Users Learn the Value of Road Haulage
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The Railways in Decline and Road Transport in the Ascendency : A Fight Against the Stranglehold of the Licensing System : Customers' Aid Needed By R. N. Ingram,
National Chairman, Road Haulage Association TRENDS. that have been clear for a long time to most people within the transport industry are likely to become even more pronounced during 1960. Once they have impressed themselves upon the general public and particularly on the politicians, hauliers may hope more confidently than ever before that measures for which they have been pressing over the past few years will be put in
train. .
11 becomes less and less possible to disguise the inevitable decline in the importance of the railways. The figures speak for themselves. A decade ago, in 1949, 280m. tons of goods traffic went by rail. In 1958 the figure dropped to 243m. tons and is likely to be still lower for the year just ended.
The outlook for the railways is even more gloomy when consideration is restricted to merchandise and livestock— the kind of traffic on which the British Transport Commission ought to be pinning their hopes for the future, as less coal and coke traffic becomes available. There were 55m. tons of merchandise and livestock carried in 1949. For each subsequent year the figure has been less until it dropped to 37m. tons in 1958.
Big Increase in Traffic
During this period of 10 years, industrial production, and presumably traffic available for transport, has risen by approximately 40 per cent. The latter part of the period has also seen the much-heralded beginnings of the gigantic modernization scheme that will in the end cost at least .EI,500m., in addition to the £400m. due to be lent by the Government in a somewhat optimistic effort to neutralize the growing annual deficits and the interest payments on the money borrowed for modernization.
In contrast with road users, the railways are given the maximum tax benefits possible, and do not, of course, have to pay anything that corresponds to the £560m. or more that is taken from road users each year in special taxation.
The remorseless drop in railway activity in spite of feather-bedding by the Government makes inevitable a reappraisal on lines far more drastic than was carried out by the Commission themselves last July. So rapidly are the railways moving towards disaster that the new reappraisal may well have to take place this year.
Parliament can scarcely avoid noticing the contrast between the liabilities of the railways and the dividends that the national economy will draw from the encouragement of road haulage. An industry that operates only onefifth or one-sixth of the total available fleet for carrying goods by road nevertheless transports some 30 per cent. of all the traffic by all forms of inland transport. It B8 would be difficult to exaggerate the importance to the trader and the manufacturer of the road haulage vehicles that are used with such economy as well as with efficiency: The intensive use by hauliers of their vehicles must also be a material factor in keeping down road congestion.
Road haulage has been .a major industry for a long time, but until recently few people have recognized the fact. The fault may be with the hauliers themselves. Practical men, mostly with small businesses, they have been satisfied with the obvious confidence shown in them by their customers and have seen no need to advertise their services further. They should by now have learnt their lesson. Their political enemies, perhaps regarding them as of little importance, have attacked them vigorously and. may well have been surprised that the counter-attack was equally vigorous, and, more important still, has succeeded.
The Bogy of Normal User
In the meantime the commercial rivals of the hauliers, making excellent use of the favourable legislation passed in 1933 and 1953, have succeeded in winning some awkward cases in the traffic courts and before the Transport Tribunal. The question of normal user will be very much to the fore in 1960.
It is perhaps unfortunate for the railways that the threat has come to a head only after hauliers have realized something of their true value to the community, and incidentally to appreciate the advantages of united action and well-organized publicity. In fighting against the growiag stranglehold of the licensing system, hauliers can say with truth that they are not merely fighting a selfish battle, but that reasonable freedom for them to develop and expand is equally vital to the wide variety of industries that they serve.
The effect on the customer of the growing importance of road haulage can also do nothing but good. The Road Haulage Association have already, at different times,`taken the lead in seeking the co-operation of trade and industry to meet difficulties that are bound to arise. A few years ago a conference was convened by the R.H.A. on the vexed question of dock delays. As a result, although the problem has not been completely cured, there has been at many docks a definite—and, one may hope—permanent improvement.
More recently the R.H.A. have set up a vehicles security committee to which bodies representing trade and industry have been pleased to send representatives whose help and advice have been invaluable. The closer the co-operation between customers and transport operators, the better for all concerned. Although by no means universal, it does happen too often for the comfort of the haulier that the undoubted efficiency of one of his customers seems to end at the factory door.
The haulier is summoned urgently and then kept Waiting; or he arrives with an important consignment and finds nobody ready to accept it from him. The customer would not tolerate this waste of time and manpower within his own organization. He is coming increasingly to realize that he has a direct interest in stopping the waste on his own doorstep.
There is no need to dwell on the urgency of pressing on with the construction of an up-to-date road system. It is a welcome sign that on every possible occasion the Government and the Minister of Transport agree that the main purpose of building better roads is to improve the road service available to trade and industry. Translated into road haulage terms, this means in effect an improvement in the average speed of commercial vehicles.
There are many factors that can contribute towards this end. Some of them I have dealt with in this article. They include better roads, attention to the problems urban congestion, the streamlining of procedure at the docks and other important traffic centres, and a growing awareness by traders and manufacturers that they have everything to gain from providing facilities for quick collection and delivery.