Political Commentary By JANUS
Page 45
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What Might Have Been
COMPLAINTS about the delay in the introduction of legislation to free road transport sometimes go too far. A useful corrective is to consider what plight free-enterprise carriers would be in had the result of the General Election gone the other way. On the passenger side, it is likely that a Labour Government back for a third term would have been encouraged to press on with area -schemes, thus making it easier in due course to have complete control, if not public ownership, of this cheap and profitable section of the transport industry.
On the road haulage side; the march towards complete nationalization would also have proceeded with even greater -gusto than before. It is not difficult t6 guess what would now be happening. There has not been sufficient time since the election for any significant change in the Nation's affairs to become apparent. One must assume that at the moment the state of the country is very much what it would have been with Mr. Attlee still in Downing Street and Mr. Barnes in Berkeley Square. Undoubtedly, the Conservatives took over at a difficult time which was fast becoming 'desperate. Industrial output has stopped rising after a decline in momentum throughout 1951. Some industries are more affected than others, but the general trend cannot be disguised.
Had the Socialists remained in power, what would have happened to road transport, an industry ever sensitive to fluctuations in output? The Road Haulage Executive would promptly have countered the fall in traffic by shedding the load—somebody else's load. The policy of squeezing the haulier would have been carried one stage further.
The process which began two years ago on what was known as the appointed day has advanced by degrees much according to plan. Approximately 12,000 original permits were granted out of 17,500 applications. The R.H.E. devoted the next 12 months to a careful study of the range covered by the permits valid during that time, and was ready" at the end of the year to revoke nearly half the original permits and to reduce the scope Of half of the remainder.
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Ultimate Idea In carrying out this phase of the campaign, the R.H.E. made clear, either by direct statement or by implication, what it was trying to achieve. The ultimate ideal was the restriction of every free-enterprise haulier to the bare 25-mile radius unless he were carrying excluded traffic—and the R.H.E. had separate plans for elbowing him out of that field. In the meantime, he must be given sufficient scope to take the traffic which the R.H.E. was unready or unwilling to carry.
For his own welfare, the R.H.E. had little regard, taking the line that it was acting in accordance with the terms of the Transport Act and that the Act provided a remedy for the haulier with a genuine grievance. Indeed, it was only the recognition of a gross flaw in the Act indefensibly depriving certain hauliers of any claim to compensation that led the R.H.E. to concede to those hauliers the right to receive payment if they surrendered their businesses. These were virtually the only cases in which hardship 'waS mitigated.
If the R.H.E. has its way, one may be certain that .two years hence, when the remaining 6,800 original permits expire, few will be continued even in a modified form. The R.H.E would by that time have made its plans to absorb the 20,000 or so vehicles that might then be offered for acquisition.
In addition to original and substituted permits, about which the R.H.E. can do little until they are next due for renewal, there are ordinary permits which tend to decrease in number and scope, and job permits which are useful in helping the R.H.E. to keep unattractive consignments at arm's length. The system, one would imagine, was designed to reproduce within the Ivory Tower the ideal conditions of the land of the Lotus Eaters where it was always afternoon and time for a . cup of tea. If there be too much traffic, a more liberal distribution of permits will remove the surplus. If the volume of traffic declines, a corresponding number of permits can be called in. As long as the haulier outside the Ivory Tower loyally plays his part, starving in the lean period and sweating in time of plenty, Utopia has come to stay.
Show of Reluctance • Unfortunately, things have not gone exactly according to plan. The trader, the industrialist and the 1 farmer, from whom all traffic flows, have shown ,and continue to show reluctance to accept the R.H.E. in place of the free-enterprise carrier. They prefer to use his vehicles within the limit of the 25-mile radius and of any permit he may hold. For longer distances more and more of them are turning to C-licence operation to escape from the attentions of the R.H.E.
Unable to stop this development, the R.H.E. is all the more anxious to reduce the scope of those permits over which it has unimpeded power. It would not be surprising if protests now arose on all sides at the cancellation of ordinary permits. Only the changed political situation can account for the absence of any widespread complaints on these lines. Although no official announcement has been made, it seems almost certain that the R.H.E. hesitates at the moment to follow ruthlessly its avowed plan of confining the haulier to the minimum sphere of operation provided for him by the Transport Act. He has too many friends in high places. Any marked deterioration in his present position would give weight to the growing demand from Conservative back-benchers that a Bill to denationalize road transport should be introduced soon.
For once, perhaps, the road haulage industry would welcome a little persecution. It would add force to the argument that the delay is making matters worse. The R.H.E. does not appear to be obliging. It prefers to let permits run on from month to month and to wait upon events. The R.H.E. long ago perfected its strategy with the painstaking attention to detail of the chess master who foresees several moves ahead. The game has been held up because of a rumour of an impending change in the rules. The position reached is to the disadvantage of the rival player who has accepted the existing rules under protest. Any diversion should please him as it enables him to stave off checkmate until help arrives.