Mr. Butt looks at future of road haulage
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"SO far as the future of hauliers is concerned 1 am not pessimistic. There may be temporary setbacks: we have weathered these before and can do so again—even though it is a rather painful business while it lasts."
Speaking: Mr. A. R. Butt, immediate past chairman, Road Haulage Association. His audience: the National Traders' Traffic Association. Occasion: a symposium on the changing transport scene at its congress in Hull on Tuesday.
"As servants of trade and industry," added Mr. Butt, "we know that there is a real need for both very large and very small firms; for local hauliers and hauliers for whom the whole of Britain—and latterly the whole of Europe—is their territory. This is the kind of industry we shall retain if we are to continue to give the most efficient service possible."
Mr. Butt said there was no reason to suppose that the railways were going to supplant road transport even at those particular points towards which a good deal of publicity had been directed.
A warning
"It is easily forgotten also that road transport is developing perhaps as quickly as the railways. One reason for the general lack of appreciation of this point is that the majority of road operators are comparatively small and the changes, therefore, take place over many individual firms and because of this are not quite so apparent.
"I am stressing the present and growing predominance of road transport, not in a spirit hostile to the railways, but as a warning to trade and industry and in fact the whole community. Should either legislation or additional taxation limit road transport operation or indeed make the industry unattractive to those who operate and invest in it this could result in a contraction of road transport services. Should this happen, then except in a minimum number of cases there would be no question of falling back on the railways," he said.
The Government view that it was necessary to devise a licensing system which was an effective instrument of a national freight policy seemed to leave the way wide open for restriction.
"As transport charges represent a large enough proportion of all industrial costs to materially affect prices of all commodities, it should never be treated like a steeplechase, with a handicap applied in order to permit the less efficient to come to the front.
"Now what can we all do to promote efficiency and obtain the greatest possible productivity in transport? The greatest contribution can be made by properly using the facilities at our disposal," said Mr. Butt.
Trade and industry had to tackle the problem of turnround as one of extreme urgency. The provision of adequate space on premises and additional staff might seem expensive but the outlay would repay itself many times over.