Three in Harmony
Page 66
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Political Commentary By JANUS
SYMPATHY with British Road Services in their time of affliction was largely wasted. They have come through the ordeal in a stronger and more comfortable position than before disposal began. The real sufferers are the independent hauliers, who are still not out of the state of anarchy into which they were thrown by the addition to their ranks of a few thousand new operators with transport units.
Most hauliers seem unaware that they are facing an entirely novel situation. A few years ago, they were more alert. They kept together, and even prospered, when the dice were loaded against them. They fought fiercely on unfavourable ground when B.R.S. were determined to restrict the number of permits. They achieved a major political triumph, commemorated by the Transport Act, 1953.
All this was done during a period when it was said sadly, even by well-wishers, that the brains of the road haulage industry had gone over to nationalized transport. Now that hauliers have won back their freedom and at least some of their brains, one would expect results on a scale to match.
There are no signs of these results. Hauliers who were once sowell united in adversity seem now incap
able of organizing themselves. They are in greater danger than ever before of becoming an amorphous industry; a mere cluster of individuals, pulled hither and thither by capricious forces, from aboveiand from below, from the centre and from the circuMferenee.
Some operators who have come back to free enterprise have been known to look over their shoulders a little wistfully. They may not have approved of the organization of B.R.S., but at least they had some idea of what the organization was and of how it was intended to work. B.R.S. are all of a piece. There is central control, which may restrict enterprise but ensures that the whole of nationalized road transport is moving in one direction.
Lack of Unison "
The haulier who is carrying the chief burden of competition with B.R.S.—that is to say, the long-distance operator—can hardly sense the same unison in his side of the industry. If he is in a joining mood, he can-join any one of a number of organizations: the Road Haulage Association, National Conference of Road Transport Clearing Houses, Transport Association, Associated Road Transport Co., and others. Their functions appear to overlap, and more than one haulier has played safe by joining the lot.
He can then have a good time, if he feels like it, in throwing a stone from one to the other, and at once rushing across to throw it back. It does not help to understand the point of the dispute between longdistance hauliers and clearing houses, and between the R.H.& and the N.C.R.T.C.H., when the observer cannot be clear who is on which side.
At best, the dispute seems irrelevant to the present problem of finding a satisfactory place for long-distance operators within the framework of the road haulage industry. The clearing houses must also come into the picture. Those within the R.H.A.—or rather within the association's clearing house group—made a notable advance. some time ago when they secured acceptance
c28 as the only sub-contractors with which members were recommended to deal. In return, members of the group bound themselves to a code of business conduct.
This was an excellent arrangement, because it gave something to both sides. Hauliers had the assurance of a reasonable deal, and the clearing houses had the influence and prestige of the Association linked to their efforts to find haulier customers. It was inevitable, however, that the number of approved clearing houses would increase only slowly. The scheme might collapse if even one unscrupulous clearing house managed to insinuate itself into the privileged circle.
The group is still not large enough to meet more than a fraction of the demand from hauliers for return loads. For a long time to come, operators must continue to use outside clearing houses.' Numbered among them are bound to be some of the more doubtful firms that have earned the occupation of clearing house a bad name over a large part of the road haulage industry.
Interworking Preferred
Antipathy towards clearing houses may or may not be regrettable. It certainly does exist and has led to a preference among hauliers for the establishment of interworking. There are, however, other important reasons for the preference. Hauliers can act as agents for each other, and in this way an operator with only a few depots of his own can offer his customers facilities in all parts of the country.
No haulier wants to turn traffic away, but at times he is bound to be offered more than his vehicles can carry. He is bound to some extent to act as sub-contractor, and take active steps, by means of advertisements or any other method that suggests itself, to bring his surplus traffic to the attention of other operators.
Sub-contracting, interworking and the activities of clearing houses are all essential features of an industry made up of a large number of mostly small businesses faced with the apparently incompatible problems of competing and co-operating with each other. To a-large extent, each feature has as its object the provision of return loads.
This may account for, although it does not excuse, the present apparent animosity of some clearing houses towards hauliers who help themselves. The opposition does not go so far as to suggest that there should he no sub-contracting or interworking—except by or through recognized clearing houses—but there is a feeling that these facilities should not be made too widely known.
It is likely, for example, that clearing houses will not approve of the directory of long-distance hauliers issued by the R.H.A. to help members seeking return loads from other members. Why the extension of such a practice should make clearing houses apprehensive is fairly clear, but their reply should be equally clear.
They must redouble their efforts to show and to prove the points where the services of clearing houses to hauliers are superior. Now more than ever, with disaster just round the corner for many hauliers badly hit by fuel rationing, quarrels within the industry are out of place. What the industry needs is a united structure in which sub-contraetors, clearing houses and interworking operators are each playing their proper part and working towards the same end.