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HANG TOGETHER OR HANG SEPARATELY

11th October 1963
Page 68
Page 68, 11th October 1963 — HANG TOGETHER OR HANG SEPARATELY
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Frank Burravoe discusses co-operation among hauliers GENTLEMEN of the haulage industry, faites vos jeux! In other words, make up your minds which way you will cast your counters on the wheel of change at the annual conference of the Road Haulage Association at Brighton on October 22.

A resolution is there and then to be moved which will have the most profound consequences, whichever way the delegates vote. To put it shortly, the resolution (as recorded last week) recommends the formation of co-operative units and the organization of a network of what are called "freight exchanges ". The careful wording of the resolution shows that it has been the subject of much careful thought. Its sponsors have patently been influenced by the rapid developments which are taking place in so many industr!al and commercial circles and by the economic and political winds which are blowing. They have realized that the mood for change has never been more feverish, the pace never so fast.

In the sphere of transport, here are some signs:— • (a) Before long a widespread system of pipelines is inevitable. Under last year's Pipelines Act a consortium of powerful oil interests has already been given the green light to go ahead with its plans. lhe first phase will be Thames-MidlandsMersey. Oil will not be the only commodity .conveyed by pipeline. Other liquids and some solids will soon be moved in this modern manner.

(b) The projected National Ports Council is expected to improve .port facilities and dock access under a national plan through control of national investment by the Government. The activities of hundreds of ports, harbours and docks are to be co-ordinated. Notice has been served on them by Government speakers that co-operation. must take the place of the present patchwork of conflicting interests.

(c) For supplying solid fuel, producer and transporter and consumer are coupling themselves together in an association which promises to give road hauliers a jolt. The associates are the National Coal Board, British Railways and the Central Electricity Generating Board. Their plans are already taking shape. The first two of these three musketeers are also working out schemes of association which will inflict bruises on hauliers concerned with the distribution of fuel for purposes other than electrical generation.

(d) The high-powered Geddes Committee is to examine "the fundamental bases and working of the licensing system for goods vehicles ". The several bodies into which operators have banded themselves, and many other interests too, are all exercising their minds about the nature of the evidence they will give to the Committee. A crystal ball is not needed to forecast that if a system of licensing is continued, it will take a very different shape from the present battered one.

(e) Handling techniques are being revolutionized by the use of such devices as conveyors, grabs, containers, suction plants, automatic baggers, pneumatic pumps and blowers.

(f) Mergers of haulage undertakings 1342 go on unceasingly. Integration of traffic movements is speeding up.

(g) A form of mileage or time tax or some other method of limiting vehicle occupation of congested areas in towns and cities is known to be under consideration.

In this climate of change the " co-operative" resolution will be debated. There have been timid footsteps towards the same objectives in the past. Bulk buying of equipment and supplies, sharing of repair facilities and provision of overnight accommodation for drivers and vehicles for instance, have been tested in small pockets here and there, but nothing has so far been done on a comprehensive scale. There is scope for massive development of these ideas. In particular, the proposal to form co-operative units for, among other things, the joint repair and maintenance of vehicles, has in it a seed which badly needed planting. Year after year, in monotonous chorus, the Licensing Authorities through their annual reports criticize existing standards of goods vehicle maintenance. The time may not be far off when drastic action instead of crooning criticism is demanded.

One line of co-operation One I;ne of co-operation still in the embryo stage is to be seen in the pools of tipping vehicles which have been established in at least four traffic areas. True, the primary motive for their birth was to provide large numbers of vehicles for major constructional jobt such as motorways, power stations and the like, and to prevent contractors and middlemen from playing off one owner of vehicles against another. Nevertheless, they may well grow up into something much more ambitious.

But the most important proposal relates to "freight exchanges ". It is in this field that the most productive spadework can be done, to the advantage alike of operators, industry and the general public. The shortcomings of many existing cardboard clearing houses, dealing in freight like mock auctioneers, ought not to blind anyone to potentialities. Properly run and organized on a national scale, freight exchanges or clearing houses or reception and despatch depots (call them what you will) can do more to stifle criticism of present-day wasteful operations than any other single factor. Some of the biggest transport businesses, including British Road Services, have dipped their toes into these pools, but no organization has yet plunged right in.

There is a marked reluctance in many quarters to" face the fact that the operation of vehicles for one-way traffic only,. sometimes only in part loads, is an economic crime. All the political parties now suspect this feature of road goods transport. as a modern anachronism, the crack or dry rot in the industry's structure. They all condemn it, though not all with the same vigour. The Conservative publication Crossbow advocates a Freight Transport Council on the lines of the American Interstate Commerce Commission,but we need not look so far or imitate so slavishly. Our problems are different. They can be solved without a bulldozing Commission. They arise partly from the present outmoded licensing system, partly from division in the ranks of A, B and C licence-holders and partly from the great gaps in freight organization.

There may be whispers that the more efficient road 'goods transport is made, the riper it will become for nationalization. This is a short-sighted view,, not borne out by experience in the • past and dangerous in its implication. The nationalizers who passed the Transport Act of 1947 in part 'justified their compulsory acquisition of railways and longdistance road haulage on the ground of alleged inefficiencies. . "A poor bag of physical assets" was the way Dr. Dalton, the Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, described the railways; and road goods transport was put forward. as a chaotic conglomeration of small, ineffective units engaged in a dog-fight. The Whisperers ought to remember that power was taken in the same Act for the compulsory acquisition of road passenger transport undertakings (through the medium of area schemes). The power was never exercised, however. There was no excuse for so doing: nobody could reasonably allege inefficiency in that sector.

In any event, economic realism ought to come before political speculation; and realism suggests that the present welter of puny isolationists in road haulage cannot last. To set up co-operatives will not be easy. The process will certainly take time. But if it is approached in the right spirit, with the traditional energy and enterprise hitherto displayed in the industry, there is no reason to fear the outcome. Co-operation can be made to yield good dividends.


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