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Road haulage's 'Welsh wizard' communicator

11th August 1984, Page 26
11th August 1984
Page 26
Page 27
Page 26, 11th August 1984 — Road haulage's 'Welsh wizard' communicator
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Like many of his countrymen in politics, Glyn Samuel is a skilled communicator. For a prospective chairman of the Road Haulage Association and someone with considerable involvement in industrial relations, that can only be an asset. Jack Semple met him

YORK is famous for its Minster, chocolates, and shambles (narrow streets full of craft shops and tourists traps). With Rowntrees running its own lorry fleet, as does nearby Tadcaster brewery, there is not a great deal of hire-and-reward haulage about.

The area has just one large general haulier, the colourfully named Flowers Transport. It was originally founded within the walled inner city, but moved eight years ago to the village of Shipton-by-Beningbrough, five miles away.

Flowers is a significant employer, with 60 drivers and 250,000 sq ft of high-quality warehousing, much of which is used for sugar storage. It is owned by Midpeak Holdings, a regional subsidiary of Transport Development Group, and is also a member of the Transport Association, the loose association of about 60 hauliers spread throughout Britain.

But Flowers' fame as a general haulier and warehousing company owes as much to its managing director of the past nine years, Glyn Samuel, as it does to its local importance.

Mr Samuel has been a leading figure in the Road Haulage Association for some years now. He was number two on the industrial relations committee when he was closely involved in trying to settle the 1979 national drivers' strike. He has been committee chairman for the past three years, and resigned last month following his election in May as national vicechairman (when he was succeeded by London haulier Peter May).

He is a past chairman of the Transport Association and the now defunt York and District Assenting Hauliers Group and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Transport. Originally from Swansea, Mr Samuel retains a soft Welsh accent which becomes harder as he gets roused.

He has a natural habit of plain speaking, whether it be about hauliers (he makes no pretence that RHA members are whiterthan-white), companies which buy haulage services, trade unions, environmentalists and politicians, which wins him as many opponents as friends. He sustains strong enthusiasm for road transport which stops short of sentiment, at least as far as business is concerned.

But it is for his embroilment with industrial relations that Mr Samuel is best known. He is a strong believer in communication with unions and recently tried, without success, to revive the York area negotiating body. "Even talking to trade unions causes some RHA members severe concern. They are afraid it is a sign of weakness. I think this is nonsense," he declared.

"There is always room for consultation. It is too late when people have been driven into corners. The actual issue then gets lost. Both sides of the industry would benefit from regular consultation."

Hauliers and the haulage unions have a lot in common besides rates of pay and conditions of employment, particularly with the resurgence of the anti-lorry and anti-roads lobbies, he believes. The RHA and the unions have a common interest in resisting severe lorry restrictions like the Greater London Council's proposed ban and in fighting for more resources for motorway construction and repairs.

It was the Transport and General'Workers Union that broke away from national negotiations for road haulage drivers, Mr Samuel observed, although it has now been pressing for more than a year to have national talks reinstated. There is increasing pressure on industrial relations policy from the grass roots on both sides, he told me.

On the RHA side, some members want national talks, others local talks, and some want no collective negotiations whatever. Mr Samuel said he has strong doubts that the TGWU membership wants national talks.

The major obstacle to effectiveness of national talks, he conceded, is making sure that employers pay at least the agreed rate when there is no legal obligation on them to do so.

Mr Samuel is a strong believer in local Joint Industrial Councils, where the two sides of the industry meet regularly to discuss pay and conditions. The system has fallen into disrepute in many parts of the country. This is partly because of inexperienced negotiators on the RHA side: "There should be certain guidelines from the employers' point of view. The negotiators should be lorry operators for a start. They should run their own fleet, rather than be RHA associate members, own-account operators or clearing houses."

They should be trained in collective negotiations also, he said. Anyone who thinks they can just walk into negotiations without preparation should stay well clear. After all, the negotiators on the union side are well trained, as a matter of course.

