WHAT ROAD-RAIL AGREED
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
ikl"ES WILL MEAN By S.T.R.
Road-haulage Industry Likely to Share with the Railways an Improvement in Conditions and Rates When the RoadRail Agreement is Implemented Our Well-known Contributor Analyses Haulage Conditions and Puts Forward Reasoned Views as to the Probable Effects of the Present Negotiations IWAS glad to tote that Mr. A. E. Sewell (that is the " railway " Sewell) has thought fit to withdraw or at least to modify the statement he made when he and Mr. R. W. Sewill met the Press, to the effect that he anticipated that the railway companies would deal with trunk services and the road with local haulage.
Those of us who are not afflicted with that peculiar form of mental myopia which comes of protracted engagement in. rail transport can see that the trunk road services which now form a network throughout the country are as great a national asset to-day as were the railways in their heyday before road transport, the more modern and efficient system, came into being.
We see, indeed, farther than that. We envisage a time, in the very near future, when that system of trunk road services, good as it now is, will be even better, more coMprehensive and complete in the way it covers the country and more efficient and effective in the service it renders to the trading community at large.
This does not appear, to our enlightened vision, to imply any direct threat to the railway companies, who will continue to carry such traffic as can conveniently, suitably and economically be conveyed by rail. That is always provided that the railway companies take steps to modify their organization, cutting out such dead wood as obsolescent and redundant branch lines, to the end that the cost of handling traffic that does belong to them shall not continue to be burdened by the excess overheads involved in the maintenance and operation* of these services which are undoubtedly in excess of requirements.
• Work on Rates Schedule Proceeding Apace • It is as well to remember, however, that the Road-Rail Central Conference and the regional committees which have been set up under the xgis of that body are proceeding apace with the work of drawing up a rates schedule which shall be agreeable to both parties. It is important now, at this early stage, to try and envisage the probable results of their labour and its effect on hauliers in general and in particular.
In the first place I should like to emphasize that, in flair opinion, the present plan for the building up of a rates structure, combining the needs of both road and rail, is a far, far better thing than was the original scheme, in which road interests were to prepare their own structure independently of the railways. That opinion, of courroe, holds good only provided that there be really good faith on both sides and that Mr. Sewell's observation, mentioned above, was really only a slip of the tongue and not an inadvertent disclosure of the real views and intentions of the railway half of the Conference.
Consider for a moment what would have happened if the original plan had been followed. The road-haulage interests would have spent not less than two years, and A84 probably four, in devising a schedule of rates agreeable to all sections of its own industry, but entirely independent of the views and practices of any other form of transport, including those of the railways.
At the end of that period and at the termination of the stupendous labour involved, the railways, and other transport interests, were to be consulted and, presumably, the road rates structure modified in order to bring about co-ordination of rates as well as of effort. That was the procedure envisaged by the T.A.C. when it recommended that, in the first place, the road-haulage industry's rates structure "should be the product of the industry itself and the rates should be arrived at in relation to factors affecting road transport, rather than by attempting to relate them to rates prevailing in other forms of transport."
It is entirely in the nature of things that the outcome of this collaboration would be to necessitate almost entire revision of the road-haulage rates structure, thus, to all intents and purposes, rendering nugatory the result of years of toil.
• Waste of Time and Effort Avoided •
Under the present scheme that loss, that waste of time and effort, is avoided. The work of compiling a separate road rates structure is short circuited and the co-ordination between road and rail is concurrent with the compiling of a rates schedule which shall be agreeable to both. At the very worst it means that rates will be mutually agreed in less time than it would have taken the road-haulage industry to complete its own rates structure.
Actually, it is probable that a good deal of the strife and ruinous competition which would have been proceeding all the time had the original plan been adhered to, will be considerably diminished if not altogether eliminated.
There is cause for satisfaction in that little, if any, of the spade work already done in preparation of a road
rates structure will be lost. Tentative agreement, I understand has already been reached, for example, upon the conditions of carriage, also on other fundamentals which had already been adopted by the A.R.O. Rates and Services Committee as being essential.
In passing, it may be as well to reassure hauliers by advising them that, in drafting these conditions, those concerned with the work have not lost sight of the fact that there is need to take care that hostages are not given to the railway companies in the way of imposing such conditions as will deprive road transport of some of its natural advantages, especially with regard to such things as packing and handling.
Much good work has already been done in the way of agreeing upon the procedure to be followed. The ground plan of this road-rail rates structure is excellent. I can hardly criticize it, since it is almost precisely that which I myself recommended to A.R.O. at the commencement of my brief term of office with that Association, as Rates Advisor.
That procedure is, in brief, local agreements on rates, espedally as regards traffics particular to each area, followed by the linking up of these in a national scheme with, wherever necessary, modification of these agreed local rates, so as to bring all of them into line.
There are many in the industry, those who are not sitting in council or committee and dealing with these matters, who are apprehensive as to the results, so far as individual hauliers are concerned, of success in evolving a rates structure which, on broad grounds, appears likely to be and may be beneficial to trade and industry as a whole and to road transport in particular.
