BRS Parcels trainee wins RHA essay prize
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• Mr J. M. Clayton, a 23-year-old management trainee with BRS Parcels Ltd, is the winner of the RHA 's 1971 essay competition on the set subject: "British haulage in the Common Market". He wins the first prize of £52.50 and a gold medal and he will present the essay for discussion on October 26 at the Association's annual conference.
Second prize (£31.50) goes to Mr J. W. Finnis, recently retired as manager from Pickfords Group of Companies Ltd and until his retirement chairman of the RHA international group. Third prize winner (£15.75) is Mr M. Smallwood, an assistant transport manager with A. Pannell Ltd. • Mr Clayton's paper provides, writes John Darker, a fair summary of the transport situation in the Common Market but it is much less revealing—as the judges of the competition confirm—in its forecast of how British road haulage is likely to develop under the Community. No one yet knows the effect of entry upon domestic road haulage.
Mr Clayton suggests that a limited number of ocean terminals—possibly including Falmouth—will serve the Community. Freightliner-type systems, possiblyreinforced by the Channel Tunnel, will provide severe competition to long-distance road hauliers whose role may be limited to short-distance distribution. British hauliers, says Mr Clayton, would benefit from acceptanceof the Community's licensing system, gaining from acceptance greater freedom to plan maximum vehicle utilization.
His conclusion that the road haulage industry must "regard itself as a part of a much bigger freight business, and use its skills and experience in co-operation with other modes of transport to achieve a firstclass transport service throughout Europe" will not set the Thames—or the Channel— on fire.