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British Expert Recommends Licensing
Page 121
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in East Africa
Brig.-Gen. Sir H. Osborne Mance Carries Out Transport Investigation for East African Policy Board
DUBLICATION in East Africa of 1 oPerating-cost figures on the lines of The Commercial Motor Tables of Operating Costs is recommended by Brig.-Gen. Sir H. Osborne Mance; E.B.E., in a "Report oh Co-ordina:tion of Transport in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika Territory," .
The ' report has been prepared for consideration by the East African Transport Policy Board. It will shortly he onsale at the offices of the Crown Agents for-the Colonies, Millbank, London, S.W.1, at 1s.
-Under:, the -.terms ' of reference, Sir Osborne 7.lance's duty was to advise the Governments of ,Kenya, Tanganyika and -Uganda -upon • problems of co-ordinating and regulating rail, road; air and :water transport. Be deals with the subject in great detail and points out that it would be a retrograde, step to force passengers or goods to travel by a route or form of transport which was arbitrarily decided for them in each case.
Future of Branch Lines.
He finds that most of the railway branch lines in Kenya and Uganda are likely to prove the cheapest form of transport. Although the cost per tonmile of public traffic on theTanganyika railways is considerably higher than in the case of the Kenya and Uganda railways, the cost of rail transport in the Territory is less than 60 per cent, of the minimum average cost for main-road transport, under favourable conditions, in East Africa.
Althcugh Sir Osborne Mance deals with road-passenger transport at some length, he has approached the problem
of co-ordination as primarily affecting goods traffic.
At present, goods transport, other than that of the local produce of agriculture or stock farming, iseprohibited between specified points on scheduled roads considered to be competitive with the, railways. This system has been devised with the object of safeguarding the higher-rated railway traffic from
road competition. •
• All things considered, the protection of the railway !inenopoly seems to be the mostsuitable basis of a policy for co-ordinating road and rail. It is essential, says the investigator, to reduce the great disparity between the rates for the higher-class goods by rail and a fair commercial charge for the transport of goods by motor. The soundest method of achieving this object, he thinks, might be to raise rates on the medium and low classes of goods, to compensate for the reduction of high-class rates.
This modification of the railway rates structure will not in itself solve the road-rail question, continues the report. If free competition were allowed, the railways would be obliged to -follow
uneconomic rate-cutting. Moreover, there has been unduly destructive competition within the road-transport industry itself, although in Kenya, at any rate, „there is not, in most areas, a surplus of transport.
Sir Osborne Mance recommends the establishment of a licensing system for road transport. Except in large centres, many vehicles are owned by operators corresponding with II-licensees in Great Britain, most of' the remaining machines being owned by ancilkiry users.
Licensing Feeder Services.
The problem of feeder services to the railway will, in the investigator's opinion, Probably best be met by carefully dividing each territory into traffic zones,operators being licensed to work in One of more of these districts.
Different treatment will,be called for in the case of trunk road services Connecting important areas with the rail, way or with each other. In • those instances, licensing "would be more likely to be for a particular route than for a zone, The services should, to some extent, be regular, and maximum rates and satisfactory conditions of labour should be fixed.
On the bus side, Sir Osborne Mance recommends inviting tenders for a monopoly of road passenger transport in Uganda, covering, in the first -place, all main roads radiating from Kampala, with extensions to maintain, at least, the present connections.