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A suitable ease for treatment
Page 67
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-10SPITAL patients suspect that the doctor who gives such a Kief glance to their bedfoot charts is looking only for ;onfirmation of his own diagnosis and treatment. Another loctor might put another interpretation on the temperature Ind pulse rate curves.
In the same way, the road transport operator whose state of iealth is being analysed in submissions to the Foster Committee inds that the available information is used to present completely lifferent pictures.
The contrast can be seen very clearly in the commentaries by the 'reight Transport Association and the National Freight Corporation in graphs each has prepared to show changes in the amount of loods carried over the past few years.
The FTA graph is not unlike a fever chart. It shows wide luctuations in the annual totals both for "mainly" public haulage Ind "mainly" own account. To see his progress set out like the ourse of a switchback would certainly alarm the average patient, ven if it left the medical profession unmoved.
As indeed is the FTA.
More significant to the association than the many peaks and roughs is the illustration by the graph that the proportion of traffic
:arried by hauliers, as compared with own-account operators, has -icreased fairly consistently since the introduction of 0 licensing, nd has at least remained constant over the recent period of ecession.
It is a reasonable conclusion that the efficiency of road haulage as not been impaired by the change in licensing 10 years ago, and -let the present difficulties of the road haulage industry are due irimarily to the worsening state of the economy.
As the FTA puts it, in a not altogether successful attempt at onsolation: "Recovery of the economy, coupled with the new onditions of entry to the industry and better enforcement, will ventually solve the problems of road haulage, whether they be of ]owboys" or viability."
Perhaps the own-account operator is better able than the haulier D take this broad philosophical view. It is not one that the NFC finds asy to adopt.
The ETA's graph could, of course, have other interpretations than -le one the FTA chooses. It could be used, for example, to show that as the NFC has told the Foster Committee — "there is undoubtdly over-capacity in the industry at present,'" whatever the istribution of traffic between hauliers and own-account operators "The industry (including own-account provision)," says the 1FC, "is, as a whole, over-resourced for the amount of traffic likely be available over the next year or two."
As may be expected, the graph which the NFC produces to upport this contention would show, in a medical context, chronic ebility rather than high fever. In typical road haulage style, it oncentrates on the lorry, and shows that the amount carried (in )nne-kms) for the average heavy vehicle engaged in road haulage fell consistently (and, in the case of some categories of vehicle, alarmingly) between 1973 and 1976. This trend, as the FTA points out, may be reversed if better times return. The NEC does not wish to wait so long. One of its recommendations is for early action to save the industry from a further slide into insolvency. No such urgency is felt by the FTA. It describes 0 licensing as "a signal success," and wants no changes at the very leastuntil there has been sufficient experience with "the new system of good repute, financial standing and professional competence" On these and other points, the NEC has very different ideas. It does not envisage the new system having any measurable effect for a long time to come, and no spectacular effect even in the long run. Standards should be raised and requirements made more stringent, says the NFC, especially for applicants for standard licences (that is to say, for hauliers). The first licence should be for a probationary period of between 15 and 18 months. Confirmation for the remainder of the normal five-year period would depend upon the satisfactory result of a check on the operator's enforcement record and the financial results of the first year's trading. The NEC has its eye on own-account operators who wish to ply for hire and reward. It recommends that they should be subject to the same financial conditions as may be imposed on hire and reward entrants.
They should also have to satisfy the licensing authority that the business they intend to operate will not be damaging to the industry as a whole. "The extent of such own-account activity," says the NFC, "should be the subject of reporting procedures and carefully monitored."
In the present situation, with "such a volatile and flexible industry as road freight transport," it is further recommended that "reserve powers be taken to regulate the pace of entry to the industry and expansion of licensed capacity for existing holders." These forthright conclusions are reached after a good deal of deliberation, with much weighing of the pros and cons. The NFC evidence is presented so dispassionately that it is easy to forget that the corporation is, after all, part of the industry for which it is prescribing. In that role, it nevertheless has strong arguments for suggesting that road haulage is a suitable case for treatment. On the other hand, and not unexpectedly, the FTA maintains that the haulier only imagines he is sick; that what really counts is whether he is giving a satisfactory service to the user; and on that, as there are remarkably few complaints on this score, the patient should be given a clean bill of health.
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