Vital role o
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'I have a feeling that the CPT has become so familiar with regulatory framework and working patterns that it is terrified
Cie* change. It may be right, but politicians and public, both ste
Altai taskmasters, need to be convinced that the British pattern rea does represent the last word.'
THE Confederation of British Road Passenger Transport, established as recently as 1974, brought together most of the major groupings in the British bus and coach world.
In 1973 there had been a Declaration of intent by the National Bus Company, the Scottish Bus Group, London Transport, and four Passenger Transport Executives, to set up a single organization. Subsequently, three of the four associations serving different sectors of the industry — the Passenger Vehicle Operators' Association, Public Road Transport Association, and Scottish Road Passenger Transport Association —declared in favour of a single organisation.
Most British trade associations, and trade unions too, for that matter, have a long history. The CPT, to quote the initials by which it is now generally known, goes back some 80 years. You would have to be a centenarian to recall some of the precursors such as the Tramways and Light Railways Association, the London Omnibus Owners Assocation • and the Municipal Tramways and Transport Association, all stemming from 1902, or earlier.
Yet some of the traditions, and aspirations, of ancestral bodies have surely been passed on from generation to generation.
It is a paradox, with a trade association, that a prime object is to ensure the stability, and freedom from contentious legislation and regulation, of its member firms. In an era of ever more complex legislation emanating from the British Parliament, and from the European Commission, transport trade associations like the CPT play a vital role. In a fully stable business and political climate it is arguable that trade associations would have no raison d'etre. The over-worked staff of CPT need lose no sleep on that score! To see if service to members can be improved the Economist Intelligence Unit is looking CPT over.
When I met Denis Quin, CPT's director-general, recently, he was heavily involved with aspects of the Transport Bill and with the Devolution measures for Scotland and Wales. For some years now Mr Quin has struggled valiantly with British and Cornrnon.Market politicians and civil servants to relieve the bus and coach industry in Britain from the hobbling effect of onerous legislation, particularly related to drivers' hours.
The possibly serious effects of devolution on the unified framework of transport law operative in Great Britain since 1930 has greatly exercised CPT in recent years. S. J. B. Skyrme, in his presidential Report for 1975-6, said CPT had stressed to the Government -the essentiality of a uniform approach throughout Great Britain to all aspects of road safety, to road service licensing and to legislation in respect of all forms of taxation and grants affecting the bus and coach industry.
The CPT has over 1,700 member companies including some 1,600 firms in the, largely autonomous, Coach and Independent Bus Sector (CIBS). It must have been a great triumph for the prime organisers of the Confederation to bring together the public and private enterprise sectors and to associate the CIBS membership with bigger brothers in the Municipal. PTE and NBC organisations.
In face_ 41 CPT members in the Nationalised sector operate 22,900 vehicles with 10 seats on thegoverning council. Eight Transport Executive members (17,900 vehicles) have nine seats. Forty-one local authority members, (5,300 vehicles) have three seats. The CIBS members (12,500 vehicles) have seven council members.
Denis Quin, who had directed the PVOA for some years before the founding of the Confederation, was, I suspect, a principal catalyst in associating the important CIBS membership with the other partners. Perhaps an earlier example from the freight sector, when the nationalised lorryrnen joined the Road Haulage Association,. helped.
There is no organisation similar to the CPT in Europe, and this, I think, is regrettable. The nearest equivalent is the KNTVO in the Netherlands, which brings together the public and private sectors of their bus and coach industry, but also has interests in goods transport.
The CPT is actually a limited company, but it was allowed to leave out the word -limitedby virtue of the nature of its work and the fact that it is a nontrading company. its constitution gives it wide powers, though it cannot involve itself in industrial negotiations with trade unions. This self-imposed constraint is perfectly understandable from the standpoint of the CIBS membership; national pay norms might or might not even out pay disparities. ACAS, I gather, is looking at the industry.
The CIBS membership is served by nine regional secretaries whose offices are separetely financed by that sector. Bill Webb, the CPT's coaching executive, doubles as regional secretary of London and Home Counties, with a big area stretching from the Wash to Hampshire.
There is only one full-time secretary (in the North West); the smaller regions can on(y justify part-time assistance. The many local associations hi with personal involvement grass roots members. There i 28 local associations in Lond and Home Counties alone, a local activities — which do I ignore the social side — an feature everywhere.
On average, firms in t coaching sector operate arou 10 vehicles, though sot member firms have only a sift coach. A handful of compani some part of large grout operate over 100 coachi There may be 4,000 bona f coaching firms though CPT sure that the Departmen statistics still include many vs havd gone out of business. I many firms probably operate the fringe of the industry, eluding school, clubs and least one RAF station.
