A Little Learning
Page 56
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AMONG large industrial organizations, the practice is on the increase of producing occasional or regular publications for circulation among customers. The British Transport Commission were bound to fall in with the fashion sooner or later. They have now published, under the not very appropriate title of Transport Age, the first issue of an impressive-looking, glossy quarterly magazine, intended to link them with the industries theY seiwe.
. As usual, the introduction tries' to answer the question
, of why the publication is necessary. The argument begins with the assumption that the customer is ignorant and in need of instruotion.Not, of course, that the Commission use this particular. form of words. "It has tong been evident," they prefer to say, " that information of this kind is not as widely known as it ought to be: this, we submit, is detrimental as much to our customers' interests as to our own." This is a more tactful way. of putting the same thing.
Free From Bias?
1 am not sure that the assumption with which the Cornmission begin iS correct. After all this time, it
would _ be surprising if the,.noimal custoiner did not know as much. as he wanted about the services of the railways. If he feels the need to know more, he is not likely to go to Transport Age as an authority completely free from bias. He will read it with pleasure and interest, and no doubt absorb without being aware of it the favourable impression that it is really the aim of the Commission to impose. .
Reversing the usual practice of pedagogy, the Commission beguile him into a pleasant half-hour's reading by suggesting that he will learn something from it. The pill disguises the sugar. The customer may even be prepared to accept the instruction without revealing that he knows it already. If he chose, he could probably. tell the Commission many things about their own services of which they themselves are not aware.
Forced Conclusion The attitude that the Commission are producing, Transport Age as much for their customers' benefit as for their own becomes a little strained at certain points. There is a somewhat forced conclusion to the effect that it is necessary for the customers to know a great deal about a public service, and "above all" a public transport service for industry, whereas they need not know much about most other businesses that serve them. As far as transport is concerned, "the more each knows about the other the better the customer will be suited
both as to performance and price."
Another way of saying • much the same thing might be that to know all is to forgive all. Whatever advantages the railways may hope to get from open diplomacy, the average haulier must have his doubts. He has found his customers not so much ignorant as selective in the things they wish to know. They concentrate on the items where they think the haulier can economize, and not on the expense he is ready to prove he has incurred on their behalf. A little learning on the part of the customers may bea dangerous thing, but to the haulier rather than to them.
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Traders with their, own vehicles are particularly a problem. They know, or reckon they know, how much their transport costs them. The haulier might not agree with their, calculations. Many of their expenses, especially those under the heading .of overheads, may be lost in the accounts of their main activity. But it is not always easy for the haulier to, argue with transport managers. He usuallY has to accept their. discouraging 'statistics before he can fight the battle for his Own.
Suit His Book
Many hauliers might be tempted to say that the less their customers know about transport the better, The professional operator prefers to have, the transport problem presented to him, and to work out the solution by himself. It does not suit his book to have too much advice from the customer. One would have imagined that the Commission would feel the same. They would like the trader to give them the whole of his transport at an agreed rate, and to leave the rest to them.
The haulier must often wish ther6 were fewer Well
informed customers. They are often able, by airing their knowledge, to rob him of the benefits of his -own enterprise.. The milk haulier, provides _the standard exarnple of the man whose business is almost completely controlled by the organization for which he works.
During the war, the Milk Marketing Board rationalized the collection of milk from farms. Each haulier was given his own round. He w-as paid an agreed rate per gallon, and the quantity of milk he collected depended upon the output of the farms he served. The rate is fixed by negotiation between the haulier and the Board, and appeals are heard by a joint haulage committee.
Never Accepted
To save endless argument, the Board, after consulting the road haulage representatives on the committee, produced a cost formula, to which was added a prdfit margin. Hauliers have never accepted the forinula, and have succeeded in getting the agreement of the Board to one or two changes, although many other requests have been turned down.
The Board have at no time been under the necessity of accepting without question any point put forward by the other side. They run a certain number of vehicles of their own for the collection of milk. They show no great disposition to augment their fleet. Its value to them lies in the evidence it can provide to combat claims by.hauliers for remuneration in excess of what the Board consider sufficient to keep vehicle and licence together: Close and expert scrutiny by the•Board has one disadvantage. It blunts the incentive to _make changes that are likely, to result in economies. For example, the s\vitch from petrol to oil may save a good deal of money where the mileage is heavy. The operator stands to gain nothing at all. The reduction in his fuel cost merely brings about a corresponding reduction in his rate.
The Commission are hardly likely to have with any customers a relationship as rigid as that between the Board and the hauliers. Nevertheless, now that the railways are to be free to charge virtually what they like, they may find there are snags in -letting the customers know too much.