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Trimmed fleets
Page 62
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Prolongation of the present situation has raised additional problems, but the individual operator has made very much the customary reaction. As the flow of traffic diminishes, he has trimmed his fleet and made other adjustments so that the return on each operational vehicle has justified keeping it on the road.
It is in this traditional way that he adapts himself for survival, like an organism that expands or retracts in response to changes in the environment.
He has been helped by the unusually large number of other hauliers, many of them comparatively recent arrivals, who have decided to leave the industry, either by an easy transition to some other activity or by way of the bankruptcy court. Some types of traffic also have kept up in spite of the general situation.
Whatever the explanation, the average haulier is still doing reasonably well, although his overall profit is some way below what it was two years ago. He can afford to wait for an improvement in trade, and would certainly be pleased if the event bore out the rapid and almost dizzy increase in traffic which the Government graphs prophesy.