Co-operate or capitulate
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Road haulage has need of plenty of clear-sighted Ted Smiths at this time. Mr. Smith is the man who, as reported in this issue, has won first prize in an RHA competition with an essay entitled "Towards a better road haulage industry". He is no remote pedlar of panaceas, but an operator of over 40 years' experience who gets to the heart of a good many of the industry's ills.
Throughout his paper runs a theme which is not new (certainly not new to readers of this journal) but which falls too often on deaf ears: the theme of co-operation. Mr. Smith is no Jeremiah, but he puts the proposition squarely, that if small hauliers cannot bury their mutual suspicion and co-operate, particularly on vehicle maintenance, the prospects for them are bleak.
After listing some of the pressures from unions, from legislation and from customer exploitation, he asserts that most RHA members are faced with this choice of solutions: Cease business operations; sell out to a larger haulier or financial combine; or become more effective through being more highly trained. And for the means to achieve the third, and most desirable, solution, he looks to the RHA itself.
This theme is echoed in the report of the competition's judges, when they say that most of the entries reveal a strong feeling that the Association should take a positive and practical lead particularly in sponsoring co-operation among members. There has already been extensive cd-operation in some sectors, notably tipping, but the working party's recommendations of five years ago on the need for greater co-operation among members seem to have borne sadly little fruit.
This year's RHA conference has been given a "new look"; we hope that,when this essay comes up for discussion, enough hauliers will regard it with the new outlook for which the author appeals.