Beware of VACUUM
Page 37
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Says P. A. C. Brockington, A.M .I.M ech.E. For the Most Part, the Westcountry Hauliers Have Not Been Deprived of Permits, But They are Insufficiently Awake to the Truth That a Privilege Can Be
Withdrawn"
SOME of the hauliers in the West Country have a sense of security, born of long association with an unchanging scene. With the appointed day safely past, future uncertainties are linked to a philosophical acceptance of national and international disturbances considered to be outside the understanding of the normal human being. An enemy must appear in devilish form to be recognized as such.
A recent tour that I made of the south-western counties and of South Wales suggested that, for the most part, the West-country hauliers have not been deprived of permits, but they are insufficiently awake to the truth that a privilege can be withdrawn., They are living in a vacuum of apparent immunity from interference, but they do not realize that a vacuum can have the destructive effect of high pressure. I heard praise in some areas for the co-operative attitude of the Road Haulage Executive and my native pride as a Westcountryman was roused at the thought that one cannot break good neighbourliness by division of interests.
Groups That Failed There are no groups in the west, although they have been tried. There was a potato group in Cornwall which failed, so it was said, because the hauliers were more willing to take than to give. The defunct pool in Bristol collapsed apparently for the same reason. Are we to apply the qualification, typical of the criticisms of grouping in both the Midlands and South Wales, that co-operation between the independents will be fully developed only when there is no other way of getting business? It may then be too late.
In the Midlands, the pattern is there and the achievements to date have been of marked value in terms of present gain and ground work for future expansion. In South Wales, grouping is already highly functional and in those areas outside its range the idea is accepted and generally approved. Suspicion has been and still is the bogy, but it has been shown that it can be overcome if there be a group leader who is impartial, who " lives " transport and has a knowledge of his subject against a background of the country's economics, without becoming indifferent to local troubles.
One South Wales haulier proclaimed to me that the R.H.E. would kill the independent, and added as an afterthought that the Executive would then realize its mistake and beg all and sundry to take a pocketful of long-distance permits as a gift from a repentant foster parent. This ingenuous remark was not pure wishful thinking; there was possibly some substance in it.
Certain impressions which I gained in South Wales have since been in part confirmed by the opinions of old-established independents elsewhere. Apart from making a general grab at all paying types of shortdistance traffic, the R.H.E. must concentrate on that portion of it which provides the lorries with local work to fill in the running time that would otherwise be wasted. Against this there is some long-distance traffic which the B.R.S. managers would rather do without.
Implicit in the concept of efficiency as applied to emergency haulage requirements is the slumbering
operator with one ear near a telephone, the fond father who will forsake the Sunday playtime and the realist wife who will lend a willing hand. If a new engine must be fitted before the only available lorry can leave, the delay is merely a few hours. if a new loading technique must be mastered, it is mastered.
Possibly the R.H.E. would like to keep some of these people extant to fill the gaps. To know that someone else will meet the rush calls may save the cost of several stand-by vehicles. It would be dangerous to give too much encouragement, but perhaps it would be better for the R.H.E. to have a restrictable haulier doing the job than to prompt further increases in C-licence fleets.
A process of attrition in the granting of permits is characteristic of the R.H.E.'s methods in those areas where the B.R.S. can provide a service. Whilst a casual glance at a permit may suggest that the R.H.E. has been generous, a careful analysis often reveals that limitations on the goods to be carried preclude any hope of a worth-while profit. To reduce a haulier to a state of impotency without arousing public antipathy is the obvious objective, but this doesnot necessarily disprove the premise that the R.H.E. would like to make use of the independent, given that he was meekly submissive. Cunning disrupts the perspective of those who practise it; the free haulier, by inter-working and other devices, may yet profit by the lion's preoccupation with its own cleverness.
Perishables Arrive Late The stories that I heard about late deliveries by B.R.S. vehicles of perishable crops from South Wales to the Midlands, correspond to complaints in other parts of the country. The free haulier, deprived of his permits, grits his teeth and attempts to regard the lilies of the field with awakened appreciation. The traders study their books and count the cost. The housewife pays a little more for a little less without knowing why.
It may be sound politics to portray the fate of the free haulier as dependent upon an election result. My recent tour strengthened my conviction that independent operators will survive as a strong, if sadly diminished, entity, whatever party is in power. The West-country haulier may not yet be fully aware of the insidious encroachments of bureaucracy; the South Wales operator may be inclined to lose heart when he reads of the wonders of the nationalized service in local Press advertisements; both may fear that group action would entail loss of liberty. But they all know that they represent one of the indispensable elements in the economy of the country if it is to survive as a democracy.