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Retail Trade
A STRONG resolution on the condi
tion of the retail motor industry has been adopted by the Motor and Allied Trades Section of the Northampton and County Chamber of Commerce. This is given in a letter published elsewhere in this issue, but, in submitting it, the Chamber drew attention, in a memorandum, to the parlous condition to which this side of the industry has been reduced.
It states that it is quite obvious that unless the Government takes more definite and early action, this vast organization, painstakingly built up over a period of many years, with huge aggregate capital resources and many thousands of workers, will be in serious danger of disruption. The result would be a heavy loss to the revenue of the country and et seriously retarding influence on the reconstruction of the motor business when peace comes.
The Section has no desire to see an inetease in private motoring, but it is definitely of the opinion that the release of greater supplies of fuel for commercial road transport would speed up the delivery of goods urgently needed by the Services and the public. It is apparent, says the memorandum, that Government purchases of spare parts are in excess of requirements, and if this policy be continued, the result can only add to the difficulties at present confronting motor retailers and repairers.
The constant drain on the industry's labour resources must also be stopped by the retention of a percentage of its skilled workers.
What is wanted, first, is an expansion of the use of commercial road transport. This, if the trade be allowed to obtain supplies and to retain a nucleus of skilled staff, will give it a chance to survive.
There is also an urgent need for some form of Government work. The announcement that motor-repair work Lem the Expeditionary Force is to be g'eren to civilian garages is not regarded as meeting the case. If the servicing of the many thousands of Government inches in use throughout the country were given equitably to retail motorrepair firms, they would definitely be placed in the position when they could keep their organizations in being.