S.T .R.'s Keen Audience at Cardiff
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O1,1 his first visit to members of A.R.O. in Wales-the occasion was a meeting of the Cardiff Sub-area of the South Wales Area of the Association
S.T,R. had a warm reception. The audience was keen and very interested in the figures he put forward. So far as rates are concerned, hauliers in this area are suffering from direct ratecutting by the railway companies and they are resentful of it. Obstructionist tactics at the docks in Cardiff were also mentioned in this' connection.
Where rate-cutting amongst themselves is concerned, S.T.R. elicited the admission that a good deal of it arises from bluff on the part of the customer. Either he sets one haulier against another or, if that fails, threatens to buy his own vehicles. One of the hauliers present said he had successfully used " The Commercial Motor Tables of Operating Costs" as a means for discouraging a transport user from buying his own vehicles and of persuading him that the rates quoted were just and reasonable. These meetings do serve as a guide to what is uppermost in the minds of haulage contractors 'and it is quite apparent that one subject with which they are greatly concerned, to-day, is the plating of vehicles. Here S.T.R. was able to give them some valuable information.
One of the audience, a C licensee in a big way of business, stated that he had been compelled to buy more vehicles instead of employing hauliers. The reason was that there was not sufficient vehicles available in the district to do his work. In other words, the railway-backed restrictions have been too effective in this area.
Mr. T. R. Downing, the chairman, in introducing S.T.R., said he felt sure he was known to everyone present. The secretary, Mr. Cyril Wyatt, in proposing a vote of thanks, told the meeting that when he asked S.T.R. if he would address the local sub-areas, he received the reply that S.T.R. would attend at any time to suit them, so • long as he was not already booked for work elsewhere.