Traders Criticize State Transport
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COMPLAINTS about delays in transport by British Road Services are being made by users in the Midlands and on Merseyside. A Birmingham correspondent reports that C-licence fleets in the Midlands are increasing because delays and high costs make the use of State transport facilities uneconomic.
The managing director of a Birmingham company said: "It is pretty hopeless to send our goods by nationalized transport, so we are running our own ,
lorries. Delays at the depots while loads are made up are the chief trouble. For our type of goods, it puts 10 per cent. on the costs to send them by nationalized road transport."
An example he cited was a journey from Birmingham to Sheffield, for which the railway charge was £3 per ton, the charge by British Road Services being 57s. 6d, per ton. The rate from a private-enterprise haulier would be 30s. per ton, but this manufacturer claimed that the cost of haulage in his own vehicles was 15s. per ton. Fleets of lorries are being built up by some of the larger companies. One concern, with several factories near a30 Birmingham, has bought its own lorries because the goods it makes require specially built vehicles which the British Transport Commission is unable to provide.
There is also some ill-feeling against the nationalized industry. Some manufacturers will not have State-owned vehicles in their works.
Complaint about delays has also been made by users in the Liverpool area, writes a Liverpool correspondent. The transport manager of one company said that transport by road was much worse than it was two years ago. In the days of competition, hauliers gave delivery on time. Nowadays, a guarantee of delivery meant nothing.
An official of the Road Haulage Association stated that it was often mistaken for the Road Haulage Executive. and many complaints of long delays in deliveries came its way. The consignee often did not know whom to contact about the goods he expected.
Mr. W. A. Bridge, Liverpool district manager of the Executive, commented that the R.H.E. was trying to run transport on commercial lines. Vehicles were receiving a higher standard of maintenance than before the war.