1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136 
The Transport Man
Page 39
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
-FROM time to time everybody connected with road transport, particularly on the goods vehicle side of the industry, uses the phrase "transport men ". Who are these ubiquitous men? What is a transport man? The president of the Traders Road Transport Association, Mr. K. C. Turner, has this week focused attention on the question (see next page). He told the Institute of Directors in Nottingham that the significance of transport to the national economy and to individual companies was not matched by an equivalent interest in transport by top management. Transport. he said, is seriously underrated—and so are the executives whose profession it is.
The transport man is not -always very highly paid in relation to his responsibilities and the capital assets under his control. Transport all too often remains a Cinderella industry, perhaps to some extent because it provides a service and not an end product. Directors not experienced in transport therefore tend to regard the outlay involved as "dead money "—irrecoverable expenditure and therefore to be pruned as much as possible.
Oh yes, people inside the transport industry know that this is all wrong—that transport expenditure is, in fact, as vital as money spent on new machinery on the production line. But the Boards of too many. companies do not. Their thinking is reflected in depression of salary leyels ,for their own transport managers, and (indirectly) in unreasoning demands upon hauliers for lower rates and, therefore, low salaries for haulage executives as well.
Three cheers for Mr. Turner. If only more of the transport industry's leaders would talk as firmly as this and if only the transport man himself would realize his fate is largely in his own hands—things might improve.