Towards Inter-working
Page 62
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FEW of the long-distance operators who came into view as the dust of disposal settled down imagined they would be able to make their way in complete independence. , They could hardly fail to see the advantages of co-operation with each other. Many of them had served their term with British Road Services, and had come to appreciate the value of having colleagues all over the country.
The movement towards inter-working was inevitable. Not so long ago, encouraging progress was being made, and the fruits of experience under nationalization were being put to good account. More recently, the movement has hung fire. This is regrettable and surprising at a time when operators are beginning to wake up to the possible danger from railways that are about to shed all but a remnant of their somewhat gimcrack rate schedules, and are well on the way with plans to bring their equipment up to date. . Hauliers may have made the mistake of thinking they can do everything at once. They have started by examining schemes that generally involve setting up report stations and clearance centres for traffic all over the country. Each scheme has its objectionable features, and fails to provide details on points where they are most required. Hauliers are quick to spot the impractical and visionary. They find fault with one scheme after another, and are inclined to conclude that inter-working is a dream engendered by too much contemplation in the Ivory Tower.
Break the Ice There are degrees of inter-working. The first step is to provide operators with addresses at which their vehicles can call for return loads. Little more is involved than the compilation of a list. The Road Haulage Association have been useful at this stage, if only to break the ice. As an earnest of good faith, to put it no higher, the haulier wants some kind of introduction to the person from whom he hopes to get traffic. The man with traffic wants some kind of assurance that the haulier will not filch away his customer. Common membership of an association is no tangible guarantee to either side in the negotiation, but at least it provides a common point of reference.
After a somewhat cautious probing into the subject, the R.H.A. have provided machinery by setting up a long-distance hauliers' committee. In character, it is more like what the Association usually describe as a functional group. It derives sustenance, not so much from the subject with which it deals, as from groups of like-minded members in each area, who, in theory at least, appoint the representatives on the national committee.
The structure is important. It enables the committee to act as a group, and to deal with all matters where the affairs of its constituents can be clearly separated from those of the road haulage industry as a whole. The dividing line is not so clear as it is for the Association's ordinary groups. The carrier of liquids in bulk, for example, can much more easily define his special interests.
There is no description of a long-distance haulier that would be instantly acceptable by all concerned. To name the point at which a distance becomes long would defy the intelligence of an Einstein. Type and size of D22 vehicles may help a little, but the goods carried are of every possible size. On the other hand, without the aid of a yardstick, one has no difficulty in recognizing a long-distance operator. The distinction is one of kind rather than degree, and those members of the R.H.A. who regard themselves as long-distance hauliers were justified in pressing for their own group within the larger organization, so that they could get together to discuss their own problems.
One move, accelerated by the need to avoid empty running while fuel was rationed, was the publication of a directory of long-distance operators. It was primarily an internal publication. That is to say, it was intended to introduce members to each other, to provide them with a list of addresses at which their vehicles could call, mainly for return loads while the fuel situation remained grave, but presumably in more normal times for other purposes as well.
The directory provides names; it does not supply guarantees. There is as yet no approved code of conduct for long-distance hauliers, although their committee is believed to be framing one. By contrast, the clearing house section of the R.H.A. gives guarantees, in the form of a code of conduct, but does not offer many names.
Code of Conduct At this first stage of inter-working, the clearing house is hardly distinguishable from the long-distance operator with a leaning towards sub-contracting. The haulier, who in any case may not be greatly disposed to make the distinction, should feel that he is getting an improved service. If he has a fancy for a code of conduct, there are clearing houses who have signed the necessary undertaking. If he dislikes clearing houses, as he sometimes does, there are other operators on whom he can call, with the prospect that in due course they also will agree to be bound by certain rules.
The next stage may not be as easy to achieve as it seems. There are signs that the long-distance operators are becoming introspective. They are asking themselves to what extent they are clearing houses, and whether they ought to be. They are pursuing the will-o'-the-wisp of the perfect rates schedule. They are worried about whether they themselves, let alone their colleagues, will be able to stand up to the challenge of a code of conduct: Perhaps the mood will last no longer than the time it takes to produce a revised issue of the directory. In sorting out the extent to which the claims made by operators in the original issue correspond to reality, the long-distance committee will be able to build up a more and more accurate picture of the resources available to their section of the industry.
Many of them have already gone much further. They have arrangements with other operators, whereby not only are garage and other facilities used in common, but the premises of one haulier become in effect the depot of his associate. More specialized operators, such as those engaged in the carriage of parcels, livestock and liquids in bulk, are making similar arrangements. The extension of inter-working means the adoption of these arrangements by as many operators as possible, and there should be no great difficulties unless they are artificially created.