The Nixon Plan for .
Page 33
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Transport
Co-operatives for Small Operators : Bus Companies to Sell Railway Shareholdings
• SEVER' criticisms of the Transport Bill are contained in "Where the Shoe Pinches," a pamphlet which has just been published by Mr.
C. B, Nixon, chairman of Leyland Motors, Ltd. He reviews the current ' difficulties of the manufacturing and operating sides of the industry and makes a powerful indictment of taxation policy.
Dealing with the Transport Bill, he criticizes its general lack of definition, its vagueness concerning the reversion of nationalized coach and bus undertakings to free enterprise, and the lack of clarity over the winding-up of ,vehicle manufacture, which, says Mr.
• . Nixon, ought never to have been • nationalized. Levy Unjust . He describes the levy as unjust and as bad economics. He criticizes its assessment and the subsequent 'transfer and replacement of units and vehicles on the basis Of unladen weight, rather than of capacity. He foresees the danger of transport becoming debased to a political level and the possibility that valuable orders placed by the Road Haulage Executive may be cancelled.
Mr. Nixon refers also to the "inequity of withholding from original operators who have continued in the business, the benefit of removal of the 25-mile limit until competitors, who may be newcomers, have established connections in long-distance traffic available."
It is suggested that the special A licences to be granted to buyers of transport units should run for 10 years and be variable on a basis of capacity rather than unladen weight.
Facilities should be afforded for co-operative groups of drivers, ownerdrivers and experienced small capitalists to tender for units, and they should be given practical assistance by preference and easy-payment terms.
Future of Bus Companies "The bus groups, the administration of which has changed little since the [British Transport] Commission acquired its share interest, must probably be retained as semi-monopolies," says Mr. Nixon. "but it would be desirable to assure definitely, genuine competition between road and rail in passenger services by requiring bus operators to he responsible for taking over and disposing of the shares in their companies originally purchased by the railway companies.
" This could probably easily be arranged as part of the proposed transaction by which the railways might recover more than their original number of road freight vehicles.
" As it is not yet proved that small co-ordinated groups will, as . expected, be found preferable in practice to larger integrations, it is suggested that as the cost of the Road [Haulage] Executive organization is to be Saved,
some groups might be allocated to railway divisions, along with the return of their road cartage vehicles previously owned (directly or indirectly) to enable them, subject to the issue of traffic licences by the reconstituted independent Licensing Authorities, to demonstrate what may be feasible in road-rail integration with undefined collection and delivery boundaries."
Dealing with impediments to higher production, Mr. Nixon calls for the simplification of Government machinery, the revision of the Construction and Use Regulations, the reformulation of road and rail transport policies on wider technical and economic bases than those visualized in the Transport Bill, the building of modern roads and bridges, and a new system of taxation.
It is pointed out that the increased fuel tax has caused operators to cancel orders for the sturdy type of bus. They have been forced to demand a lighter, less durable vehicle with greater fuel efficiency. This type, says Mr. Nixon, is not so reliable overseas, where heavier, longer and more powerful coaches are demanded.
Taxation at its present level is
violently inflationary, he says. In the case of an oil-engined vehicle, the fuel tax is equal to a tax of £27 per ton on solid fuel and, in the ease of the petrolengined vehicle, the amount is nearly doubled. Special taxation on the motot industry almost equals the gross revenue of the railways.
"The national taxation on a doubledeck bus running mainly on town roads maintained out of the rate fund at a cost of £48m. per annum, is of the order of £5,774, and that on an eight-wheeled lorry £13,264, during a normal life of 10 years," adds Mr. Nixon, " Such taxation accounts for .20 per cent. of the running costs of road transport undertakings, is exorbitant and is economically indefensible."
Penalty on Robustness
The computation of licence duty on goods vehicles on unladen weight penalizes sturdy, design suitable for the ,export market. Moreover, the cost of replacing vehicles out of taxed revenue prevents operators from renewing theit fleets and is slowing down new business. It is recommended that the Government shoukl introduce the tax adjustments and concessions recommended by the Federation of British Industries. Mr. Nixon also says that Customs and Excise duties on oil should be distinguished from road finance.
Duty on light hydrocarbon oil should not exceed is. per gallon, or in the case of home-produced liquid fuel, 6d. per gallon. For the time being, the sum allocated to trunk roads should be raised to at least £60m. a year. Half this sum, which might be attributed to commercial vehicles, would equal an • annual tax on oil fuel of 3d. per gallon. On oil-engined vehicles the tax would then be Is. 3d. per gallon.
Remove Purchase Tax Purchase tax should be removed from commercial vehicles, the annual licence duty on commercial vehicles should be halved and, in the case of lorries, should be based on declared carrying capacity or gross laden weight.
Pointing the way to improved exports, Mr. Nixon says that the Government should find a method to prevent intended contracts between individuals in different countries from becoming distorted by Government and central bank controls into, in effect, international transactions between sovereign states.
Exports which are becoming unprofitable on the basis presumably approved by the Atlantic Powers as sound policy for Germany, should be encouraged and rewarded by a tax rebate.
The Government should support hirepurchase finance of transport equipment at home for the take-over of • denationalized units, as well as in the Dominions and, subject to reasonable safeguards, in foreign countries, covering periods up to five years.