BRITANNIA RULE THE WAVES
Page 67
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VHETHER or not productivity in road haulage is increasing, there is no doubt about the rise in the production rate of arts dealing with the subject. The Prices and Incomes Board, le betraying some reluctance to pronounce on the road hau
rates which were its original terms of reference, confines main recommendations to the possibilities of getting more .k done in a given amount of time. The Traders' Co-ordinating nmittee on Transport, taking a sentence from the Board's Tim report as a springboard, al remedies, some immediate has put forward several additand some long-term.
low comes the report on through sport to Europe from the nomic Development Committee for Movement of Exports. It is conLed with only one aspect of proivity in transport but it is worth close attention of all operators, those who at the moment believe are in no way concerned with movement of traffic overseas. The Id is as full of concentrated nise as a seedbox. Almost every tgraph will be found valuable as Muting point for discussion for e considerable time to come.
45 RECOMMENDATIONS iere are said to be 45 recommendations le report. Each one is carefully marked tction by one or more interests, includ Government departments and arnment-sponsored bodies, trade organims and exporters in general. Subjects red include the significant increase in 'olume of through traffic carried on road :les, the advantage of quoting a delivprice, the development of inland cleardepots, changes needed in the regulations rning the length and weight of articu vehicles, speeding up Customs prore and the further simplification of .rt documentation.
one of the proposals is original. Many hem have been pressed by transport ators for many years. The major signice of the report lies elsewhere than in pecific recommendations. For the first the problems relating to through ;port have been brought together, ysed and documented in a series of 17 ndices, and sent forward for further icy on an official conveyor belt which, ever slowly it may move, will surely not [lowed to stop completely.
nce the effect of the jargon has worn :he very terms of reference given to the :ing party responsible for the report r clearly that there has been some new ,ing on international traffic. The work ing party was asked to examine the problems and possibilities inherent in the through transport concept of UK exports to Europe, with particular reference to unitization, cost and documentation and to make recommendations which would lead to rapid and effective action.
What this means, as the working party hastens to point out, is that because Britain is an island it is at a disadvantage when dealing with continental countries separated only by artificial frontiers. The handicap can best be overcome by a means of transport which can take traffic from the point of origin to the final point of sale with the minimum of trans-shipment and delay. In other words, roll-on/roll-off and container services ought to be encouraged and as far as possible part loads should be grouped into single consignments.
The "through transport concept" is something to which the working party found it possible to react with enthusiasm. Unit transport loads, the report points out, whether by ferry services, pallets or containers, make the exporter's task "basically an extension of the UK home trade delivery system". The involved documents which now have to be raised, the elaborate Customs charade, the swarm of experts involved in the mysteries of shipping and forwarding and dock procedures, could all be considerably reduced or simplified.
THE HINT SHOULD BE PLAIN To the haulier the hint should be plain. Until the first ferry services opened the way he was of necessity the typical little Englander. To those mysterious lands beyond the sea his sober wishes never learned to stray. A normal user in some such terms as "general goods, Great Britain" was the world entire as far as he was concerned. Even when through transport to Europe had become a more familiar concept his first reaction on learning that a foreigner had dared to apply for a British licence was to besiege the Licensing Authority with angry protests.
The report has a slightly ambiguous comment on licensing. There is a need for early decision, it says, on the recommendations for some freeing of the restraint on competition at present imposed by the licensing system. Otherwise negotiations concerning the licensing of vehicles in international trade may be prejudiced by doubts about the British position.
In actual fact the initial difficulties have been resolved and there is now no obstacle to prevent a continental haulier obtaining permission to bring a load into Britain. Perhaps the pleasure it found in its new "concept" led the working party a little further than it intended. What seems evident is that the haulier's attitude towards licensing inevitably must broaden. He must become accustomed to thinking on at least a European scale.
INITIATIVE LIES WITH THE HAULIER The initiative lies with him. The report suggests that the manufacturer for export has a right to know the actual price to be charged at the other end. Without this information he can never be certain that his charges are competitive. In the past it was the responsibility of an agent to arrange the various stages of the journey. The haulier was no more than one link in the chain. He should now think seriously of extending the scope of his service to the customer. This has been done as a matter of course for a long time where smalls traffic crosses the sea by air. Because of his natural affinity with operators providing similar services in other countries the haulier should he in a better position than most to quote a rate for the complete journey.
The report might have gone on to point out that the conquest of the sea by roll-on/ roll-off services and containers actually gives Britain an advantage in that it now has a common frontier with every other country which possesses a seaboard. To point this out too prominently might have been construed as an indirect attack on the project of the Channel tunnel which will do no more than link Britain with France. The report, which wastes few words on any subject, is laconic even by these standards when it comes to consider the tunnel. It was given only brief attention because it is a "long term project", and furthermore, "appears to be being planned mainly for passenger rather than for freight traffic". On this point at least no enthusiasm can be detected.