Fighting tit for Europe
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Many of the British operators who attended the international transport seminar in France last week returned to the UK with a sense of reassurance. It is always dangerous to generalize, but the overall impression was that in matters of road freight planning, productivity and the provision of distribution services tailored to industry's requirements, our operators can stand comparison with any — and at least in some aspects are well in the lead.
There is no magic about this. For years British road haulage has had to live in a far more competitive atmosphere than some of the heavily regulated Continental nations, a situation sharpened almost to crisis point by the new freedoms introduced under the 1968 Transport Act. This legislation virtually coincided with plating and testing, hgv driver licensing and the imposition of a range of higher maintenance requirements and vehicle performance standards. Hardly had these measures begun to take effect when British industry was plunged into recession; and those hauliers who survived represent the survival of the fittest. As never before, the British road freight industry is lean, hard and fighting fit — while, to judge from impressions which were certainly supported by experience at last week's seminar, the Continentals still have their own traumatic experiences ahead of them. In particular, they have not yet been driven — by regulation enforcement or by commercial pressure — to increase utilization and return on capital to the levels which are considered essential in efficient UK haulage companies today.
Our hauliers' prospects on the Continent will also be improved by the £220m-a-year bridgehead which the National Freight Corporation intends to establish. But while this may provide an umbrella under which smaller operators may shelter, we urge the NFC to behave with at least its usual degree of responsibility, and guard against swamping the UK-Continent ferry freight business to the detriment of other carriers, in the process of building its European network.