Fair Dealing Between Hauliers
Page 40
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I N considering the merits of the new code of conduct for long-distance hauliers approved by the national council of the Road Haulage Association, its limitations must be recognized. It aims solely to regulate the behaviour of hauliers towards their sub-contractors. It does not impose on the haulier any obligation towards his trader customers, nor could it effectively do so. That is a matter that can safely be left to the law of supply and demand.
It is also significant that, although clearing-house members of the R.H.A. have for some time been bound by a code in their dealings with hauliers, the new disciplinary rules do not require hauliers to deal fairly with clearing houses. The new code was devised during a period of strained relations between the long-distance haulier and clearing-house members of the Association, otherwise it might have contained provisions for their mutual protection. It might, for instanee, have prevented a haulier who obtained a load from a clearing house later dealing directly with the trader customer.
No code is worth the paper on which it is written unless it can be enforced. Exclusion from the directory of long-distance hauliers published by the R.H.A. is probably the only penalty that can be exacted. This may, however, be a serious punishment if it is widely 'understood that only hauliers of the highest standard are accepted for inclusion in it.
Apart from its direct practical uses, the new code should have a valuable moral effect. It sets up a standard at which every long-distance haulier must aim in his dealings with his colleagues. It forms the foundation of a system of interworking between operators and is complementary to the rules of conduct for clearing houses.