PLASKETT'S PARADOX
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• Is it possible to be caught up in a paradox and stand at a crossroads at the same time? If it is, then this is exactly the situation the Road Haulage Association is in today.
The paradox, according to director general Freddie Plaskett, is that while the membership of the RHA has fallen this year, its income has increased.
The crossroads is where the association goes from here, and how to increase its membership — if that's what it really wants.
Giving his annual report at the RHA's 38th annual conference in Sorrento, Plaskett told members that the changing face of road transport — in particular the amalgamation of many member companies with the subsequent increase in fleet size — has cut the RHA's ranks down by some 200 to around 11,000.
Yet its income, which is based on the number of vehicles members operate, has increased.
That boost in subscription income, coupled with the grow ing success of the RHA's services, allowed Plaskett "to predict confidently that we will have almost as good a year financially in 1986 as we had in 1985." Plaskett reports that the RHA will finish the year with profits in the region of 200-400,000.
He said that while it was an "article ot taitti" that any trade association should maximise its members to gain greater recognition, delegates should consider whether the RHA "should begin to express its clout in terms other than the number of member companies — if so what sort of measurement should be adopted?"
The alternatives include number of vehicles operated, membership turnover and the number of people employed within the RHA.
There was also the option, Plaskett suggested, of "a vigorous recruiting campaign" to increase numbers. "Easy enough if you throw sufficient money at the problem. The rrA seems to be doing it now — is that what we need or want?" There was also another school of thought that the RHA should go for quality rather than quantity.
With the growth of member services reducing the dependence on subscription income, the RHA could now "insist on more rigorous standards" before a haulier could join.
While this approach could lose members, the industry, said Plaskett, with the RHA as its spokesman, "would have moved a long stride towards the self-regulating status which is one of the hallmarks of respectability".
To maintain numbers, however, the RHA could well be forced to adopt a two-tier system, which has already been suggested by a number of its members (see News Headlines page 6).
Plaskett went on to describe the various successes — or otherwise — of the RHA in combating high fuel prices and vehicle excise duty, which the association will be including in its submission before the 1987 spring budget.
He also confirmed that the RHA would not be pushing for 40-tonnes in Britain before harmonisation in Europe.
Speaking on the advent of the Channel Tunnel and its possible effects, Plaskett told RHA members that the pattern of freight movement within Europe would change and that hauliers would have to return to the "Road/rail cooperation of years gone by."