Why charges rise by NFC chief
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THE CHARGES of National Freight Corporation companies had risen on average by 40 per cent over the past 12 months, Mr Peter Land, a member of the executive board of the NFC and co-ordinator of its parcels and smalls companies, said on Wednesday.
Mr Land was making the point that it was wrong to assume that all public sector industries had been keeping their prices uneconomically low. The NFC had been no more restrictive than its private sector competitors.
"We have had no remit to under-price," he said. But market conditions in some cases prevented the full cost increases from being passed on.
For the public sector to be efficient, and to safeguard the future, it had to provide the proper resources and expect to be paid for them. Customers preferred this to being asked to face wsudden delayed demand. Mr Land cited the proposed 50 per cent increase in some parcels rates. Many users had asked whether a service that was making such a huge• "instant" increase could continue. "Our customers will be ready to pay for the right service," he said, "and believe they accept the need to pay increased charges that can be seen to arise from increased costs incurred to meet their specification."
Mr Land was opening a new depot at Eastleigh for N. S. Morgan Transport (Southampton) Ltd, which is on site formerly occupied by BR's carriage and wagon works. He described Morgan as a freestanding business unit, making the same kind of decisions, within the same kind of financial pressures, as private competitors.
The new depot can accommodate 10 vans loading or discharging at any one time. An area is allocated to break bulk operations.