate the two." Railways and ancillary road users have beehOeff:Iree, but professional hauliers have been subjected!IO:many highly discrimiriating.regulations, Results are almost chaotic. The joint transport systems —road, railand water—have a surplus' capacity Of 50 p'er cent. The Minister_ of TransporthalestiMateckthe railways' capacity at : 7,000.000 ton /kilomet res. that .of. !road ha Wage the same, and the waterway i 4,000,000 to/kilometres per annum. There is a demand for only' 12,000.000 ton/kilo
metres a year. ,_ , .. ,. : '.• -. .•
'At the beginning of 1950 nearly 90 per cent. of all goods vehicles were operated by ,ancillary.psers, and 80 per cent. of all passenger vehicles' were run by the two State railway companies. It is estimated that of the total tonnage of traffic handled, 54 per eent. is' hauled by rail, 24 per cent. by inland waterway and 22 per sent' by road. Of this lastnamed figure, 85 per cent. is-carried in vehicles owned by ancillary users.
There are two State railway underlakings, one the Belgian National Railways and the other the.Belgian National Local Railways. For many years they have both been losing money, a drain, which is met by the Treasury. The Government protects the railways as enormous sums have been invested in them. Facing increasing competition from road transport, much capital has been spent on electrification.
However, the general impression is that the railways are inefficient, and it has become clear that they will have to hand. over part of their traffic to road transport.
Regulations ' governing road transport have always been aimed
at protecting the'railways.' -No
regulation has ever been subjected for Parliamentary approval, most of them having' been made in times of national emergency by royal decree. It seems strange, however, that in such a liberal-minded country, Parliament has never ended the discrimination against road transport. This discrimination is illustrated by the fact that whereas between 1938 and 1949 the number of commercial vehicles increased from 77,600 to 130,811 and trailers from 4,733 to 9,701, the number of vehicles owned by professional }mailers decreased from 9,483 to 9,114 (excluding those engaged on short-distance work). There are 5,858 hauliers and their vehicles have a total capacity of 42,849 tons.
Since February, 1948, vehicles of over 4 tons capacity have increased in number. Of the vehicles of over 3 tons capacity, a higher proportion is owned by hauliers than of those under that weigV In 1928, when Belgium had 40.444 commercial vehicles, a supreme council,of transport was set up by royal decree, us task being to formulate proposals for the co-ordination of rail, road and water transport. In November, 1929, a subcommission to study road and rail transport was constituted, and in March, 1932_ this body prepared an Act concerning rOad passenger transport: .
It also 'prepared a Bilreoncerning the transport of goods by road, but this was never discussed in the Senate. However, its report formed the basis of a royal decree of August, 1933, in which a.transport tax of.20 per cent, on the charges for goods carried beyond 20 kilometres was introduced as a means for compensating the railways for loss of traffic.
Luckily, the road transport industry was better organized at this time, and after four months it succeeded in removing this tax. Nearly three years later, a substantial part of the sub-commission's recommendations was embodied in a royal decree of March, 1936. This introduced a licensing system for road haulage.
Licences are given for operation throughout the country, or for one or more provinces. Carrying capacity can be restricted, as can the types of goods to be dealt with. Of the 9,259 vehicles licensed as -at June 30, 1949, 29.8 per cent. were authorized to carry all types of goods to any part of the country.
The Ministry of Transport issues the licences and takes into consideration the "need for transport capacity." Applicants have to comply with certain moral and financial standards. Appeals against Ministerial decisions can be made to an advisory commission comprising a professor of law, as chairman, a representative of the haulage industry, one from the railways, and two representing consignors-of •goods. final decisions rest with the Minister. Most of the appeal procedure is in writing. It is not public.
The "transport shield" is another licence for haulage within a 10-kilometre radius. It is issued freely, and at the end of 1949, 6,657 had bean authorized.
Ancillary operators are completely free, but they are not allowed to carry goods for others. They have no asso ciation of their own. Their interests are usually represented by industrial organizations. All commercial vehicles have to be submitted for inspection twice a year.
Although there were many protests against the 1936 decree, events have proved the need for regulation. Hauliers might have competed against one another uneconomically, and the decree withheld the railways from participating in road haulage. At the same time, it was not a step towards co-ordination. In August, 1939, a new commission was appointed to study integration, but the country was invaded shortly afterwards.
By the time of the liberation, a large part of the railways' capacity had been destroyed, On the other hand, large stocks of ex-Service material were available to road transport and the import of vehicles was unrestricted.
For a time, road transport enjoyed a boom, but eventually the railways recovered most of their traffic. The number of vehicles increased to 60,234 in 1946, and hauliers were in fierce competition with each other and with ancillary users. At the end of the war a chance to co-ordinate transport by restricting the number of lorries and reorganizing the railways was missed. In April, 1946, the Minister of Transport had to ask the Minister of Economic Affairs to stop the import of lorries of over 2 tons capacity.
The Minister of Transport then gave orders for co-ordination, and even allowed the railways to engage in road transport. The railways did not do this, and the Minister's other orders, were not carried out. Chaos :emained.
