What the Associations are Doing
Page 32
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Hauliers Should Be
Wise to Bluffing A N interested audience heard S.T.R., (The Commercial Motor costs expert) discuss practical bases for a rates structure, at Dudley, on Tuesday of last week. S.T.R. introduced a new factor into this address by presenting a typical haulier's problem for discussion and, fresh from his interview with the county surveyor a Shropshire, he utilized the figures relating to county council haulage as the basis of the problem. He pointed the moral of that interview by demonstrating that it was dissension amongst hauliers themselves that kept county council rates at a low level.
In the course of the discussion as to the best way of overcoming this difficulty, Mr. G. F. Goodwin (secretary, West Midland Area A.R.O.) described what was being done in Hanley, where, he said, they had an observance committee which held weekly meetings at which there were never less than 12 present. They discussed rates quite freely amongst themselves and had gone a long way towards eliminating rate-cutting in connection with a good many traffics which prevailed in that area. He quoted as typical of the sort of thing that happened, something which transpired at the previous meeting. There are, he said, four members of the committee who formerly were "at daggers drawn." At that meeting, one of the four produced a letter which had reached him from a regular customer of one of his former enemies. The letter asked him to quote for traffic. He said: " This is one of your customers, isn't it, Bill? What is a fair rate for this traffic? "
He was given appropriate figures, and these he proposed to use in his own quotation, thus ensuring' that there should be no bluffing on the part of the customer, that is, setting one haulier against the other by claiming that cut rates had been offered him. Mr. Goodwin took the view that, with a strong association, this procedure could be widely followed with considerable advantage, particularly to the hauliers concerned.
At the close of the meeting, after the usual vote of thanks to S.T.R. had been proposed and carried with acclamation, the chairman proposed a special vote to the effect that a message of greeting and thanks should be conveyed to The Commercial Motor for the help it was giving to hauliers, through S.T.R., in these lectures which he was delivering all over the country.