1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208 
THE CRUMBLING END
Page 148
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
UCCESS stories are plentiful in the road transport industry. Unfortunately there are also some failures. The Board of 'rade's statistics of bankruptcy in 1965 include 92 road haulage ontractors. This puts them at sixth place in the table of principal rades as compared with fifth place in 1964 when the total was 38. There has in fact been a rapid and progressive annual reducion since the high-water mark of 258 in 1962 when hauliers were econd only to builders in this invidious league.
Unless an exceptionally large contruction job in South Wales had omething to do with it, the significance I the subsequent drop in numbers is ifficult to assess bearing in mind that le total of 90 in 1960 was slightly !ss than the apparently encouraging gure for 1965 and that back in 1957 le total was even lower at 49. In the bsence of a more detailed analysis it eems reasonable to suppose that lost of the financial failures in the ad years were tipping vehicle operams who had been unable to keep up 4th their hire purchase payments.
Too much must not be read into the tatistics. They cover only personal owners I their businesses and partnerships. Nearly 11 the operators therefore are owner-drivers r have no more than two or three vehicles. 'he average assets of £500 provide strong upporting evidence. Information about mited companies would have to be sought lsewhere and would not be found coneniently divided into categories which /ould make it possible to arrive at a omplete figure for the whole road haulage adustry.
Such information as is known provides . sorry picture of what goes on at the rumbling end of that industry. A typical ase concerns the lorry driver in his midhirties with 15 years' experience who lecided to become his own master and isted two years with a lorry to buy for which e had borrowed £800 from a bank. After ne year he changed the vehicle for a new 1.1e for which he paid £1,825 an hire purhase. There were breakdowns and later the chicle was off the road for four months allowing an accident. He attributed his nancial failure to the loss of orders through he breakdowns.
This is a recurring theme. Other operators amewhat more articulate speak of a lack of apital and too low a profit margin. They ave expectations and these are not fulfilled. hey turn to road haulage after they have failed in some other activity. They draw more money out of the business than it can stand. They make no provision for tax. They accept promises of work which fall short of a definite contract. In one or two cases they even blame the weather.
Many of them admit that they started their businesses on a shoestring with no resources to carry them over the first serious misfortune that strikes them. Reading between the lines of such reports as are available it is not difficult to imagine many gross breaches of the law governing drivers' hours, speed limits and maximum loads not to mention standards of maintenance and the road haulage wages requirements. One bankrupt operator who claimed to have had work on motorway construction and open-cast mining sites told the assistant official receiver that his wife had taken over his business and was paying him £5 per week as a driver.
Almost certainly some of the derelict operators, although they all confidently describe themselves as road haulage contractors and have their place under this heading in the statistics, have been working without an A or B licence. If this is indeed the case it is an argument against the contention in the Geddes report and elsewhere that the abolition of licensing would have little or no effect. The number of ill-equipped newcomers operating outside the law would be considerably increased if the law ware changed so as to make them within their rights,
It might be argued that in a community reluctant to place unnecessary restraints on freedom the prospective haulier, who must be presumed to know that there is a risk, ought to be allowed to take it if he wishes. The proposition holds good for most trades and professions. The road transpart operator whose standards are below an acceptable level is a risk not only to himself but to other people.
For most businesses a minimum capital is needed before even a start can be made. The first down payment on a vehicle is sufficient to make even a totally inexperienced man into a haulier provided he is not worried about details such as the possession of an appropriate licence. His financial troubles begin when it is too late to withdraw.
Many established and respectable operators started up in this way. It cannot be accepted as an up-to-date model. There is too much at stake. Too many accidents are caused by operators who do not observe the regulations and do not look after their vehicles properly. If they win traffic it is often by cutting rates thus forcing other operators on to the same slippery slope. The end result can be a general lowering of standards.
From the point of view of the customer who may hope to gain from a general reduction in rates there are complementary disadvantages. The haulier who is careless in so many respects may have no higher regard for the traffic he is carrying. If he is working harder than he should for a meagre reward, if indeed he can envisage the bankruptcy court at the end of a fairly short road,• a valuable consignment may seem a considerable temptation.
For hauliers to seem too solicitous about the unsuspecting newcomer may seem hypocritical. It is obviously in their interests to keep him out. Their most constructive move is to group themselves in a way which is acceptable to the customer and leaves him with no inclination to look further. There could also be a change of emphasis in the enforcement and• examination procedure. Too often the search for defective vehicles seems to be concentrated on operators who may not be perfect but whose standards are well above the average. More attention could perhaps be paid to the small, obscure operators and particularly those who have not been long in the business.
This week's Show has provided fine examples of vehicles designed to give greater safety and greater reliability as well as greater productivity, In the context of safety the ultimate aim is to reduce the number of accidents. There may be no appreciable change if better and better vehicles are produced at one end of the scale while at the other more crowded end the vehicles go from bad to worse.