All hauliers would welcome a rates structure, especially since, in the majority of cases, it is bound to bring some increase in rates. They are apprehensive on three grounds. One, that means will be found to cut these rates. Two, that there is some deep-laid scheme to eliminate the small haulier. Three, that any increase in rates will have the effect of encouraging traders to buy their own vehicles so that, in some classes of haulage at any rate, the operators concerned will lose their businesses and, since the Road and Rail Traffic Act operates to prevent them from changing the nature of their businesses, they will be unable to look for alternative traffics to replace those which they have lost.
• Three Main Apprehensions explained Away •
Taking these justifiable apprehensions in the order in which they have been set out.
The first, the fear that, notwithstanding the fixation of rates and their establishment by law, operators will find ways and means of cutting them.
This can, and presumably will, be eliminated by action on the part of the Licensing Authorities. In this connection it should be appreciated that agreement on conditions of transport as between road and rail will eliminate many opportunities of handing back some of the money ostensibly paid for haulage. A typical example is that relating to claims for damage for miss ing a market Or for other reasons. With conditions properly laid down the haulier and, for that matter, the railway companies, will nitit be at the mercy of the trader, setting one against the. other, as has been done so often in the past.
To appreciate the action likely to be taken in the event of any rate cutting having occurred, let us take an example. Assume that under the new conditions a haulier loses traffic that he has been accustomed to obtain from a particular trading concern, lie suspects that a competitor has in some way cut the rate. He asks why the traffic has gone from him.
The trader probably makes the excuse that there has been inefficiency of service. The matter goes before the Licensing. Authority, who asks the trading concern to produce evidence that there has been such inefficiency. Such evidence there must be, in the form of letters of complaint extending back over a period. If there be no such evidence, then, the Authority will be liable to infer that the traffic has been diverted because of some rates concession and he will want to investigate further.
That is by way of example, as showing that it will not be so easy for rates to be cut, once they are made statutory and provided that the Licensing Authority takes the necessary steps to ensure compliance.
As regards the second apprehension, that the small man may be eliminated. Many may be excused for being apprehensive on these grounds, for no less a person than a member of the T.A.C. has publicly given expression to the view that such elimination will be an inevitable outcome of rates stabilization. That he is totally wrong is obvious to those who have personal and real know ledge of the conditions of haulage throughout the country, and whose appreciation of facts is not limited to one particular type of haulage.
The small haulier, if he be efficient, is practically irreplaceable in any scheme of transport. He renders a service, a personal service, which no co-ordination or co-operation can even pretend to imitate.
An analogy may be drawn as between the railways and even the major units of road haulage and the comparison extended as between larger units of road haulage and the small haulier. Road haulage beats the railway in very many branches of transport because the service is more direct and contact between principals is easier and more effective.
An example of this is afforded in connection with
traffic at the Royal Show. It is the experience of exhibitors that whereas the railway companies take very effective steps to ensure that exhibits reach the ground in time, there is, in the majority of cases, ground for complaint as regards delay in removing those exhibits. The exhibitors are finding that these difficulties, when they do arise in connection with road haulage, which is seldom, can be overcome more readily and provision made against recurrence, because it is possible to contact with principals and immediately to locate the cause of delay.
• The Small Haulier Can Retain Confidence •
With the railway companies the complaint goes from pillar to post and eventually is lost in a maze of interdepartmental communications. The small haulier, with only two or three vehicles, is in personal contact with his customers all the time and the service implied in that is one which the trading community at large would be loath to lose.
In this connection, however, it must be realized that the key word is service. The small haulier who fails to give service will undoubtedly lose traffic when rates are stabilized. Here, again, the sort of thing that is likely to happen may best be shown by way of example.
It is common knowledge that over trunk routes where established and efficient concerns are able to command Femunerative rates and to continue to obtain those rates, there are always small hauliers working in parallel who will operate for as little as 60 per cent, of the rates prevailing. They obtain the traffic only, on a " catchpenny " system of working, because they cut rates. Their services are irregular, comparatively unreliable and inefficient. When they can offer no inducement to the trader by way of -cut rates they will cease to obtain the traffic. That is where the inefficient small operator will feel the pinch.
As to the third apprehension, that traders will buy their own vehicles, it should be appreciated that in thefl vast majority of cases a comparatively small increase in the rate per ton is all that is necessary to change a loss or a negligible profit into a reasonable one. Let those who have their doubts about this consider what a big difference would be made to their incomes by so small an increase as a shilling per ton and they will appreciate the force of this argument. Few traders there are who will buy their vehicles and go to the expense and trouble of establishing a transport department for the sake of a shilling per ton.
The outlook as portrayed above would seem to be a pleasant one. There may be many who will form the opinion that'I must have on a pair of rose-tinted spectacles. The only shadow appears to be that which falls on the inefficient and rate-cutting haulier. For him there can be little sympathy, except in so far as rate
cutting has been forced upon him by circumstances and the inefficiency is the result of that. Such operators, given time and the benefit of improved rates, may justify their claim to remain within the industry and they will do so.
For the results eves to approximate to what I have indicated there must be goodwill, not merely on the part of the railway companies, but from individual hauliers towards their leaders, and one of the essentials for success, I am quite sure, is that every haulier, without exception, should become a member of an association and thus give the leaders, those who are working so hard to bring about this desirable end, the support which they deserve.