Drivers and Employers Should
Page 25
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Co-operate To Obtain Fair Treatment
A Warehouse Controller, of Leicester, Gives His Emphatic Views On' the Feeling Amongst Drivers Engendered by the Application of the Government Scheme of Long-distance Haulage
F' years the road-haulage industry has been going througli crisis after crisis, which have, sooner or later, affected all those engaged in the industry—both
employers and employees. Until quite recently the employees have looked after the immediate matters affecting themselves, leaving the politics and economics of the industry to the employers. It„ has taken the M.O.W,T.'s last efforts to control the industry to bring home to the employees the importance of the work their bosses have been trying to do. Likewise, the fact that on the success or failure of their efforts depend in large measure their own 'comfort and security. This is all to the good.
It is not for me here ba express any view upon the reasons for the present new Government Haulage Scheme, but I do want to make the point that every action has equal and corresponding reaction. The setting up by the M.O.W.T. of some 300 controlled units has had the effect of bringing home to the employees that they are always affected by the politics and economics of the haulage industry.
In my position as a warehouse controller, I consider that I am in. a favourable position to form a fairly reliable view of the lorry driver's reactions. They are thinking, and thinking very hard. Have they not a right to do so in view of the very good job of work they have done for the country during the past few years? They have not threatened to go on strike Or reduce output; but have got on with the job. " Is there anywhere else where a job has been done better or with less fuss?" they ask. Then why this Government interference? Nor, so far as I am able to judge, does their concern arise entirely because the prospects point to a lower weekly wage packet, although this naturally influences their outlook. But, and this would be worth while writing in capitals, they ask : "Who knoWs the work better than their bosses and themselves? Can the stockbroker manage a 'fish business or a fishmonger become, overnight, a stockbroker? "
Underloading and Delaying Vehicles If you inquire as to what theyare driv`ing at, they will give chapter and verse of delays and hold-ups. I was supplied with details of an eight-wheeler being detained* # in London from Wednesday to.the following Tuesday for a load, eventually going back to the Midlands with 28 cwt.; and of another which, after 4i-days' wait, returned to near Derby with 2 tons. They point out the obvious inconvenience to themselves and family, and the wasted time.
Another grievance is the loading of goods on rail for a journey'of only 4-6 miles. This is being, done, apparently regularly, on the orders of the M. of S. and M. of F. Very often the same lorries have to go to the other end to unload from the railway wagons and effect final delivery.
Another complaint, particularly by men engaged on eight-wheelers, questions the policy of certain R.T.C.s in appointing small or very moderate men as Unit Controllers, which has the effect of bringing the larger firms under the control of the smaller. "Why let all the
experience of these firms go to waste?" they ask. "Have we got to teach these small people-the trade?" "Why do they think we work for the bigger firms if it is not -that, beca'use,of their experience and standing, we find Our work made much easier than with the man with half-a-dozen lorries who wants the last penny, and often lacks the knowledge to get it?"
The above citations are enough to convince one that now, at any rate, employees as well as employers are thinking hard and *almost seething with discontent.
* It is reported that up and down the country the men are holding meetings to vent their opinions and give consideration to the position in which they find themselves. Would it not be the most constructive course possible to take, to decide to throw in their weight with their employers, to join forces and move together step by step to obtain those common justices to which they are entitled and a more generous recognition of the loyal part they have played in the war effort?
Hauliers Could Do Much Better. There are indications that whatever the M.O.W.T. has in mind as regards the outcome of its new scheme, in detail it has only partly been thought out. The appointment of the Unit Controllers may still be found to be the easiest part of the scheme. Wages adjustments call for immediate attention, also recognition of the fact that both owners and staff know better than to have lorries standing about for days to get a load; and that they have nothing to learn from men brought into the new scheme from goodness knows where.
To say that they are teething troubles, will not go down with the hard, experienced men of the road. They put their finger on the spot in no uncertain manner. Then there is (and it is going to last so far as one can see) the psychological reaction resulting directly from the fact that so many large firms have got to come under the control of those possessing only small businesses. To say that it. does not exist is acting the ostrich. Not only employers but, just as important, employees are affected in this matter. Many men are acting as S.D.Ms. and Unit Controllers who, by their own brains, could hardly keep their heads above water in pre-war days.
. The sense of frustration throughout the industry is very real, and is not good for the country nor for the industry. The only way out is. by the whole industry and through the whole industry. Let us all combine.
Combined action is the way out of the haulage difficulties.
Men and bosses must pull together, through constitu tional channels, to obtain that equity which is their due.
[Amongst the complaints which we have heard ventilated by drivers who are now engaged in the M.O.W.T. Scheme is that, in many cases, they have become the " tramps " of the industry. They are sent with their vehicles from unit controller *o unit controller, picking up a load here and a load there, with the result that they are away from home for far kinger periods than was formerly the case. Another concerns the loading of the vehicles. Far too often the size of the vehicle employed is out of all proportion to the weight carried.—En.]