AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

What Will Happen to R.H.E. Staff?

19th June 1953, Page 35
19th June 1953
Page 35
Page 36
Page 35, 19th June 1953 — What Will Happen to R.H.E. Staff?
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

By Ernest Davies, M.P., Assoc.Inst.T.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party's Inland Transport Group concludes a three-part inquiry into the effects of the Transport Act, 1953. Previous articles in the series were published on June 5 and June 12.

No Guarantee of Employment in the Breaking Up of British Road Services and Professional Men may be in Particular Difficulty: Political Plans May Depend Partly on the Success of Denationalization..

THE future of the Road Haulage Executive's staff is an aspect of disposal which has received less attention than circumstances demand. It is true that the Transport Act, 1953, provides for compensation for loss of employment and pension rights, or for worsening of conditions, but a monetary payment on a lower scale than earnings for a limited period is inadequate recompense for loss of position and security of employment or future prospects of advancement.

The R.H.E. staff totals some 70,000, of whom about H ,000 are administrative and the rest almost entirely operating and maintenance workers. The managerial staff includes many hauliers and their senior employees who were taken over. The position on the break-up of this large-scale organization is bound to be very different from what it was on take-ovei.

To absorb some 3,700 concerns into a single undertaking constituted, in all conscience, a major operation but, for the most part, the employees of the acquired concerns were offered employment and those who accepted obtained a reasonable degree of security. The R.H.E. was an expanding concern and many men took situations in the expectation that they would have reasonable future prospects. In addition, many came over from the professions for this very reason No Guarantee of Employment With the dispersal of the existing road haulage undertaking among a multitude of small operators, as the Act requires, there can be no corresponding guarantee of employment. The small operator who acquires a few vehicles cannot be compelled to take over staff, even if they are willing to be transferred. He will be able to pick and choose those whom he wishes to employ and in a number of cases will not require the services of existing staff. He may be able to carry on his extended business with existing staff or undertake many of the functions himself.

Before nationalization, many operators either did the administrative work themselves, frequently assisted by their families, or employed outside professional men, such as accountants. There is, therefore, certain to be considerable redundancy as the R.H.E. services run down; and as this contingency arises, the determination of the order of the going will become a major problem. The rule of last in, first out, can hardly apply in so large an organization, where redundancy may occur in one depot and not in another, and where personnel have been transferred and many other complications have confused the issue.

It is difficult to envisage the solution of this problem by the Executive and the trades unions concerned. If a large depot, integrated with others in running the directional trunk services, disposes of a certain number of vehicles, and no drivers or others concerned are taken over by the purchasers, there will he redundancy of both operating and administrative staff, because as the number of vehicles decreases so will managerial requirements. Office staff cannot be allocated to specific vehicles and the determination of who is to go first will be difficult in the extreme.

In these circumstances, restlessness among the R.H.E. staff is not surprising. Some workers are not anxious to return to private enterprise, because their prenationalization experience was an unhappy one. Some recall longer hours of work, higher speeds and less well-maintained vehicles, and the evasion of statutory requirements for which they may have received additional rewards. They also dislike the prospect of reverting to the outside statutory machinery for wage settlement, instead of being covered by the R.H.E. national agreement.

Companies Provide Security To the extent that the British Transport Commission form companies to facilitate transfer, the position will be better. Staff will automatically be assigned and if the company is sold, it is only a question of change of ownership. The staff, initially at any rate, will remain undisturbed. The company form of disposal, however, is to be the exception and not the rule; that was made clear by Government spokesmen during the Parliamentary debates.

Although the position is made worse by current unemployment among drivers and-their uncertainty is bad enough, the outlook for the administrative staff is probably even worse. Many professional men joined the Executive with complete confidence that their employment would be permanent, and their prospects for advancement good. They pulled up roots and planted them afresh; they are loth to do it again and time is against them.

Few are in a position to enter business on their own account, even if they were in it previously; they have neither the capital nor probably the inclination in view of the uncertain future of the industry. Most who came from one of the professions would find it difficult, , if not impossible, to re-enter the over-crowded professions whence they came, and to 'obtain a comparable position with equally good prospects. Worse still, many have reached an age when new situations are not easily come by. The over-forties are unwanted men in most professions and occupations.

