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To graft $1.5 billion
Page 79
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Back-handers by hauliers to traffic managers are by no means unknown in Britain and have occasionally resulted in prosecutions, but they are jelly babies compared with the inducements apparently offered by US carriers, road and rail.
According to 1790 pages of evidence given to a US Senate inquiry under the chairmanship of Senator Edward Kennedy, the annual cost of entertaining common carriers' and Railways' customers was estimated at about $1.5 billion.
In nine months one large haulage company spent about $1.2 million on entertaining trade customers and Government officials and their wives. This included trips to Las Vegas, the Indianapolis 500 car race, gift certificates worth $40 to $50 each and the provision of cars. Government employees seem to have been up to their necks in corruption.
Some of the amounts spent on individuals would make a British haulier's hair fall out. For instance, a week's trip to the Caribbean for a customer and his wife cost about £2500.
Sub-contractors complain bitterly that they are being made to contribute to wholesale graft by the chiselling of the rates that they receive from regulated carriers.