If You Have Tears
Page 42
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CHESS grand masters might envy the skill, finesse and yet the inevitability of the latest move by British Road Services, which puts them in a promising position and at the same time ties up their rivals in a corner. Tenders have been accepted for the first batch of transport units, and it is natural therefore that the British Transport Commission should tell the public what is going to happen next. They must first set the stage by announcing the allocation of their retained vehicles into three main sections, comprising the general haulage vehicles in customary suits of lorryspotters' red, the specialized vehicles operated under the name of Pickfords, and the contract vehicles masquerading in the livery of the customers.
"In these directions," the Commission are emboldened to continue, "B.R.S. feel confident that they will be able to justify the continued support of trade and industry by the quality of their service and the reasonableness of their charges, in free competition with private operators, as the Transport Act intends."
Having established themselves as the injured party magnanimously prepared to let bygones be bygones, the Commission can risk a mildly deprecatory reference to the limitations imposed by the Act, and the "damage that would be caused if the present network of parcels and smalls services were disrupted." Be of good cheer, say the Commission, something may yet be saved from the ruin. Although they are giving up the service and could very well wash their hands of it, they are discussing with the Disposal Board ways and means of mitigating the disaster by using the provision in the Transport Act for the creation of companies.
Also worked into the Commission's statement is a valediction to those contract customers whose vehicles are not to be retained. Only B.R.S. can say definitely what considerations they have in mind when deciding which of the 3,000 contract vehicles are to be sold. We cannot tell whether B.R.S. intend to keep the most profitable customers or the customers who are most eager to stay. Arrange an Interview
Those who find their vehicles put up for tender will no doubt be ready to take the hint, but if an individual here and there should take it hardly, B.R.S. would be pleased to arrange an interview with him. "They cannot compel—nor will they seek to compel—a customer to whom they are bound by contract to accept (against his will) a new contractor."
The important part of the statement comes towards the end, after a promise by B.R.S. to do all in their power to carry out the duty imposed upon them by the Act to see that disposal causes the minimum of inconvenience to traders. "Where, for instance, a user has been accustomed to placing all his orders with a particular B.R.S. depot, British Road Services will, if the user so requires, accept his orders as heretofore and make arrangements for the conveyance of his traffic." The diffident phrase "if the user so requires" has deceived nobody, and perhaps was not intended to deceive. The B.T.C. are undisguisedly inviting their road transport customers not to take the business away. The appeal may be all the more effective because it is at the end of an announcement in which the Commission, apparently coming to bury the B.R.S. and not to praise n16
them, yet contrive to play the part of Mark Antony to the free-enterprise Brutus.
At the time, the Romans may have approved of the liquidation of their dictator, but it was not difficult to engage their sympathies for him when he had no more power to harm. In the same way, the friends of B.R.S. have drawn attention to the many gaping wounds, the former modest cultivation of the customer (ambition should be made of sterner stuff) and the final legacy of a little matter of £7m. profit.
The trader cannot but appreciate the service that he is holing offered, although he sees clearly enough that the main purpose is to allow B.R.S., even when stripped of most of its vehicles, to continue to function as a great national clearing house, passing surplus traffic to other hauliers, or to the railways, and taking a commission. The haulier, and particularly the man who hopes to buy a transport unit, finds his worst fears confirmed. He can buy vehicles and premises, and a special A licence, but he cannot buy traffic, and it is not a pleasing prospect if B.R.S. are still to come between him and his customer. Cavil in Public
In spite of his feeling that there is something wrong somewhere, there is little in the Commission's statement at which the haulier can cavil in public. He asked for fair competition, and he has got it, as the Commission quietly remind him. He can hardly hope for sympathy by discoursing on the theme that "anything you can do I can do better," for the Commission have already thrown out a modestly worded challenge. Deeds, not words, are what the public want next.
Nor can he argue convincingly that the Commission's statement is against either the spirit or the letter of the Act. A few prospective buyers may be discouraged at the thought of getting their traffic by proxy, and the, retention of too many customers by B.R.S. may frustrate any hope of a fall in rates. But B.R.S. are careful to point out that everything they are doing is in accordance with their rights and obligations under the Act. If they permit themselves an occasional sigh for the days that are no more, one can scarcely judge them too harshly. The present situation has given B.R.S. an opportunity to state their .case, and they have taken good advantage
of it. They are in a strong position. Having been allowed the pick of over 30,000 vehicles, they have no no doubt arranged to keep a magnificent fleet, with premises and possibly staff to match. They will aim at being the showpiece of the road haulage industry, the one splendid example among the multitude of the mediocre. They will use to the full their own resources and those of the Commission for making a favourable impression upon trade and industry and the general public.
There seems little wrong with such an ambition. Few hauliers expected that denationalization would make them any richer or their work any easier. Many of them unashamedly feared the intensification of competition. What even the pessimists sometimes forgot was the possibility that their most dangerous rival would be the much attenuated B.R.S. The recent announcement should deprive them of any illusions they may have had in their minds.