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Freight Transport Association conference
Page 54
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UK faces 'transport explosion'
A few years from now, says president Len Castleton, today's existence will seem cosy: facing the future, the Association will simplify its structure • resist demands to divert traffic to totally unsuitable roads • intensify its public opinion forming campaigns
THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS by Mr L. A. Castleton to the 1973 conference of the Freight Transport Association at Eastbourne this week began with the dramatic assertion that the conference was taking place in the midst of a transport explosion. The old patterns had disintegrated, he said, and were being replaced by new and dynamic forces which would call for a good deal of nerve as the FTA moved into the future.
The speech spelt out how the Association intends to face the growing problems of transport organization in the next decade: the FTA's structure being simplified by elimination of the intermediate tier of divisional committees; and the new set-up substituting 24 new divisions for the old structure of 46 areas and eight divisions.
Mr Castleton said the minor revolution wrought by the 1968 Transport Act and the technical legislation of recent years was past; given proper enforcement there were enough regulations to ensure high standards of vehicle safety.
The old pattern of railway operation with which the FT A's predecessor organizations, the TCC and NTTA, had been so concerned for 20 years after the war, had also gone. The decision to join Europe was a thing of the past and it would not be long before the EEC would cease to be a separate influence affecting transport but would be merged into the overall scene of the total transport environment, domestic and international.
Until comparatively recently, concern with the urban traffic problem had concentrated exclusively upon congestion. Operators and users of road transport were concerned mainly with the practical problems caused by congestion and peak-hour-loading bans. "There can surely be no one . . . who believes the urban problem is still limited to that dimension."
Until recently the transport manager and his vehicle often went about their work largely unheeded — except at times of crisis — by company management and public. Anonymity within the company was disappearing fast under the pressure of rising costs and no lorry driver today should imagine he passed unnoticed in the public eye.
In a few years, suggested Mr Castleton, we would look back on the past as being a relatively cosy existence, despite day-today problems. The pace in transport and distribution was hotting up faster than in almost any other area.
Whatever the emotive excesses of the environmentalists the question of transport within the environment was crucial, influencing what sort of vehicles could be used and where they might operate. There would be pressures for designated routes, for compulsory transhipment centres outside towns and for limitations on the size of delivery vehicles and delivery times. The FTA would ensure that options were properly evaluated "and that disastrous half-baked decisions are not taken merely to placate a vocal minority".
As a nation the British had not yet faced up to the fact that a choice has to be made, said Mr Castleton. "Some people clamoured for the larger lorry to be confined to a system of designated routes, but these did not exist and every modest attempt to build them was threatened by a mounting chorus of opposition. The planners would like to envisage a network of compulsory transhipment centres on the perimeters of towns, which would certainly inflate costs, yet the Government still maintained aims at a five per cent growth rate and success in the battle against inflation! Could we face the prospect of up to three times the number of vehicles?"
The FTA had been compelled to commit many resources to this field; the research programme had been extended and two major publications, Lorries and the Environment and Living with the Lorry had been produced. Hundreds of hours had been spent in talks With the Government, MPs, local authorities, the Press and others in efforts to influence opinion. The campaign would need to be intensified where the new county authorities drew up their total transportation plans.
There were signs, in Mr Castleton's view, of a subtle shift in the climate of opinion — not away from the "anti-juggernaut" approach but towards a saner appreciation of how environmental problems could be tackled. A sensible balance had to be struck.
The lorry, along with other traffic, had to accept some restraint. Serious aspects, like small communities astride totally inadequate trunk roads, and the emotive claim that the lorry in general was a problem, needed to be distinguished. Environmentally harmful measures which would divert traffic into totally unsuitable roads, at a frightening price in terms of chaos, congestion and casualties must be resisted,
Mr Castleton argued that for most freight traffic rail was not a viable alternative. Rail's quantum of freight could be increased significantly only by a loss in distribution efficiency, by a substantial increase in the Exchequer deficit or by a major change of policy on the part of BR. Freight existed which the users could and would like to put on rail but which the railways were not carrying. The reasons should be revealed. "I am frankly bemused at the suggestion that British Rail has rejected large slabs of traffic which seem to be tailormade for them.
The FTA's role was to ensure the development of railway policy and a pattern of operations of maximum benefit to users. There was the risk, with a loss-making situation, of the Government being tempted to direct traffic to rail or increase road transport taxation to achieve the same objective.
EEC transport policies, Mr Castleton insisted, were influenced by the massive railway problems of Germany and France. They would be unlikely to agree to a liberal policy for road transport if this resulted in a further erosion of rail traffic and another upward twist in the spiral of the huge railway deficit. "It is a criticism of EEC that such a wide gulf exists between the idealism of a common,transport policy and the harsh reality of what individual governments are prepared to accept when it conflicts with their own national policies.Mundane questions such as tachographs and type approval; drivers' hours and productivity; maintenance standards and overloading had yet to be settled.
Reorganization The major reorganization of the Association had been brought about by the need to save the time of busy transport executives. At present, policy matters were discussed by 835 members sitting on area committees, then again by 216 of the same people sitting on divisional committees and finally by 40 of the same people serving on the national council. The 24 new divisions each with direct representation on the national council, would eliminate a tier of government and substantially reduce the number of administrative meetings. It would also shorten lines of communication to ordinary members.
The present eight divisional offices would be replaced by five administrative regions, Scotland. Northern, Midlands. South East and South West and South Wales.