Competition is the spur, says down under haulier
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COMMON PROBLEMS REVEALED IN FIRST I OT OVERSEAS LECTURE
• Competition remains the spur to progress and policies aimed at protecting indefinitely State-owned assets are of dubious national value. These were two of the conclusions based on Australian experience (but with a familiar UK ring) drawn by Mr. J. M. Collins when giving the first overseas lecture to the Institute of Transport in London on Monday. Mr. Collins is managing director, M. Collins and Sons, Pty Ltd., Sydney.
The efficiency obtained as a result of competition refuted the argument made for retaining monopolies to avoid duplication of facilities. Competition remained the spur to progress both within a particular mode of transport or between different modes where there was a reasonable volume of traffic.
And the notable success of Government enterprise in the airline and shipping business illustrated that, given competitive conditions, a high standard of management, a strictly commercial outlook and a minimum of political interference. Government transport undertakings need not be inferior to other forms of transport.
Mr. Collins claimed that unregulated road transport could provide a high standard of service in carrying goods at a competitive rate; although this might not be in the best interest of the carriers themselves. Moreover the absence of conditions of licensed entry had not prevented the growth of substantial companies or unduly affected the ratio of carriers to ancillary users.
Demand for transport, Mr. Collins said, was fairly elastic and would react appreciably to changes in price and the provision of a better facility. History might well record that protection had not been in he best interests of the railways as, being immune from competition, they were probably more susceptibleto political control and ultra-conservative in their business methods.
Indirectly such protection had led to the construction of roads in Australia to standards more suitable for cars than commercial vehicles and delayed a realistic approach to the problem of providing finance for roads in keeping with the demands of the motor age and the practice in other progressive countries.
Road transport carried 76.5 per cent of the total tonnage moved on domestic journeys in Australia in 1965, with rail claiming 19 per cent and sea 4.5 per cent. However, with mileages between main land capitals ranging from 500 to 2,700 the tonmileage proportions were as follows: Sea 55 per cent, rail 24 per cent and road 21 per cent.
For the future, Mr. Collins submitted that positive action was needed to achieve uniformity in State regulations governing vehicles and their use. Immediate attention must be given to the near-critical problem in cities as Australia became one of the world's most vehicle-minded countries. Solutions needed to be workable, sociably acceptable and economically feasible.
There was an urgent need, he claimed, for urban authorities to embrace the concept of total transport planning. The worst offenders to date had been the public utilities, many of whose decisions appeared to have been inviolable.
There was also a need to resolve the road-rail controversy by appointing an independent commission to evaluate the benefits of intrastate regulation as compared to those which might evolve from a truly commercial railway operation and the progressive extension of' freedom of choice to the user.
Also, Mr. Collins contended, a searching inquiry was needed to establish the justrifica• tion for continuing long-standing subsidies to certain transport users and the identification of subsidies in the public accounts instead of being submerged in uneconomic freight rates.