Peter Walker outlines Tory thinking on transport
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By Our Political Correspondent CONTINUED control of the road haulage system and a 10-point new deal• for the bus industry were advocated by Mr. Peter Walker, the Conservative spokesman on transport, in a major policy speech at Swinton College last weekend.
Ranging over the whole transport field, he gave an audience of party workers an outline of current thinking within the Conservative planning machine.
It was a development and expansion of the exclusive interview with Mr. Walker published by COMMERCIAL MOTOR just after Labour's transport White Paper was published last year.
He told his audience: "Transport is one of the great keys to our commercial future. It is my intention to see the next Conservative government is ready and prepared with a dynamic policy that will speedily and effectively be put into operation".
Road haulage: The Conservatives believe, said Mr. Walker, that the economics of transport were such that the majority of journeys under 150 miles were likely to continue by road.
The country therefore needed an efficient, enterprising and expansionist road haulage industry, free of restrictive practices both by employers and employees.
Road haulage should also continue to compete with the railways, with industrialists using their own vehicles, and within itself. Hauliers must not be protected unnecessarily by a licensing system, but everyone was agreed that the present set-up must be changed.
What was required was a system where high standards of vehicle maintenance had to be observed—and likewise proper standards of employment conditions for drivers.
"It should be possible," Mr. Walker said, "to create a system whereby any person wishing to operate a lorry for the haulage of his own goods would be free to do so.
"But the lorry owner wishing to provide his services for the transport of other goods would first have to obtain a probationary licence. During the period of this probationary licence, which could be for either one or two years, the probationer would be subject to numerous checks on the standards of maintenance of his vehicles and to the showing (by production of appropriate evidence) that his operation was solvent and that he was aware of the legal conditions applying to the employment of labour in the haulage industry.
"If during the one or two years the probationer had been under close observation he proved himself a responsible haulier, he would be granted a full licence, but thereafter his licence would always be in jeopardy if he failed to maintain proper standards of vehicle maintenance and employer-employee relationships.
"Under such a system there would be no fear of irresponsible elements entering road haulage and lowering the standard. Indeed, if anything, standards would be maintained at an even higher level than those existing today.
"For the existing C licence holder who wished to obtain a full licence, there would be the need to comply with the same conditions and examinations as would apply to the independent haulier."
Mr. Walker hit at restrictive practices against
which action was needed. Working to 40 m.p.h. schedules where applicable—and the use of re cording devices should not only be permitted but positively encouraged as a means of sensible management control.
Likewise, every fleet should be made to achieve greater flexibility of shift working and throughthe-week working along the lines suggested by the P and I Board.
And, he indicated, the Conservatives would certainly restore to road haulage some form of investment allowance for commercial vehicles, so as to encourage the maximum modernization of fleets.
"As to the Selective Employment Tax—i would not seek to alter it but to abolish it, and provide a much more sensible system of taxation altogether,he said.
Buses: Mr. Walker put forward a 10-point programme for cheaper and more effective bus transport:—
• Restore the investment allowances, thereby cutting costs and encouraging the use of modern one-man buses.
• Abolish SET so that the industry does not have to keep giving the Government an interestfree loan.
• Organize the payment of the fuel tax rebate so that it is not paid in arrears.
• Provide a greater differential in the quality of bus transport, e.g. "standing only" at low fares from housing estates to nearby factories.
• Eliminate restrictive practices to hurry up one-man buses. wiping out the absurdity of schedules not being kept through lack of labour when within the industry there was an appalling over-employment of labour.
• Use eat-rate fare systems wherever possible, thus reducing the big administrative overheads of differential systems.
• Free the main routes at peak hours from parked. loading and unloading vehicles.
• Free bus stops from adjacent parked vehicles at all times, by giving properly qualified bus inspectors powers similar to traffic wardens.
• Alter the licensing system so that Dormobiles and mini-buses can be provided by local garage proprietors to link rural areas with major bus routes.
• Study town central areas carefully with a view to providing bus-only lanes to prevent delay and congestion.
Mr. Walker touched on many other points affecting commercial vehicles.
On the roads, legislation should recognize that lane discipline and road craft were as important, if not more important, than speed. Computers should be used to adjust speed limits higher or lower as conditions allowed. A national parking programme was needed.
Big cities and towns should also have a Traffic Commissioner whose job would be to keep the traffic moving.
About 250 other trainees should be put through a crash course to learn the principles of proper signposting.
As many road schemes as possible should be financed by loans paid back by tolls, he added. Larger local authorities than those of today should also be able to sell road bonds to pay for local improvements.
On road pricing, Mr. Walker said: "I have yet to be convinced of the practical possibilities of such a system".
Mr. Walker saw little to be gained from the vague suggestions of Conurbation Transport Authorities "which appear to have as their one purpose the taking over of all the bus companies by a combination of local authorities".
He was convinced that the co-ordination of timetables, schedules between different bus companies and between buses and trains could be easily achieved by committees of executives without the massive bureaucracy that could well be created by the CTA concept.
Mr. Walker outlined a series of proposals designed to win the railways additional traffic from the roads, and release the nation from the burden of deficits exceeding £.130 million a year.
He urged the dynamic, full development of Freightliners and the sweeping aside of the "ridiculous and absurd restrictive practices preventing lorries delivering to the terminals unless they are BR or BRS".
He called for more container construction to combat the shortage, and for shipping companies, British Railways and road haulage interests to get together to plan inland container terminals.
The creation of Freightliner terminals on the ring roads of major towns, cutting the need for road journeys through congested city centres, was another of his suggestions.
He warned that the Chunnel would become less atrractive the longer its start was delayed. For maximum value, we needed a quick start not only on the tunnel, but on the feeder roads and railways as well.
Finally, he had this word for British industry in a fast-changing world of transport: "It is vital that industry recognizes the need for skilled management in their transport arrangements.
"Too often transport is the Cinderella of the industrial organization. Production and sales enjoy dominance—but, while both are of obvious importance, the speed, method and efficiency of the collection and delivery of goods is a very large factor in both the overhead cost and overall performance of the manufacturer.
"I would like to see many more places provided in the boardrooms of British industry for the skilled and up-to-date transport manager."