Political Commentary By JANUS
Page 35
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Self Service
REPRESENTATIVES of the C-licence holder spoil a good case by over-statement when they say that he uses his own vehicles because they are more efficient than public transport. His enemies can accuse him of wishful thinking. They would be delighted to boil the whole argument down to the single question of efficiency.
The word is a favourite with the Labour Party. In the Transport Act, 1947, they defined the duty of the British Transport Commission as the provision of an " efficient, adequate, economical and properly integrated system." More realistically, the Conservatives in the Transport Act, 1953, merely r-equired the Commission to provide transport services, and added, almost as an afterthought, that regard should be had to "efficiency, economy and safety of operation, and to the needs of the public, agriculture, . commerce and industry."
This is as much as the C-licence holder need say about himself. He has his own transport for the delivery of his goods, and naturally organizes that transport to the best of his ability. There are no grounds for supposing—as one suspects the Socialists did in 1947—that the acquisition of vehicles in some mystical way confers efficiency upon the person who acquires, them. It, is equally absurd to say that the C-licence holder is necessarily more efficient than other providers of transport, whether by road or by rail, merely because, he has spent a fair amount of money on buying vehicles. Hauliers and the railways have also made heavy investments, but have other criteria for deciding whether or not they are efficient.
There must be thousands of C-licensed vehicles that are not operating efficiently from .the point of view of the haulier or of Sir Brian Robertson, chairman of the B.T.C. They return unloaded; they often travel for a long distance with a small consignment, and they spend long periods without turning a wheel. The trader is not worried. The possession of a vehicle of his own makes it possible to give an occasional extra service to a customer who might otherwise go elsewhere. It is one of many services that the trader thinks it desirable to provide. In the same way he has a telephone, although his business may be such that he makes no more than two or three calls in the course of a day. He would not waste time wondering whether his telephone is' " efficient." For him, it is a convenience.
No Valid Reason The C-licence holder need go no further than to maintain that it is convenient for him to have his own vehicle. As Mr. F. D. Fitz-Gerald, national secretary of the Traders' Road Transport Association, has said recently— unfortunately not with complete accuracy: " No one is suggesting that the private motorist should be compelled in certain circumstances to abandon his car and use public transport instead." There can be no valid reason why the trader should not have what transport he requires. His business may or may not suffer if he is prevented; but it is intolerable that he should have to take the risk merely because the authorities believe that, for lack of his traffic, the railways are in a bad way.
If the trader takes his stand on this ground, he has at least the satisfaction that his enemies are making themselves look absurd. He makes a mistake when he boasts of his efficiency. He is inviting the so-called expert to run the rule over his business and prove him wrong. The Labour Party in particular worship efficiency, in the same way as the Athenians had an altar to the Unknown God.
So far, moreover, nobody has expressed the opinion that it is bad for the trader himself to run his own vehicles. The argument invariably is that he is causing harm to somebody else, and the victim varies according to the taste of the accuser. Rather unexpectedly, Sir Brian told the National Union of Manufacturers recently that the Clicence holder would eliminate the haulier.. Mr. W. L P. Webber, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, was of a different opinion at the Association's annual conference. He thought the railways were being worst hit, "while the roads are being strained beyond the limit." It was his opinion that private road goods transport should be made more expensive by means of legislation. His president, Mr. R. J. Gunter, was concerned for road users as a whole. There were far too many traders' vehicles on the roads, and it was the "economics of bedlam" that so many of them should be loaded one way and return empty.
Growing Tendency Transport was a service, Mr. Gunter added platitudinously. He evidently did not approve of transport as selfservice. He would presumably agree with certain .other trade unions that from time to time deplore the growing tendency of the public to do things for themselves.
At this level of argument the C-licence holder has little to fear. The home decorator may put the 'Professional out of business, but the public see the remedy in lower prices and better service. The trader should remember also that the man who papers his own bedroom may not do the job as well as the expert, and may not even save much money when his time and labour are taken into account. He does his own decorating because he chooses to do so, and no Government would dare to deny him the right.
Invidious comparisons between the efficiency of public and of private transport should be avoided. If the trader cannot completely avoid references to efficiency, he should .carry the war into the opposing camp, and follow the lead given by Mr. L. A. Castleton, chief transport officer of the Metal Box Co., Ltd., in the paper ." The road-rail problem" that he read to the East' Midland Section of the Institute of Transport. He frankly described the Clicence holder as the "common enemy" of all hired transport, and as a " big difficulty" to the public carrier. On, the other hand, said .Mr. Castleton,vehicles on C licence were " the biggest incentive to securing, optimum efficiency. in transport." Restrict them and efficiency would suffer..
This is the exact statement of the position.. The C-licence• holder is not so much efficient as the cause of that efficiency
in others. Mr. Gunter fulminated against " stupid,' inefficient competition." He thought it " madness." that there should be a railway industry, a road haulage industry and a road passenger industry, each in a separate compartment. His association's conference ended with a resolution calling for an integrated transport system that was not necessarily economic. It is surely in this direction that "madness" lies. Sensible people would plump .for an economic system that -was not necessarily integrated. The trader is at present able to command the services of such a system largely because he is himself a potential competitor of those who serve him. They may be annoyed, and if they are honest would wish the situation changed. If they try to put their wishes into effect, they are not likely to get public support, unless the trader himself confuses the issue by claiming to. bemore efficient than anybody else.