Open CIBS meetings, In time to time, provide an opp tunity for CIBS -marketinc Trade associations need to r play their wares to non-rneml companies, and open meetir enable some who would oil wise stay outside to be roped
Talking with Bill Webb I me in no doubt that coa operators can profit from BI membership. Operational, le and documentation quer abound. There are coal parking problems to resol• often requiring talks on 1 ground. Foreign touring r many problems, with docum tation niceties at particular fr tiers. Mutual aid scherr whereby member firms helped by other members in event of a breakdown, invo the payment of a £50 bond fee, as a mark of good fai There have be.ep one or t instances of CIBS membi showing reluctance to pay after a fellow member has rei ered assistance: the bondi idea makes sense. Following from CIBS association with • FTA maintenance scheme, B facilities are available. tinental breakdowns are I n their effect by the AM IP , in Europe, which procard-holders with up to Swiss Francs worth of nce. Some 900 cards, at time, have now been fi to CIBS members.
je services rendered by a ssociation depend greatly readiness with which exinced members are preto share knowledge, often ined the hard way, with s. BM Webb mentioned a ber of veteran members could always be relied upon ielpful, practical, advice. en," he told me, "I learn a om a convivial get-together ; a meeting." No doubt js are said at such times h would seldom, if ever, be Tithed to paper.
-le CPT council, analogous board of directors, is the m-ning body with member, drawn from all sectors, jhly in proportion to vehicle -igths, but limited so that no sector can dominate. inancial contributions,
are proportionate to lcle strength and in 1977 e was a maximum call of 65 per vehicle for head ce expenses, payable in .e instalments over the year.
; formula, possible with the
e accurate budgeting that is a ure of CPT administration, imises the payment of tax on
)Iuses held.
he council appoints the cutive staff which comprises director-general, secretary I six specialist executives and upporting clerical staff of und 12 — excluding the CIB tors nine regional secreies whose offices are arately financed by that sec The general purposes corn tee comprises two ninated representatives from :h sector, including the preent and vice-presidents. It ms an "Inner Cabinet" which take action in a hurry if need though the president and ector-general also have a ther power of action when ..:essary.
Much of the detailed work of T falls to eight specialist committees finance, parliamentary, technical and engineering, training, economic and research, public relations and traffic. One other committee has the grand title of European Conference of British bus and coach Operators (ECB0). This was formed by the associations which came together in CPT, prior to its establishement. It has been allowed to retain its established position with various international bodies, excluding the UITP.
The committees have pretty liberal terms of reference and liaison is maintained with the council through the chairmen. The co-option of additional members, or experts, is possible.
Sub-committees are sometimes ca!led for, as with the technical and engineering committee, which deals with the practical engineering problems and liaises with industry suppliers. It makes good sense for the engineering meetings to take place in the premises of manufacturers
Industry expertise is deployed on CPT committees. The technical and engineering committee can draw from the knowledge of senior engineering specialists; the traffic committee, dealing with practical operating matters can look to operational directors, traffic managers etc The finance committee cif CPT is concerned only with internal budgeting. The economic and research committee is a trend-setter, blending the insight of economists, practical operators and finance directors in the review of taxation, government grants and local authority subventions. The committee does not yet seem to have achieved its full potential but the idea is that it should plan the future of the bus and coach industry in advance of the
Government publishing forward-looking, practical ideas, soundly based in the interests of the industry.
ECCBO provides international representation for British bus and coach operators, doing abroad what CPT does in Britain. It is called a council and has a president, vice-president and director-general. Denis Quin serves in this capacity, though, conceivably, the job could demand full-time services.
The foregoing provides a very brief sketch of CPT and it may not do justice to the many oportunities of members to shape the policy of the organisation.
Looking at CPT as an outsider, tribute must be paid to the zealous thoroughness with which it has plugged its policies at home and abroad.
Some policies, such as those touching on drivers' hours, spreadovers, etc seem to smack of special pleading. The industry, of course, has special problems, but that surely applies to sister industries abroad. How long it will be able to contemplate old-style organisation which may benefit trade unions and the public, in terms of wages and fares — is a very moot point as we approach the four-day, 32-35 hour week syndrome.
The reconciliation of the contrasting attitudes of, say, Sheffield and Oxfordshire, with marked differences of fares and opposing viewpoints on subsidies poses immense, perhaps insuperable, problems. It will not serve the interests of public transport by road if customers are driven off, as in recent years, by extortionate fares, I would hope that the Consumer Movement will be bright enough to act as a bridgebuilder between the bus and coach operators, the trade unions and the Government. CPT, I gather, wishes that subsidies ("support grants") were not necessary, but insofar as they are it is against money merely being switched from Peter to Paul within the industry.
The goal is a bigger cake, of benefit to everyone, operators, trade unions and the public. The implication, I suggest, is that bus ridership must go up, not down.
CPT has played a notable role in predicting the effects on British bus operators of the implementation of EEC Regulation 543/69. If our "pattern of passenger road transport is entirely different from that of the six original Member States", it would be interesting to compare the service frequencies, fare levels, wages, salaries and working hours of bus and coach operators in the EEC, and elsewhere.
I have a feeling that the CPT has become so familiar with its regulatory framework and working patterns that it is terrified of change. It may be right, but politicians and public , both stern taskmasters, need to be convinced that the British pattern really does represent the last word.