In all the circumstances, it is difficult to be encouraging on behalf of those at present employed by the Executive. It is my contention that for the present, the al

Commission are likely to continue to operate a certain amount of road haulage, in addition to their permitted quota of 4,875 vehicles. Some men will remain employed, but how many is anyone's guess.

Of the 70,000 employed, possibly only about half will remain by the end of the year if disposal proceeds as fast as is intended; and 12 months hence, requirements are bound to be substantially less. Under such conditions, it is impossible to advise with confidence those who are at present in jobs, wherethere were -good expectations of a secure and improving future.

Perhaps the younger ones will decide to seek employment elsewhere before the market is swamped, and the older will hang on in the hope that the position will adjust itself. Up to the Royal Assent there was a fatalistic refusal on the part of those employed in the R.H.E. to believe that disposal would ever occur. With the appointment of the Disposal Board, and the first disposals imminent, the position has changed.

What does the future hold for the road haulage industry? In this series of articles I have been trying to assess the effects of the Act on both the public and private sectors of the transport industry, but it is largely a matter of speculation. The only certainties are that much of the road haulage at present operated by the R.H.E. will be disposed of to private enterprise, and that competition within commercial road haulage, and between it and the railways, will be intensified as a result of the larger number of operators and the loosening of the licensing provisions, and because the railways will be freed from hampering restrictions.

20,000 Vehicles Left Over?

For the rest, all is uncertain. There is, of course, a number of possibilities. The Commission and the Disposal Board may encounter difficulties di selling the transport units and the companies into which they are to divide the existing undertaking to facilitate disposal, and the reduction in the Executive's services may be slower than expected. For my part. I am willing to risk a prophesy that it will be so, and that by the end of the year there will be some 20,000 vehicles still left with the Commission and that British Road Services will still be operating, although to a reduced extent. In addition, in some cases, other sections of the Commission's undertakings may be developing their road transport side.

Asa consequence, competition will be keen and likely to continue. That is something that not only all prospective purchasers must be prepared for, but existing operators must face. Those restricted to the 25-mile radius are in a particularly vulnerable position, because competition will steadily mount as new entrants acquire the unrestricted special A licences and compete in both longand short-distance w o r k. Further, I am confident that the railways will be serious competitors with road haulage. Up to the present, they have never had a chance of setting the pace. They may well do so now and surprise those who consider them outmoded. After all, the railways, still restricted, were, last year, the most profitable of the Commission's undertakings.

Looking farther ahead, there is great political uncertainty. The Labour Party have stated in and out of Parliament, in unambiguous terms, that they will recreate a publicly owned inland transport system. How that will be done is not yet decided.

Future Political Plans Much, no doubt, will depend upon the extent to which disposal takes place, the structure and administrative form that emerges as the Commission consolidate the undertakings thatremain with them, and the success with which they carry out their remaining duties. Not will the success of the private sector and the extent to which it co-operates and co-ordinates its activities with the remainder of the industry, both private and public, be irrelevant to the future plans of all political parties.

In the debate on the White Paper on May 21 last year, Mr. Herbert Morrison indicated that the Labour Party would take over only those operable units which were necessary for a co-ordinated transport service and added: "We reserve the right to leave in the hands of private owners, services or vehicles which for any reasons are not needed, or because of neglect, are not worth having."

On compensation, he. said that the public purse would not pay again for what has already been paid for out of the funds of public authority . . . . we will pay compensation, but only on terms which will fully safeguard the public interest ..."

These are words which must be weighed carefully by all contemplating entering or re-entering the road haulage industry. They must take them into account with the certainty that when Labour returns to power, there can be no lasting security for the private sector.

Meanwhile, if politics are as far as possible kept out of the industry, so much the better. The Transport Act, 1953, is on the Statute Book and it is in the national interest that the whole of the transport industry, however owned or controlled, shalt be left as free as possible from external or political interference. In the last resort, the future of the industry turns on how well it serves the public interest, and that is the responsibility of all engaged in it.


comments powered by Disqus