Inside the FTA
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r HE ANATOMY of trade issociations has interested me for many years. What makes some successful and others less so? Why do some bodies tend to fragment, whilst others — including conspicuously the FTA — seem to go on from strength to strength?
The climate of the time and the nature of the industry, or section, represented has something to do with successs of a trade association, We live in an age when it no longer gets a horse-laugh to talk of "small is beautiful." Understandably, the bigger an organisation gets, and the wider the field it covers, the greater the risk that a small section of members will incline to go it alone
Organisation and leadership is obviously important. Good quality staff, well paid, will do a better job for members than less well paid, though officers are more likely to be motivated by idealism. The fire in their belly is not fuelled by money alone.
The FTA staff, from the director-general downwards, demonstrate great personal dedication to the interests of the membership. It is this dedication, coupled with the intimate rapport which visits between officers and members generate, which seems to me to be the rock upon which much of the FTA's effectiveness is based.
In the league table of British trade associations, the FTA is
• now fifth in terms of annual income, now flowing in to the merry tune of over Om a year. About a quarter comes from the subscription income of the 15,000 firms in membership. Engineering services, which began as a brave experiment over ten years ago, brought in £889,448 last year. Income from training courses and conference fees yield over £200,000 a year and publications more than double this sum.
It is highly satisfactory for a trade association to record an annual surplus (for 1977) of £162,000, equivalent to over El 0 for each member firm. And this does not take into account the £59,000 transferred to the Property Reserve Fund, much of it needed to cover outstanding liabilities on the lease of the former HG at Sunley House, Croydon.
The commercial philosophy of the FTA, which certainly gives it confidence, goes back to the engineering services venture. Today a sizeable property deal can be undertaken, or staff can be engaged for new services, without any fluttering in the financial dovecot. But when Reg Brown and his colleagues launched engineering services in 1966 the commitments made — not least to the inspectors — really were a financial challenge.
_ However efficient and dedicated the staff of a trade association, it is the membership as a whole that provides much of the dynamism. For a start, there are around 1,000 members serving on FTA committees at national and divisional level. No committee membership is static for long; people change their jobs. New members, with or without experience, are absorbed in the general activities and numbers of the keen spirits find their way on to committees.
The FTA publishes an admirable Committee Member's Handbook which must be a Godsend to active members, from the president downwards. Many members of organisations — and this is especially true of trade associations and trade unions — simply do not know how the organisations function. Constitutions and standing orders are wearisome things to read and new members seldom make the effort to do so, but still want to play the democratic role they feel is their due. The Handbook is written in the form of questions and answers. It tells who may serve on FTA committees, the rules and regulations governing committee work, and the way committees are elected or appointed.
Membership of the Association — I quote from the new articles of Association adopted in 1973 — "shall be open to any company, irm or person who or which operates commercial road transport or uses any form of transport for freight, ancillary to and for the purposes of its, their or his main trade or business Associates, admitted at the discretion of the National Coun cil, ". may be drawn from
such categories of corporations, companies, firms, associations (whether incorporated or not), bodies and persons as the National Council may from time to time decide . . ." Associate members have the right to attend General Meetings of the Association but not to vote thereat. Members, of course, are entitled both to attend and vote.
A tride association must devise a pattern of organisation which enables the views of its active members to be canvassed regularly.I say active, because. if people don't attend meetings or read the literature dished out at meetings, or published in the FTA's journal Freight, there is no way in which national committees or HQ staff can reflect their views.
In the FTA there is a quarterly cycle of meetings for divisional and national committees whose timing is so arranged that the national council can know the views of the membership expressed through the 24 divisional committees.
The question of balance is important in trade association work if representation is to be fair, and seen to be fair. Divisional committees in the FTA measure their composition _against the geographical and industrial interests in the division. The bye-laws provide for direct appointments and cooptions to divisional committees.
Some years back the FTA rationalised, its provincial structure and there are now five regional offices at West Bromwich, Leeds, Cumbernauld, Bristol and (for the South-east region) Tunbridge Wells. The regions do not have the same membership strength. John Morris, the South-eastern controller, has almost 5,000 members — a third of the total. But that is perhaps not surprising in an area stretching from the Wash to Weymouth.
Regional co-ordinating committees ensure a fair distribution of resources, and periodically there are lunches bringing members of various divisions together.
The regional controllers have income and expense budgets and targets to build membership strength. These targets are nationally agreed.
Every organisation suffers some wastage in membership. John Morris reckons the loss in his region is around six per cent a year, but the typical membership lasts 16 or 17 years. In the South-East there has been a net gain in membership of over 200 this year.
With some 44 distinct services available to members, the FTA HQ staff can hardly fail to look at things through commercial spectacles. Engineering services, training in the widest sense, publications — all seem hugely successful. Yet the individual member, paying the minimum subscription, can still be satisfied that he is never forgotten by his HQ executives.
There is often Press comment on the differing roles of the FTA and RHA. At the operational level with regional controllers and HQ officers, I suspect the relationship between the two staffs are pretty cordial. They meet quite often in the nature of their jobs, and they often face hostile fast bowling, from critics of road transport, as members of the same "team."
