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ODD UNIVERSE
Page 83
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ONE theory about the universe is that it is expanding so rapidly that our telescopes, however much more efficient they may become, will never be able to catch up with what is beyond their present range. The national negotiating committee for the road haulage industry, and other interested parties who may be struggling to evolve an acceptable pattern of wages for road transport workers, must at times feel like the modern astronomers. They are fiddling while the universe explodes.
A few facts will set the scene. Representatives of employers' associations and trade unions are discussing such points as the link between wages and productivity at the cautious pace which probably is inevitable if this kind of confrontation is to be maintained. The standard remuneration laid down by the Wages Council for the basic working weekmay be as little as 10 guineas or so, with a 3 per cent increase imminent. In the meantime a deal has been concluded with Scottish and Newcastle Breweries Ltd. under which trunk drivers will be paid a guaranteed E41 a week with subsistence at 26s. a night.
This is good news for the men concerned. There may be unwelcome side effects upon other drivers who will still be earning considerably less than the L2,000-a-year aristocrats even when otherwise satisfactory productivity agreements have been reached. The lack of balance which the new agreement seems to show is merely a symptom of the odd universe in which road transport operators and drivers find themselves.
ILLUMINATING?
For one thing it might be illuminating to find out what proportion, or what fraction of one per cent, of the employers in the road haulage industry earn as much as the trunk drivers for the north country brewery. According to the Ministry of Transport there are more than 46,00() hauliers. The 85 per cent among them with five or fewer vehicles, and a good many more operators besides, may feel they are paying dearly for the privilege of being their own masters.
When the disparity between statutory and actual wages is so great and appears to be increasing all the time, it may seem strange that there should be talk of an official inquiry into the increase proposed by the Road Haulage Wages Council. It is equally bizarre that the erratic artillery of the Prices and Incomes Board should first have been directed against a recommendation for a comparatively modest rates increase of 5 per cent to meet inescapable rises in costs for a large proportion of which the Government was responsible.
Apparently it is not being suggested that individual agreements on drivers' wages, even when they make possible an annual income of .E2,000, should be referred to Mr. Aubrey Jones. At least agreements of this kind show a generous appreciation of the worth of drivers. In contrast the vehicles which they drive are considered of little importance by the Government. In spite of protests the decision stands that vehicles are not to have the benefit of the new investment incentives. With decreased tax allowances the operators will be considerably worse off as a result of the proposals in the White Paper.
PLENTY OF SIGNS Hauliers need not feel that they are being unduly sensitive in taking the document as evidence of the official attitude towards them. There is no lack of other signs. Appointments to the teams which are to carry out regional studies for the Minister of Transport are made with a cheerful, perhaps unwitting, disregard to the possibility that a road goods transport operator might be a useful member. The Transport Co-ordinating Council for London, which had its first meeting last week, includes representatives from London Transport, British Railways and the trade unions. One of the five working groups to be set up will concern itself specifically with the movement of freight in the London area. The nnly concession to the fact that nearly all the freight is moved by road is the assurance that "other bodies concerned with transport activities in London will be invited to be associated with particular aspects of their work".
London is not alone in this casual attitude towards road transport problems. In many other cities (notably Birmingham at the present moment) hauliers are finding great difficulty in persuading the authori
ties that they ought to take a more active part in efforts to provide proper parking facilities both for vehicles in transit and for those permanently based in the town. The authorities seem determined to get the vehicles off the road without accepting responsibility for where they are to go.
Possibly road haulage is not the only form of transport entitled to feel that its interests are being neglected by the Government. A new lease of life has recently been given to the controversy about the hovercraft. Fears are being widely expressed that the British lead, deserved because the original development took place in this country, is being eroded through the reluctance of the Ministries concerned to provide sufficient money for further rapid progress.
MATTER FOR SPECULATION So recent is the invention that the possibilities of the hovercraft must still be a matter for speculation. Reasonable caution may be justified. One cannot help thinking, however, that the wider vistas opened up are being neglected, perhaps because in some quarters they are unwelcome. It is good news and to the credit of the railways that they have formed British Rail Hovercraft Ltd., that they are starting in 1968 a combined car and passenger service across the Solent and that the operational experience thus gained may lead to a cross channel service.
The railways, however, have a substantial stake in the project for a Channel tunnel. If hovercraft are as successful as the pioneers hope, the purpose of building a tunnel may be even less evident than it is now. Hovercraft can operate from many points along the coast, thus avoiding the need for a gigantic complex of road and rail communications funnelling traffic towards a single tunnel entrance. Moreover, hovercraft seem well adapted for use as rollon/roll-off vessels by road vehicles.
One cannot help feeling that railway thinking is not likely to follow these lines, at least with no great feeling of pleasure. If the Treasury finds the funds for developing the hovercraft there ought to be some way of ensuring proper consideration for all the many interests likely to be affected.