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44 °TABLE changes in railway organization and management will follow the passing of the new Transport Act, whereas the Road Traffic Act, important though my of its provisions may be, offers no prospect of any t the most minor changes in the structure of the road .nsport industry. From the commonsense point of view,
s is as it should be. Obviously, the railway situation mot be allowed to drift; if the Government's plan does
t meet with universal approval, at least it can hardly said that it is not drastic. On the other hand, there :ms to be nothing wrong with road transport that an equate highway system will not put right, so that there ght to be no great compulsion for sweeping reforms. Neither of the Opposition parties in Parliament holds this inion, and so far as one can tell neither of them has mdone so. Throughout the changing years, their wish revolutionize road haulage in particular has remained nstant. Equally, their motives remain obscure. This nil it is possible to understand—that certain features in : structure of the road haulage industry are alien to :ir party philosophy. But the same thing must apply to iny other industries that are still not under the continual -eat of obliteration should there happen to be a change Government.
iHAT is curious about the attitude of Socialists and )erals towards road haulage is that they regard it as )endable. As far as they are concerned, it might almost L exist. Their state of mind is not unfamiliar to those )ple who can remember the early days of nationalization. that time, especially within the British Transport Comssion as distinct from its Executives, there was a feeling euphoria. Everything had miraculdusly come to be for best in the best of all possible worlds, and the impresn created was that previously there had virtually been transport industry at all.
[he exaltation did not last long. The reaction was rked first by recrimination and reproaches, and later by 'eeling of disillusion. Most of the practical men have ne to acknowledge,. at any rate to themselves, that their h hopes were mistaken, and that what was destroyed y have been better than what took its place. As far as be seen, • however, few of the politicians have had a filar change of heart.
HE Labour Party now have some reservations about the insport Act, 1947. If they were again steering it through iiament it would be a very different measure. However
basic principles would not be touched. Most of the endments would be aimed at ensuring that the wild tribes -ond the pale, such as the C licence holders, would not Mowed to disturb the implementation of those principles. :h a few such additional turns of the screw, the Socialists lid very likely reintroduce something very much like ir old legislation if ever they had the chance.
t seems never to have dawned upon them, or if so they e never had the slightest regret, that in 1947 they wiped forever a long-distance road haulage industry that, ording to the customers, was providing a highly efficient Ace.
lecause of those customers, the Conservatives were
constrained to reverse part of the process set in train by the Socialists. Inevitably, the new road haulage industry thus created was not an exact copy of the one that had been destroyed, although there is no reason for supposing it is not just as good. At the end of the expropriation and the restitution, the trader was no worse off than when the process began, but that at least was something.
The unrepentant Socialists have no intention of letting the trader continue to have what he wants. Odder still, although they have twice been confronted with an efficient road haulage industry, they refuse to allow it the right to exist. They would abolish it as if it were not worth having, in the service of a principle that they have no evidence would work satisfactorily.
So far as one can tell, the policy of the Liberal Party is equally destructive. Among a number of proposals, of which politicians in all parties might well approve, they have inserted their contention that the widest possible choice of transport would be provided, among other things, by abolishing road haulage licences. The idea is not new. It has been canvassed among certain sections of the Conservative Party as well as by the Liberals. But as a serious contribution to the transport problem, it makes no more sense than the equally hackneyed plan of the Socialists.
In due course, the Liberals may elaborate their idea, and explain what reasons they have for holding it beyond an obvious affinity with a doctrine of laissez faire. As far as one can see, unless some other kind of restriction is to be imposed, the immediate effect would be a considerable increase in the number of goods vehicles. As it is, a constant complaint by hauliers, supported by the reports of many of the licensing authorities, is the large number of vehicles operating without a licence; and there is seldom any slackening in the queue of new applicants in the traffic courts.
IF no licences were needed, the ranks of the hauliers would be almost doubled within a short space of time, and although many of the newcomers would soon go out of business, this could hardly be regarded as a satisfactory state of affairs. There is little prospect that the influx of new and inexperienced hauliers would induce many traders to give up their own transport, especially if they themselves were given the right to carry goods for other people.
Hauliers would hardly expect to be better off_ The fact that they oppose entry into their industry is an indication of their belief that the licensing system operates to their benefit. They have built up their industry around it. In their opinion it is an efficient industry and they have abundant supporting evidence from the people they serve. The Liberal party must be made to realize that, in expunging the licensing system, they are abolishing the road haulage industry, or at least altering its character fundamentally. The two Opposition parties are pursuing diametrically opposite policies. The Socialists would allow nobody to be a haulier; the Liberals would give that right to everybody. Both parties seem not to care about what happens to the road haulage industry actually in being.