Those members of the FTA
with special interests, sometimes historically based — from .H1'6 constituent bodies who came together to form the FTA — continue to play a valuable role. The commercial committee, for example, has 24 members and a constitution
agreed as part of the "merger terms'' when the FTA was formed in 1969.
The commercial committee advises the National Council — subject to guidance given by the National Users Meetings, on all matters affecting FTA members as users of hired freight, transport facilities by road, rail, sea, air and waterway.
The manpower committee advises the national council on FTA policy on employment and on all matters concerning education, training and development of transport personnel. It monitors the labour situation within road transport to ensure proper representation of members' views. It considers and advises on labour legislation and negotiates on behalf of members in relation to the formulation of such legislation. It maintains contact with the Transport and General Workers' Union, and other unions as necessary, with a significant interest in road transport employees.
The operations committee advises on legislation, economic considerations and other developments affecting the operation of commercial vehicles, in so far as such matters do not fall within the purview of other National Committees. It identifies, investigates and makes recommendations upon any operational techniques or systems of likely benefit to FTA members.
The technical committee guides the National Council on the formulation of FTA views on technical aspects of road haulage operation; it puts such views forward to government and other agencies and it promotes good relationships with the manufacturing and equipment companies.
Traffic management and environmental considerations and the negotiations and representations with local and national government are the province of the traffic committee. It is typical of the ETA's executive staff selection policy that the officer appointed, Richard Turner, has a string of professional qualifications pertaining to planning laws, and wide experience of local government administration. The FTA can be said to pit professionals against professionals where the vital interests of members are concerned.
I had not realised that specialist, minority, interests were so well looked after in the FTA until I heard about the 280-strong membership of the international service. Martin Castle, who services this function under David Green's supervision, has prepared a splendid FTA International Manual, a 200-page guide to the operational requirements in 17 European countries. For added value members interested can purchase supplements covering the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
As a natural corollary, members engaged in international operations can have training for the International certificate of Competence. The FTA provides Carnets and Community Transit Flat Rate Guarantees.
The British Shippers Council, which is to be integrated within the FTA, will complement the user services side. BSC found themselves in a vicious circle — insufficient income to staff themselves properly or to develop, promote or market their necessary services.
Despite its obvious success in catering for the needs of its UK membership the FTA, who are no slouches at the marketing game, affirm no territorial ambitions in Europe. Hugh Featherstone has seen a lot at Brussels and elsewhere of the dire effects of nationalism in road transport politics. A different sort of Common Market would inspire different reactions on this side of the Channel. In any case, as Hugh confirmed, the ETA's traditional policy is to stay close to the specific interests of the membership.
The formal machinery of quarterly meetings, dovetailing with National Council meetings, ensures that the views of the membership are known. But the wheels turn too slowly for some issues to be fully ventilated in time for the staff to respond — as they must sometimes do — to an immediate situation.
To meet this problem it is regarded as quite essential for the senior staff, to Make frequent visits to division between what can be required by law and the desire of numbers of transport people to improve their status.
Not all FTA policies succeed. The long rear-guard action fought against statutory qualifications for transport managers was based on the objection that the exam proposed would do little either for road safety or for professionalism.
Nevertheless, while failing to torpedo the EEC directive, the FTA did succeed in providing a dispensation for the purely own-account operator. "If he ; prepared to give up his right t carry for hire," said Hugh, "h does not need a professionall competent person."
The FTA sees professionalisi in transport as the responsibilit of the industry — not c Government. The money ch voted to CPC examination could well be spent in differer ways to further road safet} Hugh points to the great conft sion between what can be rec uired by law and the desire c numbers of transport people t improve their status.
FTA policy-making, I was at sured, does not stem dispropo, tionately from the very bi operators in membership though the HQ team acknov% ledge the great contributio made in such fields of expertis as industrial relations, financiicontrol methods, etc. There ar times when policies whic would suit the large firms ar greatly modified by the attitude of more typical members which are faithfully conveyed t, them by the chief officers.
The FTA is committed to philosophy of maximum free dom in the transport market and this showed very dead; through my discussions witl Hugh and Garry. Those whi think too open an industry unrealistic, may questiol whether the FTA is wholly ; force for good in view of it structural defects, but its effec tiveness as a trade associatiol cannot be denied. It is a mode association which serves it members well. So well that it i; hard to find a chink in its armou to insert a critical dart.
I think on one score the FT/ could serve the industry well if i made a conscious effort to cate for some retired industr) veterans in terms of the con tribution they could make tc transport policy-making.
Some transport manager5 are retiring at 55 or 60 and think it important that men witia lifetime of experience shout( not just be put out to grass
they feel — as I am sure man} do — that they could continue tc
influence transport policy — no. purely FTA policy — from thE sidelines.
The FTA should produce well-illustrated brochure tc commend the transport and distribution life to the sixth. formers, and others, who wil provide the next generation 01 transport managers. A job here, perhaps for retired FTA men tc proselytize in schools about the necessary role of transport in the environment.