Hauliers' Warned of Post-war Position
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WARNING against complacency on their post-war position as hauliers was sounded to members of the Heavy Woollen District Transport Association by its new chairman, Mr. Thomas Bailey, of Messrs. Bailey Brothers, Batley, last week. Instancing the wartime increases in the size of vehicle fleets, he said it must be remembered that such increases had been authorized only under defence permits, and there was the possibility that an operator would lose the right to run such additional vehicles after the war, unless he could prove a post-war need.
Referring to haulage rates, Mr. Bailey said that the measure of agree ment reached through the Association left no excuse for rate-cutting by Heavy Woollen District hauliers. He emphasized that rate-cutting would not increase the aggregate amount of haulage work in the district and that, if only from the standpoint of the wages scales now statutorily enforced, the operator could no longer afford to be lax in the matter of rates maintenance.
He urged that, although the members had decided not to pneceed, at present, with the formation of a road haulage group for the district, it was most desirable that they should follow one of the principles of grouping by taking all possible steps to give a fellow-member of the Association the benefit of any traffic which they were unable to handle when it was offered.
Mr. T. Jackson, hon. secretary, reported that the Association's recent approach to the railway official controlling L.N.E.R. and L.M.S.R. cartage work in Dewsbury had resulted in the removal of an anomaly concerning the hire of hauliers' vehicles for this work. This anomaly lay in the tact that the working day of vehicles so hired, on an hourly basis of payment, comprised less time than that for which the operator had to pay his driver under the Road Haulage Wages Act. The matter had now been adjusted by an extension of the working day during which vehicles were on hire to the railway companies.
Mr. Bailey, who has been vicechairman of "the Association since its formation, was elected chairman in succession to Mr. A. meson, of Gomersal. Mr. E. Lloyd, of Ossett, was elected vice-chairman, and Mr. Jackson and Mr. H. Chaaiwick, of Dewsbury, were respectively re-elected hon. secretary and hon. treasurer. Mr. Jackson was also appointed the Association's representative on the Yorkshire Hired Vehicle Operators' Committee.