JANUS
Page 74
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. . regret that what the unions
WRITES have to say cannot be taken
completely at its face value'
ASKED for his views on rearing chickens, the fox replied that he would rather eat them, but indicated his willingness to put forward one or two suggestions within the context of the inquiry. He would make sure that only the best specimens were retained; he would keep them under close supervision; he would treble the number of inspectors; he would see that the chickens adhered closely to the rules about diet, hours of rest and so on, and he would clip the wings of all the other birds unless they could prove that they were inedible.
"What would happen .to the chickens after all that?" was the next question.'
." Well then I suppose I should eat them", said the fox.
Less naïve than this, the Trades Union Congress manage to choke back the conelusion that their plans for licensing, submitted as evidence to the Geddes Committee, would provide an admirable prelude to nationalization. They cannot refrain at the outset from expressing the opinion. not strictly germane to licensing, that a "co-ordinated transport system" should be created. That they hold this opinion is in any event notorious. It is natural therefore to suspect that their evidence, even without conscious intent, would point in the direction which they favour.
PREFERENCE FOR THE A LICENCE
They show a preference for the A licence because the difficulty of obtaining it has kept the number of A-licensed vehicles down to reasonable proportions. By " reasonable is meant apparently an increase of less than 7 per cent in the quarter of a century between 1938 and 1963. Anything above that figure is to be deplored. B licences have risen by -one-third. A-contract vehicles by more than 200 per cent, and C-licensed vehicles by 235 per cent. The conclusion is that these methods of entry into road transport should be closed. Only the A licence would remain much as before. The C licence, even if it were still described by that name, would be subject to proof of need in much the same way as the A licence.
Within this restrictive framework, the unions appear to be very much in sympathy with the hauliers, even to the extent of condemning the so-called F licence. Intense competition and rate-cutting are "still going on despite the efforts of the more responsible type of haulier to prevent it ", say the T.U.C. The B licence encourages rate-cutting, particularly where operators are merely seeking to supplement the income from their normal business by taking work away from A-licence operators. The A-contract licence provides a convenient means of entry into this general haulage field" for hauliers who cannot obtain A licences or have had their licences withdrawn for failure to observe the conditions.
The rapid growth of C-licensed vehicles has seriously undermined the intentions of the 1933 Act ", the T.U.C. continue. They should not be allowed to undertake "work which could be more effectively performed by general hauliers ". The C hiring allowance has developed into an "expedient for the convenience of firms which want the e42 best of two worlds: that is to say, the direct control of staff without the responsibility of buying and maintaining vehicles for their business. The authorities responsible for seeing that the regulations are observed have to deal with one party on wages, drivers' hours and records, and another party on vehicle maintenance.
REGULATIONS ',WIDELY DISREGARDED'
it is, in fact, the observance, or non-observance, of the law which is the main concern of the T.U.C. in their evidence.. The regulations are widely disregarded" and the only remedy is a substantial increase in the penalties. These might include the permanent withdrawal of the owner's operating licence, and of the driver's licence where he is actively collaborating in evading the law. There must also be a more-than-threefold increase, from less than 150 to not less than 500, in the number of enforcement officers.
The document submitted to the Geddes Committee might almost be an account by an established haulier of one of his dreams in which, according to the followers of Freud, naked desire peeps through the normal rational and commonsense policy. How much easier it would be for the haulier if his customers could be prevented from using their own vehicles and if an army of officials could be created to repress unauthorized competition! in his waking. moments the haulier does not ask for these privileges and probably does not want them. It must be strange to find the latent content of his wildest dreams revealed to him by the organizations representing his employees.
THE ULTIMATE WISH
The awakening agent is the realization that the .unions concerned, which include the National Union of Railwaymen as well as the Transport and General Workers' Union, may not be quite so much concerned with his welfare as it seems. Their ultimate wish is for some measure of state control over and above licensing. It would be all the more easy to put this into effect if there were only one type of road haulage licence, closely supervized both locally and by a national licensing authority; and if the trader or manufacturer had also to prove need before he was granted a C licence. Hauliers are bound to give due consideration to this point before they acknowledge the T.U.C. evidence as a friendly gesture.
Nor will it escape the attention of the Geddes Committee. There is cause for regret that what the unions have to say cannot be taken completely at its face value. The workers have an important part to play in the road transport industry. The evidence shows that the subject has been studied carefully and that a good deal of useful information has been assembled. However, if the primary object of the T.U.C. is to protect drivers against bad employers. it could surely have been achieved without the wholesale restrictions proposed, which would be more appropriate if the unions were mainly concerned with clearing a primrose path to nationalization.