Mica'. Commentary
Page 57
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Double Dealers
By JANUS
HE possibility has for a long time been recognized that traders would be able to buy transport units and administer them through separate companies, LS putting themselves at one stroke in a position where y can carry their own goods and operate for hire reward. What is. surprising is the assurance with ich Mr. G. W. Quick Smith states that a number of ders will adopt this course. He may have information : generally available, for one would have imagined
t not many people would want to hunt with the ilier and run, with the customer in quite the way he .cribes.
-le appears to regard the anticipated development as vel, and in fact this is mainly, although• not entirely, e. The 31,000 B-licence holders, whose vehicles are -miffed to carry their own goods as well as those of ler people, fall into so many categories that one iitates to generalize; but very few of them are traders o also set themselves out to be general ha—Uliers, who, fact, carry their own goods to all parts of the country
bring back return loads for hire or reward.
It has always been open to a trader with spare capital, buy a haulage business and run it so that his own ffic is carried for him and he makes money out of uling for other traders. This is possible, but it seldom ppens, and not mrely because, as Mr. Quick Smith ggests, it reverses the principle enshrined in the )ad and Rail Traffic Act of 1933 that C licensees mild not encroach upon haulage.
In transport, as in so many other things, it pays the bbler to stick to his last. There is no magical formula
r ensuring that a haulage business will run itself and liver a profit at regular intervals. It requires hard nt, skill and singleness of purpose, qualities that, for most part, the trader has preferred to develop in or ply to his own business.
Wider Scope
The Transport Act of 1953 gives the trader wider ape than ever before for starting up as a long-distance Trier. He is as much entitled as any other member the public to bid for a transport unit, or for one of e larger companies. There would be no offence :ainst the spirit or the letter of the law if he ran his w acquisition as a completely independent concern, St as the owner of a lucrative meat-pie business might vest his surplus cash in a holiday home for cats with :rfect propriety so long as he kept the two interests impletely separate.
In a special category is the trader who has a number ' vehicles on contract with British Road Services. It mid be difficult to criticize the desire on his part to iy these vehicles should they be offered as a convenient iit.
Doubt begins to arise where the trader, having bought s transport unit and having been granted his special licence, proceeds to operate as if, in effect, he held a licence. It can scarcely be denied that this would ustrate the purpose of the 1953 Act, which makes no Lention of special B licences, and would probably have mned their equivalent had Parliament been able to ad words that would have that effect.
Nothing in the Act specifically gainsays the manceuvre at Mr. Quick Smith rightly condemns in advance, but it remains to be seen whether any traders will be able or willing to deserve his strictures. The prospective purchaser of a transport unit, even when his offer is the most satisfactory, has to pass certain tests.
In the first place, he needs the approval of the Disposal Board. The members of this body have purposely been drawn from a wide field, and should be able, by one means or another, to find out whether the request for a unit comes from a trader who is likely to use it primarily for the carriage of his own products.
The Disposal Board, it is said, are treading with extreme care to ensure that they use their powers to the full, but do not exceed them. It may be argued that their task is to dispose of the units in aecordance with the Act; what happens after the disposal, and how the units are used, is no concern of theirs. Nevertheless, the duty is laid upon the Commission, and through the Commission upon the Board, of "avoiding any step which is likely to lead to the elimination or undue restriction of competition in the carriage of goods by road for hire or reward."
Luck of the Draw
Without straining the meaning of the words, the Board and the Commission should find this clause sufficient to give them the right to think twice about accepting a tender from a man who intends to withdraw the service Of some or all of the vehicles from general circulation. He must, In any event, depend largely upon the luck of the draw for finding the kind of unit that will meet his needs. Apart from the number and the suitability of the vehicles, he must also satisfy the licensing authority that the base from which he proposes to use them would be appropriate for serving the same districts as was served by the vehicles before denationalization.
When a trader can have a C licence for the asking, and at no very great fee, and when he has no difficulty in getting vehicles, he must think twice about paying a good price for a transport unit the major function of which will be the carriage of his own goods. He will be spending money unnecessatily in one .direction, and will have to see a considerable profit from the haulage side before he can feel satisfied..
Another problem may come at the end of five years, when he applies for renewal of his A licence, and has to give the licensing authority an account of his stewardship. The trader who has sought the best of both worlds may have some difficult objections to overcome, and at the end of the day may have only a limited B licence to show for his pains. Still more would he fear a change of Government.
The Socialists, so far as one can understand from their various statements on the subject of renationalization, are more than a little vague about what they will do, or indeed as to whether they will do anything; but it is certain that, if they do take action, the trader with the special A licence will be first upon the list.
If trade and industry come into the haulage business, there would be a real danger of further legislation becoming necessary in a few years' time, whatever Government happened to be in power. The desire to avoid any more political interference should be sufficient in itself to deter most traders from intervening in the sale of the nationalized assets.