Snakes and Ladders
Page 59
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AR1NG in mind the many changes now taking place the transport landscape, it might seem reasonable ) ask whether the method •normally used by hauliers ling up their rates is not out of date. The last formal nts on the freedom of the railways to charge what ke will be removed when the Transport Bill becomes y way of contrast, road operators in some Continental ies, especially where road tariffs are already fixed, xious to see the system extended at, least throughout ommon Market (which might include Britain, before )ng).. Hauliers may wonder whether they ought not e a look at their own rates machinery.
y would be well advised not to make any changes . The machinery may seem flimsy, but it has stood s. good deal of rough usage. Its main driving force is es committee of the Road Haulage Association. The menda.tions of the committee are like the pronounceof an oracle. They are made comparatively seldom e interspersed with long periods of silence. They are • ed in response to a widespread public demand, and aple to whom they are directed can ignore them only r own peril and to their own certain toss.
imes the work of the committee must seem pleasur7 rut pointless, like building sand-castles for the sea ish away. Many road haulage rates have a ate fluidity. They are at the mercy of competition other hauliers and from other forms of transport, bludgeoning tactics sometimes used by unscrupulous .g houses, or of the mere idle threat by the customer his own vehicles on the road. The game of snakes tdders that some hauliers make of their business Is on the throw of a dice. If they are lucky, they go not, they come down.
;er inspection makes it possible to distinguish several ries of rates and to classify them in various ways.
• ticular, it is useful to separate those that are fixed those that are variable, •the gilt-edged from the rial. Where there are regular customers, or where the is such that rates schedules have to be drawn up, measure of stability is purchased at the cost of lity. More than usually good reason has to be given iy increase in the rates. With new or occasional iers the position is different. The haulier is at least ) quote the figure that would be fair and reasonable time. The only deterrent is the fear of competition, Al a constant affliction for the man with regular work.
variable rates present an apparent paradox. Naturally
they tend to fluctuate more wildly than a fixed ile. Economic pressures are continually exerted to them down. Nevertheless, over a period and on the ;e, they are likely to rise roughly in accordance with ses in costs. Reports of falling rates are true as far y go, but attract more attention than they warrant. r were not very much in the minority, operators would .ng out of business by the hundred. Where there is !.d rate, most established hauliers are sensible enough irge the market price and to take account of any e increase in costs as it comes along.
le graph of variable rates points upwards, fixed rates o keep to a horizontal line unless reasonably drastic is taken to change its course. Properly used, the decisions of the rates committee provide the necessary force. No other body has so much of the appropriate information at its disposal. The committee has representatives from each area and from each of the important groups into which the industry is divided, so that there should be at least one member with the knowledge required to answer practically every question.
The ritual followed by the committee has not varied a great deal over the years, nor is there any reason why it should. The various changes in costs since the last recommendation are all known, and can be tabulated and assessed. Members of the committee are able to Say from their experience exactly what the Changes mean in their own businesses. With so many possibilities for checking, any error in the calcelations is hardly likely to pass undetected. Almost of its own accord the discussion is bound to reveal before very long exactly what adjustment is needed to bring rates up to date.
BECAUSE, with few and minor exceptions, costs have been rising since the war, the graph of the committee's decisions would appear as a series of steps leading upwards. In theory, it shcluld follow very much the same course as the line plotting the average of those rates that it has been found possible to increase as and when individual costs go up. Whether or not this happens in practice nobody would be bold enough to say, and it does not greatly matter. What is significant is that the committee's recommendations have provided practically the only counter-weight to the strong, anarchic forces tending to pull rates down, and have therefore helped to prevent the rates situation degenerating into complete chaos.
If nature were left to take its course, nobody would stand to gain in the long run. Even for the traders who might hope to get exceptionally cheap transport there would be disadvantages. Their disapproval might even be strong enough to keep some fixed rates schedules below cost in the absence of a lead to hauliers from their association. The operators would have to recoup themselves where they could, largely at the expense of new customers or of traders whose requests for transport were sporadic.
Most people would agree that there is enough competition already in road haulage. It would be intensified if operators were given no lead, and their customers no guide, on a sensible rates policy. Traffic would flow more in accordance with price than with service. • Higher costs would be absorbed at the expense of experiments with the new types of vehicle and the training of skilful drivers. The trader might not always know what he was missing, but it would still be his loss.
The haulier need hardly be reminded' of the likely effect on him. From one point of view, the most important of all the committees of the R.H.A. is the one dealing with rates. If hauliers do not receive the right price for the service they give, they might as well go out of business. Some of them, to judge from their own: admissions, Operate on a very narrow margin °I profit, and have little hope of improving the position unaided, even when the evidence of their own rising costs is clear. Sothat the periodical shot in The arm that they receive from their rates committee may make all the difference between solvency and ruin for them.