No Thought for Tomorrow
Page 61
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EXCEPT those on contract work, which promises an assured minimum revenue, most road transport operators live on hope. It seems to be perpetually justified. The haulier who begins the week with an empty order book finds in a day or two that he is turning traffic away. Their apparent hand-to-mouth existence may account for the easy optimism with which hauliers now look at the political future.
A few months ago, when the return of a Labour.Government seemed certain, and Mr. Hugh Gaitskell, it was rumoured, had already drawn up his list of ministers, hauliers were sufficiently alarmed to start a fund for a pub
licity campaign. Subsequently, the Socialists have not pressed home their advantage. The result of the next election is much more open than it seemed in the spring.
A reasonable inference from this is that the Labour party, if they wish to recover their lead, will have to jettison all superfluous ballast, including the unpopular items in their party programme. No item is more unpopular than nationalization, and many hauliers have come to the conclusion—although they have certainly found nothing at the party's Scarborough conference to encourage them—that nationalization is no longer a live isSue.
Heads in the Sand It is a fault on their part to take no thought for the morrow. The prospect of a Labour government cannot be ruled out. If it does not bring with it-renationalization of long-distance road haulage, and of any other industries returned to private enterprise by the Conservatives, the reason is the public outcry that the very suggestion has
already provoked. , It would be expecting too .much of the propaganda on behalf of the threatened industries to say that it has influenced public opinion, which was already, on the strength of past experience, firmly set against further nationalization. All that was necessary was to make people aware of the danger. Until the situation changes completely, the pressure must be kept up.
To do this, the Road Haulage Association have asked for a propaganda fund. The flow of contributions ought not to depend upon the apparent strength of the Labour party or of that party's intention. The campaign should continue until the whole idea of renationalization has been dropped, and even beyond that time.
Hauliers face many other problems that are not necessarily affected by whichever party is in power, but that can be helped by appropriate publicity. Through no fault of its own, the road haulage industry is drifting into a perilous situation. There is no middle course between expansion and stagnation, and hauliers are finding it more and more difficult to expand. They see themselves as hemmed in between the British Transport Commission and the C-licence holder.
The trader is hardly to be blamed for this state of affairs. Not so long ago, the president of the Traders Road Transport Association, Mr. S. C. Bond, described their policy, with wistful and almost painful accuracy, as one of "nonaggression." The C-licence holder is no enemy of the haulier. He merely wants to be left alone. There is no disguising the fact, however, that his numbers have increased rapidly since the war. There is more than one reason for the increase, but it is partly the measure of the customer's failure to get a sufficiently good service from the professional transport operator. The railways are possibly unable to give the service in any event, and hauliers are prevented from doing so legally
because of the licensing system. This -is in danger of becoming more and more a closed circuit. The new emphasis upon the declaration of normal user that every. applicant for an A or B licence has to make is a depressing guide to what may happen in the future.
The Commission, the other side of the pincer movement in which the haulier is being caught, are his business rivals. They are enemies, even ifat times they show themselves friendly enemies. The haulier's main weapon is a standard of service that has so far proved more attractive for most
kinds of merchandise.• Better . vehicles, improved methods of handling, and a belated start on an adequate system of roads, will enable the haulier to go on improving his service. He must do this to keep ahead of • the railways, who are now beginning to reap the benefit of their ambitious modernization scheme. Goods trains running to a time-table, special wagons travelling overnight between two main towns, Diesel and electric power for locomotives, and continuous braking, are all helping to speed railway deliveries.
• Rail transport is never likely to become as efficient as transport by road, but the gap may narrow over the next 10 years, and in the meantime the railways have other ways in which they can attack the haulier. The licensing system that prevents him from taking up the challenge of the Clicence holder also exposes him to an endless battle with the railways that he cannot win.
Something new from the railway side is •a rate war. According to reports, full advantage is being taken of the abolition of the, old restrictions on charges. Over certain routes, or for certain traffics, the railways are experimenting with schedules that make even the deadliest of cut-throat competition among hauliers look like profiteering. Even the traders who stand to benefit are alarmed, it is ,said, and it is possible to imagine the feelings of British Road Services, who have for so long been the stoutest bulwark against rate-cutting.
The Railways are Dangerous As opposed to hauliers, the railways are in a dangerously powerful position. The public are not likely to object to reductions in prices. The modernization plan has .possibly not caught the public imagination as much as its sponsors may have hoped, but it has had some favourable effect, What is equally important, it has tied the Government to the railways. The present Minister of Transport does not lack courage, but he would hardly be bold enough to stop :the execution of the plan before the promised £1,500m. has been borrowed and .spent. There are limits on the other loans, to cover the .annual deficits until the Commission manage to break even, but it is difficult to see how those limits could be enforced if the Commission were unlucky with their finances, as they so often are. Only a sense of public responsibility Will, stop the railways from being as reckless as they please.
The road haulage industry, if not allowed to expand. will not be permitted to sink into a graceful decline. It must guard against the danger of stagnation and seek public support not merely for a political background. The publicity campaign that ought to be thought about should not be concerned merely with warding off a problematical and remote danger. It is needed to deal with the situation here rand now.