Aspects of the RTE. Report
Page 36
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Our Third Article Refers to Inter-Executive Co-ordination, Wages and Conditions, Formation of Transport Nuclei and the Northern Area Scheme CHAPTER three of the British Transport Cornmission's first annual report • deals with progress towards the objectives of the Transport Act. Certain points in these have been referred to in previous articles, but there are others that deserve attention.
It is stated that the first step towards integration is co-ordination of services provided by the individual Executives. To secure this, the Commission, immediately after the constitution of the Road Transport Executive, set up a Standing Conference comprised of the chairman and members of all Executives other than the Hotels.
Examples of the matters dealt with are: Exchange of information between management and staffs at all levels; the provision of a pool of vehicles for common use by Executives; co-operation of the R.T.E. in zonal collection and delivery schemes initiated by the Railway Executive; provision of joint services for seasonal traffics, such as fruit and vegetables; examination of railway branch-line traffics with a view to the possible provision of more economical services by road transport; special rail facilities for trunking goods consigned by the R.T.E. on long-distance routes; fuller co-ordination of the Tilling bus services with those provided by London Transport and with railway services; and inter-Executive co-operation in considering road licence applications jointly with the Road Haulage Association.
Redundancy to be Avoided
Much co-operation has been achieved, but the difficulty is that customs and conditions of service in the wages grades are different as between railways, road transport and other means. Transfer of services from one to another creates problems where it involves exchange or unification of staff, or, alternatively, redundancy, which the Commission wishes to avoid.
In the matter of development, steps have been taken to formulate a long-term policy, but it has not been found practicable to submit to the Minister general lines on which the capital development of The whole undertaking should proceed, for which his approval is required.
It is considered premature to frame such a plan pending further progress with the acquisition of road goods transport and with the implementation of schemes for the co-ordination of road passenger transport, to enable the problem to be viewed as a whole.
Referring to the acquisition of road passenger-transport interests, the railways already had large interests in the capital of the principal bus companies included in the Tilling, B.E.T. and S.M.T. groups, and even before the vesting date it was decided that opportunity should be taken to extend these interests by exercising the power to acquire securities. It was clear that the co-ordination of road and rail passenger services would be greatly facilitated in every case were the Commission enabled to acquire a controlling interest in the principal bus companies of a particular area. It was thus enabled, through the late Sir Frederick Heaton, to open early negotiations with the Tilling group, and to acquire all the interests held by it in road passenger and goods transport, also in the chassis and bodybuilding undertakings controlled by it at Bristol and Lowestoft.
Since completion of the purchase the Commission has utilized the Tilling organization to maintain the management structure of the group unaltered until the separate bus companies can be merged or otherwise dealt with in accordance with the area schemes to be promoted.
Later, negotiations were opened with the s.m.T. group and certain independent bus undertakings in England, the principal being a group in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire formerly owned by the Midland Counties Electric Supply Co., Ltd., which vested in the British Electricity Authority on April 1, 1948. These undertakings were transferred to the Commission on April 18 of that year.
An important shareholding, which passed to the Commission on January 1, 1948, was that of Thomas Cook and San, Ltd. The special activities of this company naturally link closely with the transport facilities of the Commission and have been carried on under the decentralized direction of the chairman with a slight rearrangement of the board.
Meanwhile. the R.T.E. had been reviewing passenger road transport services, and it reached provisional conclusions as to the division of Great Britain into suitable areas for the purposes of schemes for submission to the Minister. Following communications received from Newcastle upon Tyne Corporation, then controlled by Socialists, but now taking a lead in the light against nationalization, it was considered desirable as a first step to prepare a scheme for the Northern Area and a meeting for consultation with the local authorities there took place at Newcastle on December 21, 1943.
The requirements of the Act in this connection are detailed and complicated, and no scheme can be drafted without full knowledge of all passenger road undertakings, municipally or privately owned, in any given area and of their statutory obligations and working arrangements.
All these arduous labours, including those concerning the road haulage undertakings, had begun to place a heavier burden on the R.T.E., and at the end of 1948 consideration was given to the creation of a further Executive to deal with the road passenger side.
Some of the undertakings vested under the Act had research organizations, and it was necessary to review these and to make plans for their co-ordination into one body. Therefore, in February, 1948, the Commission invited a committee of experts to examine and report, and to make suggestions for the organization of such work in the future. This report was submitted in November of that year and has received the general approval of the Minister. Two of the main features were the proposal for a Transport Research Consultative Council under the chairmanship of the B.T.C. chairman, on which eminent scientists would be asked to serve with members of the Executives, and the appointment of a chief research officer, Dr. H. E. Merritt, lvl.B.E., D.Sc., M.I.Mech.E., being given this position, whilst the Council was also established.
No Common Negotiating Machinery Conditions of employment, wages, etc., must have proved something of a headache in an undertaking which, at December 31, 1948, employed over 750,000 people. Some of the occupations covered belong exclusively to the Commission, some have their counterparts in other industries, and in the latter regard must neceisarily be had to the conditions applying to those. For example, the wages and conditions of bus drivers and conductors employed by the L.T.E. have a relationship with those of bus undertakings in other parts of the country. Thus no common machinery of negotiation can cover all grades employed by the Commission. The L.T.E. succeeded to comprehensive machinery for consultation between , management and staff. The R.T.E.
apart from administrative staff at its headquarters and divisional offices, was not a direct employer, but it com menced discussions to establish appropriate machinery to cover the staff of long-distance road transport undertakings.
There can be few cases in which any advance of pay or improvement of conditions of service in one 'branch of the R.T.C. undertaking can be made without regard to its effects on other branches. Concessions granted or awarded to the staff in 1948 increased the annual cost of the undertaking by almost 19,000,000. Amongst them were the following: Railway Executive, £6,300,000; London Transport Executive, £1,750,009; Road Transport Executive, 1150,000.