For the sake of peace and quiet, employers in negotiation are liable to concede improvements on pay and conditions which seem reasonable at the time, Mr Samuel believes. But some have little experience or recognition of the true costs of their operation, and find that they cannot afford to maintain the levels of pay they have offered. Their customers refuse any rate increase and they are forced to do separate deals with their drivers. It becomes an issue of whether or not the drivers want their job.

Many employers cannot afford to pay wage rates negotiated several years ago, Mr Samuel added.

Some of his colleagues within Transport Development are against collective negotiations, I said. "I can well understand why TOG companies want to avoid talks," Mr Samuel replied. "By and large they are pretty capable of conducting their own talks."

A major problem for collective negotiations on pay is finding people to form an RHA team. Almost inevitably, the companies of the employers' team are liable to be singled out for special action.

Mr Samuel spoke from bitter experience. Two and a half years ago the TGWU singled out his company for isolated strike action, because he was chairman of the RHA national industrial relations committee. Although the union won concessions at Flowers, the idea of collective negotiations was undermined and the York agreement, which the union would now like to resurrect, fell apart. "It makes it almost impossible to form a committee," he said.

But there are several JICs which are as strong today as they were when they started, Mr Samuel added. He welcomes the RHA's thinking that a consultative committee should be set up with the TGWU to deal with matters other than conditions of employment, to comprise RHA members who are not necessarily members of the industrial relations committee. The RHA is drawing up terms of reference to put a formal proposal to the union.

As a general haulier, Mr Samuel is keenly aware that transport rates are at an unacceptably low level. "The transport union itself wouldn't invest in a fleet of vehicles at the moment! Many hauliers exist to maintain employment at the moment, not to make money."

Inadequate management is partly to blame. "Particularly, they do not get their costings right. Transport press information like CM's Cost Tables helps, but they have to take an average. Some hauliers sold vehicles to competitors which were then put on the road at a lower cost than when they operated them. That, he declared, was crazy!

But the industry is not all gloom, with some specialist companies doing particularly well. The boom in owner-drivers will not continue for very much longer, Mr Samuel predicted. There will always be a place for the owner-driver in haulage, but when the industry pulls out of recession, drivers will be faced with prices they will not be able to afford. Both new and secondhand vehicles will become much more expensive.

Mr Samuel is proud of the TDG, which he describes as the finest privately owned group in the haulage industry. It leads the way in terms of group structure, with many other firms following its example.

Return on capital is absolutely the essential benchmark in the group, and should be achieved much more in the haulage industry than it is at present. Many operators either hardly think about it at all or give it much too low priority in practice. he believes.

It is desirable for haulage as a whole that return on invest ment is widely secured, because it brings more stability to the industry. "What is the point in investing in large numbers of vehicles and making three per cent if you can make more money by putting it in the bank?"

All the haulier gets is a lot of hassle. Nobody likes the lorry, at best it is seen as a necessary evil. It's high time people realised that everything they use comes by lorry, he said.

Hauliers themselves are now becoming more expert in sales and marketing, an area where until recently there has been a lack of professional approach. It was all left to the company's principal. The situation was much better now, with most large companies having specialists. David Little at Flowers, for example, was not just projecting a good company image, he was helping to identify and win potential business.

"We cannot miss an opportunity of finding alternative ways of doing what custom and practice has dictated for decades," Mr Samuels asserted.

But while happily accepting progress and competitiveness, he believes that some of the best qualities of the industry are in danger of being lost. "The saddest reflection on the indus try at present is undoubtedly the fact that it appears that the customer no longer recognises the excellent service hauliers have given in the past. Customer loyalty has flown out the window."

In part, this is probably due to the increased importance at tached to transport by senior management because it has become a much more important element in their overall costs.

And distribution controllers are every bit as professional as their opposite numbers selling the service. But some of them cannot operate their own fleets for what they are paying hauliers.

Reputable, long-established family haulage businesses will continue to go bust, he said, as there are still plenty 01 operators to fill in the gaps in the short term. But haulage is cyclical and will become more profitable.

Whether or not industrial rela. tions continue to be cyclical re.

mains to be seen. What is more predictable is that Glyn Samue will be the RHA national chair.

man, and he left me in no doub' that he would use his time tc help promote haulage.


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