striking while the news is hot'
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SCARCELY a more opportune moment than the present could be chosen by road operators to put forward a national scheme for demurrage charges. The problem of vehicle delays, especially in the ports and docks, is very much in the news. Traders and manufacturers are more favourably disposed than ever before to accept the argument that an idle vehicle is an expense and that they have some responsibility for the cost if the vehicle is carrying their goods. There is everything in favour of striking while the news is hot.
On other topics the customers of professional carriers are not always reasonable. There is evidence of a growing interest among trade and industry in the subject of transport. Leading industrialists are more and more disposed to be critical in public. They have studied the situation from their own point of view and are clear about their own requirements, which, in many cases turn out to be fairly stringent. It is as well for operators to know what the people they depend upon for their livelihood are thinking.
The shortcomings of the railways are a familiar topic and it is not surprising that they usually head the list of points where industrialists would like to see new thinking, new methods and a general improvement. What may be less expected is that road haulage often comes next. Complaints are not so much about the efficiency of operators as about the unduly restrictive licensing system, the lack of co-ordination within road haulage or with other forms of transport, and the frequent difficulty of finding someone to accept consignments outside the general run.
The part load and the parcel are sometimes quoted as examples. These items can be handled by goods train, by passenger train, by British Road Services, by independent express and general carriers and by the Post Office. All these services come in for criticism, mainly because operators, whether by road or by rail, have a preference for the traffic which earns them a profit. The considerable degree of cross-subsidization which already exists in each form of transport is evidently still considered insufficient by the critics.
Demand for Reform What conclusions are being drawn? Most confident and unequivocal is the demand for reform of the licensing system, and this encouraged by the existence of the Geddes Committee. Less well-defined is the opinion that more effort should be made to provide a comprehensive transport service. Operators are called upon to agree that they have a public service obligation. It is sometimes hinted that this obligation can most easily be imposed by a controlling body or a transport overlord.
As a mark of their sincerity one or two industrialists have even suggested, albeit in the faintest possible outline, that the principle of freedom of choice, including the freedom to carry one's own traffic in one's own vehicle, is at least overdue for re-examination. This would be a difficult point to avoid completely in the light of the conclusions already mentioned. The idea of a comprehensive service loses much of its meaning when one-third or more of the nation's traffic passes under C licence and when it is possible for a large trader or manufacturer, by setting up his own subsidiary transport company, to play his own part in creaming off hire-or-reward traffic and distorting the overall pattern.
In spite of the authority behind them the conclusions do not necessarily provide the best solution. Some revision of the licensing system is inevitable and no doubt desirable, but even the system as it stands often could be better used. To judge from recent criticisms the professional carrier has often failed to sell himself and his services properly to the customer. Equally it can be said that the customer has often failed to be sufficiently receptive to the salesman.
Insufficient information may mean that the carrier has no opportunity to deploy the full range of his services. More important still, the customer—and in this respect the large industrialist is the chief offender—is reluctant to give the haulier the support he needs if he is to make any impression on the licensing authority in the traffic court. Those critics who complain that there is not an adequate transport service, especially by road, should ask themselves how often they have agreed to come forward and provide the vital testimony for the haulier whom they would like to carry their traffic.
A good deal also depends on what is regarded as an adequate service. During the railway age the trader might reasonably expect that his goods should be carried between any two stations and at a rate which he could afford. The length of time taken and the need to arrange for supplementary transport to and from the station meant that in practice the trader confined himself to destinations which could easily be reached.
Road transport has made door-to-door delivery possible and easy throughout the country. Only considerations of cost normally prevent the trader from distributing his goods in small consignments to any member of the public who would like to have them. If wholesale crosssubsidization were to make the cost of individual deliveries less important traders would have so much less inducement to plan their transport economically, whether by their own vehicles or by those of professional carriers. Apart from the problem of congestion there must be a limit on transport facilities. The endeavour by each operator to make the most efficient use of his vehicles has an advantage to the community as well as to himself.
From a different angle Lord Simon, chairman of the Port of London Authority, has made the same point in a letter to The Times. "At some stage," he says, "it has got to be decided what port capacity the country requires. Does it require port capacity so large that peak traffic can be handled without any delay, even under adverse conditions? . . . If port capacity is provided to this extent, the greater part of the capital investment and of the labour engaged to deal with peak traffic will be under-employed most of the time. This cannot but add to the real cost of providing the service."