Solving the Problems of the Carrier
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Why Drivers Should be Paid Good Wages
A General Discussion of an Important Subject Coupled with Consideration of the Effects of the Rise in the Scale of Wages Which Has Taken Place in the Course of Four Years
risE subject of wages for drivers of commercial vehicles one which, as I have found 'from almost bitter experience, must be approachedwith circumspection. I have always believed and maintained that good wages should be paid—really good wages, as high as "tan be afforded. That principle, in my opinion, is fundamentally sound in its application to any induStry; it is particularly important in respect of road haulage workers, and for several reasons. , First, there is the fact that every driver occupies a position of trust. He is away fromhis employer's premises, and, therefore, free from supervision, for nearly all of his working hours. The quality of that trust, the degree of responsibility placed upon the driver, varies, of course, within rather wide limits.
It is, perhaps, least in the case of shot hauls, when the driver may return to the depot some half-a-dozen times a -day; it is at its maximum in the case of men engaged on long-distance haulage, when the employer may not make personal contact with his men more than once or twice per week. Moreover, in the latter case the man may be in sole charge of a vehicle and load the value of which may be several thousands of pounds; to cite £.10,000 to-day is not to exaggerate.
Secondly, the driver ot,,a .goods vehicle requires, in many cases, to be a highly skilled man. This is a fact which is quite without realization by those who have no knowledge of the industry: it is unappreciated by many within the industry who should know but do not. It is, as events are daily proving, entirely beyond the understanding of , officials of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, as is evidenced by the type of labour they are recommending in substitution for drivers called up for Service.
Other Duties that are Performed by the Average Driver It may be true to state that almost anyone can drive a 'car, after a little tuition. There is a vast difference, however, between handling a car and driving a lorry, heavily laden, in all weathers, in daylight and darkness. Furthermore, that is not all, because the average lorry driver is also, in many departments of our industry, an experienced loader and packer_ By the exercise of his experience and ability a's a loader —and unloader—he can save his -employer many pounds per week. If he knows how to load, he can quite often carry 20 per cent, more tonnage than could be taken on by an unskilled individual. He can save time—which, in the case of a commercial vehicle, is undoubtedly money—by facilitating the quick turnround of his vehicle. .
By his ability as a packer he can save, perhaps, hundreds of pounds a year in avoiding breakages and consequent claims for damage. It matters not that the claims are covered by insurance: it is the goodwill of the employer that matters here. The customer wants his goods delivered intact and in good condition and if the failure to comply with that requirement becomes general he goes elsewhere for his transport.
-Thirdly, the driver is, quite frequently, his employer's representative. Often enough, the only personal contact is between driver and customer, not principal and customer. The driver's contacts are twofold—at the collecting end of the journey and at its delivery end, too. The driver is sometimes the means for obtaining return loads or, at least, in discovering, for his employer, potential sources of traffic.
In these and many other ways his services can be invaluable, and to a degree hardly to be measured by the yardstick of wages paid—certainly not according to any Order issued under the Road Haulage Wages Act.
I have, at times, had some surprising experiences in regard to the subject of wages. In pre-wages-Act days I used to receive letters from hauliers asking me what rates they should charge. The inquiries embodied information as to the operators' costs and, on more than one occasion, the amount quotedfor driver's wages was' 30s. per week. Needless to state the inquirer, in alluch cases, had his attention drawn to the fact that he, was grossly underpaying his employees, and that I could not possibly deal yvith the subject of rates while that state of affairs continued to exist.
That evil spirit, moreover, is not quite dead. I had a letter the other day from an employer asking me if he was in order in the following matter. His vehicles are on hire to the M.O.NAT.T. under the present Government Haulage Scheme. On that service they run on only two or three days per week. He proposed to pay his drivers the appropriate rate for the time they were employed in driving, but to engage them on other work for the rest of the week at 2d. an hour less.
When the Guaranteed Week Does Not Normally Apply
Seemingly, according to the strict letter of the law,he may take this un-Christian and anti-social step. The appropriate paragraph in R.H. {14), which is a repetition of what has appeared in previous Orders, states that the guaranteed week shall not apply to a worker whose normal employment in the service of the employer substantially includes other work as well as haulage Work. Such h worker shall Se paid in respect of the road haulage work at the appropriate rate for the time spent in such work.
Forthwith, I presume, that this operator will dock his drivers of the 3s. or 4s. per week of their wages, notwithstanding that he expects them to be completely loyal to him. "
Fortunately, such cases are comparatively rare. Most operators, at any rate, abide by the Road Haulage Wages Act in the spirit as well as in the letter.Many, indeed, pay their men wages in excess of those they are required by law to pay. That fact has become apparent recently as the outcome of the operation of the Government Haulage Scheme, the conditions of which had to be modified so that men who had been drawing wages in excess of the standard should suffer no loss----which is as it should be.
Indeed, the relationship between masters and men in th,e road haulage industry is better than it is in most industries. That applies particularjy with regard to the small and medium-size undertakings, where the contacts between employees and employer, far from being impersonal, are often most friendly. They share one another's troubles and triumphs, each being ready to help the other with advice and, sometimes, more substantially. The employer is Tom to his man, the man Bill to his employer.
As I write I have a letter before me from an operator who is a "hired undertaking." FIe is seriously perturbed as to the ultimate effect of continuing to operate under the Government scheme, at the present rates. His drivers, who, of course, are as well aware as he is of the sums he is receiving on account of his Work for the Ministry, are vocal in their objections and emphatic in their views that something should be done to improve matters. •
Two points arise from this. First, that it might be a. good thing for hauliers to en:ist the aid of their drivers in the fight they are putting' up against control in general and the Minist,ry scheme in particular. That is not entirely my own idea; it has been mooted to me several times and froth different quarters. I am inclined to agree.
