Own-account Transport an Expensive Luxury?— R.H.A. Chairman A REJUVENATED railway system
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'X plus an increasingly efficient road litulage service may persuade more and more traders and manufacturers that having their own vehicles is a luxury that is no longer necessary. This belief was expressed in a speech by Mr. D. 0. Good, national chairman of the Road Haulage Association. on Friday. The speech was read at the dinner of the R,H.A. North Devon sub-area by Mr. W. E. Foster, Devon and Cornwall area secretary, since the weather conditions had prevented Mr. Good himself from reaching Barnstaple for the function.
He began by saying: "I should like to pay a profound tribute to the men who drive our vehicles all over the country. The conditions they have had to face in the past few weeks could hardly have been worse, in spite of which they have battled their way through in circumstances where the obstacles seemed insuperable. Sometimes, it is true, our drivers have had to give up hut only, it seems to me, wherea superman would have failed.
"There are other people who have served us faithfully through this difficult period ", went on Mr. Good. With my tribute to our drivers I should particularly like to couple a vote of thanks to the railwaymen. Their difficulties have been just as great and they have also worked heroically in an attempt to get the trains through.
"There need be nothing strange about hearing a road operator praising the men on the railways". he said. "After all, we and they are engaged on essentially the same job; we are both providers of transport, and if at times we arc the fiercest of competitors, there are also many occasions when it is in the public interest that we should co-operate.
"Much of the limelight recently has been directed on to the railways under Dr. Beeching. He has at last been given the freedom that is necessary if the railways are to find their true place in the transport system, and he has not been backward in explaining how he proposes to carry out his task."
Summing up Dr. Beeching's attitude, Mr. Good said "he is thinking more and more in terms of train-loads rather than wagon-loads. There is no doubt that this represents a strong challenge to road operators, of at any rate to those who are carrying the kind of traffic on which Dr. Beeching is casting covetous eyes.
"The public must not think, however," he went on, 'that we are waiting hypnotized like the rabbit when the stoat is about to seize it. We too have our plans for the future. In fact, we can say that we have been developing ever since the first lorry went on to the road so that each change in the environment finds us ready to meet the challenge and even gain an advanrage from it.
"1 cannot help feeling myself—and Statements that have come from the railways from time to time tend to bear me out—that Dr. Beeching's chief target is to be found in the millions of tons of traffic now being carried by traders in their own vehicles under C licence. If this is so, we, as hauliers, are entitled to feel a little rueful about it. Had it not been for the ghastly error of nationalization our own vehicles would be carrying much of that traffic, for there are thousands of traders who never dreamed of bothering about running their own lorries until the sudden catastrophic decline in the service they received following the Transport Act of 1947.
"I think we can say that we have won a good deal of the traffic back, although there has been no decline in the number of C licensed vehicles."
Then Mr. Good said: " My hope, if not my prophecy, is that a rejuvenated railway system, plus a road haulage service that is increasing in efficiency all the time, will persuade more and more traders and manufacturers that the possession of vehicles of their own is an expensive luxury that was justified 10 years ago but is no longer nacessaey.
" This programme for the future will involve the discontinuation of many railway lines that no longer have a chance of paying their way." He concluded, " must emphasize that it will also mean in contrast a rapid acceleration of the road programme. I am not insensible of Mr. Marples' achievements and am confident that he knows what is needed, My New Year's wish for him is that a good deal more money may come his way to help him realize our dreams. To make only one suggestion, we in the west should dearly love to see the continuation of the Birmingham to Bristol motorway, at least as far as Plymouth, if not beyond."