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Why pick on transport?

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22nd September 1972

Page 343

Page 343, 22nd September 1972 — Why pick on transport?

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The Prices and Incomes Board's pronouncements on costs and charges were made after a detailed study of each case. Unfortunately, there is no sign of any such scrutiny lying behind the sharp criticism by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Mr John Davies, of the Road Haulage Association's advice to its members to review their rates in the light of cost increases. The wonder is that the dam has not burst earlier than this, and that the increases are not higher.

One has only to study the tiny and in many cases the non-existent margins on which some hauliers have to operate, in order to realize that they have absolutely no financial buffer against the ravages of inflation.

The recent recession gave the customer a whiphand in not only resisting rate increases but even insisting on cuts. Meanwhile, the CBI's appeal for .a five per cent price rise limit has been by no means universally applied and the cost of some goods has rocketed. It would have increased far more if hauliers had not invested in bigger and more productive vehicles and increased the efficiency of their own operations. True, everyone will feel the effect of high transport charges, but the transport element in any such increase is minuscule. For example, if a 20-ton load from Liverpool to London was charged at as much as £100 including handling at both ends, the price for transporting each lb would be about +p. How much more than that would be added by wholesaler and retailer, we wonder, to produce a fat markup to the customer and probably all blamed on "the cost of transport"?

When the prices of raw materials, engineering goods, fuel and utility services increase so inexorably, it is quite unreasonable for a Minister to single out road transport as the point to apply the squeeze. It is an industry which deserves better from an administration constantly pressing and legislating for higher operating standards.