Secondly, that if the industry ever be subject to any form of public control or nationalization-which heaven forfend-this spirit of co-operation, so strong to-aay and so helpful in getting things done in the transport world, will entirely disappear. The driver of to-day works for and with a man: the same spirit cannot be envisaged in respect of an inanimate corporation or an aloof redstapebound State.
The foregoing is the broader aspect of the subject of this week's article. Now for the particular view, the purely economic aspect of those so-frequent additions to the scale.
Schedule Modification%Made Over a Period of Years The most numerous of the categories of vehicle included in the schedule of wages as applied to the Provinces is that having a carrying capacity in excess of 3f tons and up to and including 12 tons gross laden weight. For that the wages, as set out in the first Order made under the Act, R.H. (2), were: Grade I, 23 8s., Grade II, £3 4s., Grade III, ..£3. That scale was in force front January 29, 1940, until May 5 of the same year.
In May, 1940, R.H. (4) came into force, and with it a new scale of wages as follows, for the type of vehicle specified: Grade I, £3 13s.-a rise of 5s.; Grade II, £3
a rise of 4s.; Grade III, £3 3s.--a rise of 3s. The grading of the increaSes is of intereSt, in the light of subsequent events. , R.H. (4) was superseded, in December, 1940, by R.H. (6), the wages scales therein set out being: -£3 16s. 6d., £3 us. 6d. and £3 6s. 6d. for the three grades. In all cases the increase was 3s. 6d, per week. It is important to note that, in one year, three increases became effective (I count the first schedule as embodying a rise, as was so in the majority of cases).
From December, 1940, there was, comparatively speaking, a lull. RI-L(6) continued in force until August 26,
1941, when R.H. (8) came into force, with the following scales: £4 Os. 6d., £3 15s. 6d. and £3 10s. 6d. Once again, the amount of the increase, 4s. per week, was the same for all in Grades I, II and HI.
After the lapse of another 10 months, R.H. (10) came into operation in June, 1942. That did not, however, involve any increase in basic scales. Its principal purpose was to sweep away certain anomalies, particularly with regard to the wages of youths, of men engaged in the furniture, warehousing and removing industry and the employment of women.
Five months afterwards, however, in November, 1942, further increases were agreed, and were set out in R.H. (12). The aforesaid scales then became £4 Sc., £3 185. 6d. and RS 14s. respectively. It is of interest to note that the increase in the Grade I scale was 2s. 6d., in Grade II 3s, and in Grade III 3s. 6d. That is the reverse of what happened when the first increase was made. Then it was Grade I drivers who benefited most And Grade III drivers who derived the least advantage.
By the time that these words appear in print yet another rise in the wages of road haulage workers will have become operative. R.H. (14) became effective on December 6. It raises the remuneration of Grade I workers by 2s. 6d. per week to £4 5s. 6d. that of Grade II workers by 3s. to £4 Is. 6d., and of Grade III workers by 3s. 6d. to £3 17s., 6d.
What_ these increases. have meant, in rather less than four years, can hest be shown as follow:--Grade I, from £3 8s. to £4 5s. 6d.; Grade II, from 43 4s. to m is. 6d.; Grade III from £3 to £3 17s. 6d. The net total increase in all these grades is 17s. 6d. per week. Expressed as percentages, the additions are: Grade I, 25, Grade II, 27i, Grade III, 30.
It is, of course, no secret that most employers, including even some of those who are most favourably disposed towards the payment of -good wages, are somewhat perturbed at the frequency with which these requests for wages increases occur. They are apparently helpless in the matter, at present. It is the view of many that there is no real justification for the rate of increase.
The difficulty in assessing the fairness or otherwise of any wages scale is the absence of any standard, of any qualitative way, of measuring the value-Tor-money consideration. A favourite method is to compare the cost of living at the relevant times when the increases take place. If that be the measure, then there appears to be scant justification.
Cost of Living Figure and Haulage Workers' Wages According to figures issued by the Ministry of Labour and National Service, the cost ofliving in January, 1940, when the Road Haulage Wages Act mine into force, was 74 per cent, more than it was in July, 1914, whereas to-day it is 99 to 100 per cent_ more than on that critical date. It means that to-day the tost• of living is 15 pee cent. higher than it was in January, 1940. That compares with 25, 27i and 30,per cent, increases in the wages paid to road haulage workers. On the face of it, there would seem to be some justification for the plaint that these wages have risen too fast and too far.
Before that conclusion pe accepted. however, it must be agreed that the wakes fixed in January, 1940, were sufficient, fair and reasonable, having regard to the cost of living at that time. The contrary may actually be presumed from the,fact that the first schedule of wages was apparently designed as only an interim scale. It was to be revised in May and that revision, as has already been noted, duly occurred.
If I take the May, 1940, figures and assume that they ought to have applied in January of the same year, I must make my calculation of percentage increases anew, on that basis. The figures aret 17 per cent. for Grade I, 20 per cent. for Grade II and 23 per cent. for Grade III. Even then the wages scales to-day would seem to be high, if they be judged by the standard of cost of living.
Actually, of course, there is no justification for taking that standard, at least for the individual. There may. nevertheless, be something in the argument that the cost of living should be the yardstick for basic rates of wages, leaving the individual the opportunity to earn more if he deserves it, so that a good driver can demand a rate in excess of that paid to his fellows who are not so good.
Whether these scales of wages can be so treated, or whether they are, in fact, the maximum, amounts which can economically be paid to good drivers, depends on many things, in particular upo'n the employers' point of view. That is something with In hi•ch I hope to deal in the next article. S.T.R.