In 1947, there were 91,039 vehicles on the roads, and the new minister, Mr. Van Acker, Abandoned all restrictions on
operations within the 10-kilometre radius. So many transport "shields" were issued that the factory making them could not keep pace. Many bona fide hauliers lost trade to " cheapjacks " who bought ex-Service vehicles with which to -commence transport activities. ln December, a new commission for co-ordination was Set up, but it was not installed until October, 1948. -In 1947; the government forced the transport industry to lower tariffs by 10 per cent Hauliers. suffered as a result, but the railways were given an extra subsidy.
Meanwhile, many hauliers calnte to regard not the railways, but the ancillary users as their chief enemies. Many cornpanics, having made big profits, bought their own vehicles, one reason being that by so doing they could hide their-real turnover from the tax collectors. Curing the past few months there has been a slight decline in the numbers of ancillary users' vehicles, but there is still an over-capacity, The present transport system may be at a turning point. More .freedom-loving hauliers appreciate that only by • organizing their industry and by submitting it to regulation • will a reasonable situation emerge. Whilst the official tariffs are 20 per cent, higher than those of the railways, 'competition is so keen that many hauliers quote prices 30-40 per cent, below railway rates. Responsible leaders of the industry think that the industry will either compete itself to death, or the Government will be forced to take restrictive measures, as fuel and material are being wasted.
The middle way, to organize the transport industry and have it promote and control regulation, is the course being followed by the Federation Nationale Beige des Transporteurs koutiers. The Belgians, being individualists, have never been organization minded.
The Federation is being put on a new basis. Formerly it was composed upwards by provincial associations. In its new shape it is a central organization divided downwards into provincial and specialized sections. Twenty-five per cent. of hauliers are members, and it is hoped to have a strong, unified organization with a large membership in the .next few months. The Federation will then seek Government recognition. Hauliers say that each branch of transport should be set in order as a prelude to co-ordination. They demand . treatment for the road transport industry as an equal partner.
By regulation and standard rates, road transport could be made sound. This can be done only by A strong organization which should be entrusted with control of the industry, and be represented in every commission. It should also be allowed to see its members' books.
To enforce membership would be impossible in Belgium, but it could be made attractive by the government's allowing its members certain concessions, such as cuts in taxes. I have the impression that the Ministry of Transport, which favours a strong organization of hauliers, is backing the scheme. In -the meantime, a new commission. constituted in November, 1949, is studying all problems of the national transport systems.
It is to be hoped that the Federation will succeed. During the months before the King Leopold question was at its peak. the industry had set its hopes on the Catholic Minister of Trattsport, Mr. Paul Segers. He is known to favour private enterprise. Hauliers are pleased to see him in office and much now depends on his future attitude.
The best organized section of Belgian road transport is that of the international hauliers. Their organization. the Union Professionelle Beige des Transporteurs Routiers lnternationaux, founded in June, 1946, has 125 members representing 92 per cent, of the hauliers engaged in international road transport.
International Permits Although subject to a licensing system, international haulage is much less subordinated to the railways than national haulage and road passenger transport. This is not surprising. The total capacity of Belgian international road transport is only 2,500 tons, which is not even one-tenth of the Dutch capacity, but the railways.have less fear of competition. A leading Belgian international haulier once told me: "If the Ministry of Transport would allow us more permits, we would put up a better show." This. for the time being, has to be doubted, as Belgian tariffs are higher than those of several other countries. This is partly because
of high costs and wages in Belgium. and the .difficulties in securing return loads. It is hard for Belgian road transport to compete in the international field, and some hauliers have engaged in smuggling. Whenever this has occurred, U.P.T.R.I. has immediately stepped in, warning the Customs authorities, and the association is doing all in its power to stop the practice.
Relations with the Ministry of Transport are good, and hauliers receive much help from that quarter. In October, 1949, at U.P.T.R.I.'s suggestion, the Minister of Transport set up a special commission in which road transport, both national and international, the railways, forwarding agents. industry, the Ministry of Transport, the Treasury and the Foreign Office, are represented, and it is hoped to achieve close collaboration in the near future. U.P.T.R.1.'s ultimate aim is to be recognized by the government as the only authoritative body for international road transport with powers to effect, together with the government, strict control. A separate office for international transport at the Foreign Office has been asked for. Other aims of the organization are a uniform waybill and a gentleman's agreement with regard to tariffs. It also wants agreements with the railways on tariffs and return loads. Lower taxes and more licences are further wishes yet to be fulfilled. Belgian hauliers fully appreciate that international co-operation is needed if inter-European road transport is to have a future. They strongly favour an international federation of hauliers and the setting up of an international bureau to act as a central forwarding agent. In the meantime, agreements with other countries are to be negotiated.
An example of this are the negotiations with Denmark concerning refrigerated vehicles, of which the leading Belgian companies have recently formed a pool, with a fixed minimum tariff and a special procedure for return loads. In the international field, France is the most important country for Belgian hauliers, followed by Germany, Italy and Hungary.
In a speech before the Flemish Economic Association, made just before the elections, the Minister of Transport, Mr. Paul Segers, speaking of the over-capacity of the Belgian transport system, said that people who are continually asking for new roads seem to forget that this would further reduce the productiveness of the railways and of inland water transport. In a modern world, one cannot restrict a modern means for transport by denying it the roads it needs. Mr. Segers's speech also gave the impression that many railway stations would be closed dawn. This would help to create a situation in which the possibilities for co-ordination would he more favourable.