Cure for Agoraphobia
Page 55
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RISING production means that the haulier's problem of getting traffic is eased, and it is fortunate that while disposal is taking place the environment is favourable and looks like remaining so after the 25-mile restriction is lifted at the end of 1954. If the road haulage industry takes its cue from the expanding economy, it should make good progress. The fatal mistake would be to cling to outworn ideas and fail to search for the right opportunities.
What with the licensing system and the 25-mile limit, it would be surprising if one or two hauliers had not developed mild symptoms of economic agoraphobia, or a fear of the wide open spaces of competition. Even a slight attack can have serious effects in an industry such as the carriage of goods by road, that is neither a closed shop nor a monopoly. The gravest result might be a mass outbreak of throat-cutting, and even the survivors would be in very poor shape, scarcely able to stand up to the rigours of another change of Government.
Restricted Field The symptoms are not easy to detect, and it is only when they are exaggerated that they are dangerous. I have defined the complaint as a fear of competition, but in fact one of its characteristics may be too fierce a competition within a restricted field. Where too many hauliers are chasing the same traffic instead of looking for something new, I would diagnose agoraphobia; but in moderation such competition can be stimulating, and one can sympathize with the operator who defends with every means at his disposal the-traffic he has won.
Fresh air is perhaps the best prescription. The healthy haulier in a healthy industry is not continually seeking ways and means of snatching traffic from his fellow-hauliers; nor does he automatically distrust any kind of change on the grounds that change may mean he will lose some of his miser's hoard of traffic. The good haulier rather tries to make two tons of traffic flow where one flowed before.
C-licence Traffic Nobody can deny that the traffic is there. In the survey of road goods transport operation carried out by the Ministry of Transport it is estimated that 900m. tons of goods were carried by road in 1952, not a particularly good year. For later years the estimate would certainly be higher. What is significant is that only 276m. tons, or 30 per cent. of the total, were carried by hauliers, whereas 540m. tons, about twice as much, were carried by C-licence holders. British Road Services and the road vehicles of the railways carried the remaining 10 per cent. Another 300m. tons went by rail.
Figures of this kind can be pressed too far, but they do tend to show that the old road-rail rivalry is out of date and slightly absurd when the trader carries in his own vehicles almost as much as the rest put together. The feud between hauliers and B.R.S. could also be patched lip, and January 1 next is as good a date as any for signing the truce. I am not advocating total peace so much as suggesting that competition should not rage endlessly over the old stamping grounds. There are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it, and if a combined road-rail 'operation can extend the area of trawl, so much the better.
Other people have been thinking along the same lines. The rhetorical statement is sometimes heard that the `C-licence holder is now the real competitor of the haulier. This is not to be taken literally. It can scarcely be suggested that the trader is a competitor for his own traffic. There is some truth, however, in what appears to be a paradox. The extent to which a trader carries his own goods is the extent of his dissatisfaction with the services provided by public transport. If a haulier improves his service, he can win traffic from a trader just as he can from a more orthodox competitor.
The attitude of the Socialists is sufficient to remove any illusion on the point. They plan to help the Commission by removing competition, and one competitor on their list is the C-licence holder. To most people the mere idea of spoiling such a useful gauge of efficiency seems ridiculous, but the Socialists cannot forget how rapidly the number of C-licensed vehicles has increased during the lifetime of the British Transport Commission.
His Own Affair Restriction is a solution that is easy and has nothing else to recommend it. The better method is to provide an improved service and to persuade the customer to adopt it The main reason for the 1953 Transport Act is that the haulier under free enterprise is supposed to be capable of giving that improved service. Few traders doubt his ability, and the steps he takes to justify their faith are largely his own affair.
The task of persuasion would best be attempted by the road haulage industry as a whole. In this respect at least, the example set by B.R.S. is worth noting. They made sure that their vehicles Were unmistakable. They spent as much as £100,000 a year on publicity, a good part of it devoted to Press advertising. They had experts ready to speak, if required, at meetings of learned societies and of traders' organizations, at social functions, in fact wherever there was a chance of putting their case to the public. The reasons for any lack of success must be sought elsewhere than in their methods of persuasion.
Primary Object B.R.S. were arguing from the artificial strength with which their near monopoly endowed them, and One of their objects was to retain the traffic formerly carried by the acquired undertakings. Hauliers would want to go further than this before agreeing to take part in a general publicity campaign. The primary object should be, not the re-distribution of existink traffic, but more traffic for everybody.
Hauliers are conscious enough of the risks , of such a campaign. A trader who is made aware through publicity of the existence of suitable hauliers other than the one he patronizes may get into touch with them with a view to a reduction in rates; and among the hauliers he approaches there will be some prepared to rise to the bait. The risk may not be as great as it seems, for
there are few traders simple enough to imagine their haulier is unique. If the campaign is planned so as to attract primarily the trader with new traffic to offer, its manifold advantages should more than compensate for any risks.