1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164 
Removers: still ti no rush to BAN
Page 74
Page 75
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE BRITISH Association of Removers is the smallest of the road transport trade associations — but small is beautiful, we're told. I have known BAR fairly intimately for ten years or so and I've a high regard for its membership and for the professional standards which it tries hard to sustain.
When your total membership is around 1 ,200 firms, of whom 390 are overseas members, you cannot pack a very big fist. Government Ministers will not wait with bated breath for your pronouncements.
Trade unions will ignore you as an Association, though they are respectful to the larger firms in BAR, such as Pickfords, who are not only a sizeable unit within the National Freight Corporation, but also, probably, the oldest road carriers in Europe.
Oddly enough, the smallness of BAR does not prevent it pioneering in difficult terrain, such as the increasingly prickly field of consumer protection. Its junior partnership (for practical purposes) of the RHA does not prevent a little friendly criticism on occasion.
Len Cox, senior vice-president of BAR, openly commented to conference dinner guest, Harold R ussettretiring chairman of the RHA's Western Area: "The RHA's 'softness' to the Office of Fair Trading on prices and charges did not help BAR in recent discussions."' For some 70 years, the interests of furniture removers and warehousemen in Britain were served by the National Association of Furniture Warehousemen and Removers. NAFWR was a mouthful, as was BAOFR, its overseas section, run with a common secretariat but constitutionally separate. It made much sense to re-name, and, effectively, to merge the two bodies under the BAR title.
There was much debate on the new name; some would have preferred British Removers Association, but the initials BRA were thought to be unseemly. (For image-building purposes in this sex-ridden society BRA might have done more to uplift the public posture of removers than BAR, but that is debatable.) BAR is a very conservative body. I recall the prolonged discussions on the form of a national symbol, where a proposal to utilise a section of the Union Jack was easily defeated. It is OK for a national airline to truncate the Union Jack on its tail fin livery, but that would be infra dig for BAR. A trade association that can inspire 10 per cent or more of its member firms — certainly its leading member firms — to send delegates to conferences is a joy to write about. Only a tiny proportion of members could speak if 10 per cent of the RHA or FTA attended a conference.
BAR conferences allow the maximum participation. The old wiseacres allow the Young Turks a good hearing; the occasional interventions from the senior people serve to remind us that the old 'uns have seen difficult problems licked in the past. Difficulties may be challenging but they present opportunities.
Hugh Wilson, general secretary of BAR, was appointed with effect from April 1, 1966. He can claim to have imprinted his personality firmly on the membership, and his many contacts with the media and with public bodies have boosted the claims of BAR to be the voice of the professional removers.
Long before the current preoccupation with consumer protection — which BAR is meeting half way with proposals for insurance guarantees and fairer conditions of contract — NAFVVR had an Ethics Committee. The stalwarts of long ago really were concerned for the reputation of removers as fair men of business. This attitude persists, and if it ceased to do so BAR would be of small account.
But integrity in business, though a noble ideal, presents problems to a trade association struggling to survive in an inflationary world. There is the continuing debate on the merits of recruiting the small newcomers (of dubious professionalism) to join the Association.
The small removers, often with a single van, and a staff of one or two, are a threat to some established BAR members. Hopefully, the new boys would be inculcated with the superior standards of service — and prices — of the veteran remov, firms.
Whatever is done about tl — and the constant outflow members is stemmed with di. culty — there always seem to more removers outside BI than inside. The Associati, ought to have constantly u dated marketing figures b resources, I assume, do not pi mit this.
I understand that one sun, indicated that 46 per cent people moving their homes 1970 used the services of professional remover. In 19 only 41 per cent of people ( so. The decline continued, w 38 per cent in 1972 and or 28 per cent in 1977.
Of course we live in an era housing difficulties, especia for singles and young marriec The figures quoted, I gathi define a professional remover one offering a full service, cluding packing, which mea that the customer is not E pected to hump his piano acrc the pavement or back lawn!
But what is surely alarming BAR members is that the "p fessional remover" need r even have been a member of t Association! Some "profess nals" are not in BAR memb, ship and some who are, are SE not to care about publicly d playing the BAR symbol on th vans or publicity material. 1 tut!
In brief, do-it-yourself v hire with or without driver, ev removals by car-trailer, take merciless toll of an Associati, that has cried in vain for reasc able protection at least for f. competition, since the 19( Transport Act. Yet some Bi members, in the UK, and ovi seas, actually hire out D equipment!
The quality versus quant arguments persist in BAR. T "aristocrats"' of the Associatii are well established, both domestic and overseas wor but it is becoming apparent th
-le number of firms in memberhip, le the representativeness f BAR as the voice of the amovals industry, is highly ignificant. The Foster commitae quizzed Wilson on this.
The same point emerges /hen BAR negotiate, with good ffect, with conference and ther shipping lines for overseas emovals work. BAR cannot fford to become a mere "shell" ffering its shelter, and its
vvice-yearly conference ,eanfeasts, to a comparative landful of well-breeched ernovers, some of whom have ither business, or property, inrests.
Numbers do count, and BAR .annot be complacent about the hare of overseas work going to orwarding firms who advertise, iften misleadingly, and iccasionally go bust, leaving !migrant families bereft of furiiture and effects in a foreign :ountry. Payment in advance,. ..sisted on by most removers, ioes impose obligations to deiver.
For BAR to be a credible juarantee of integrity to the Riblic, it must ensure that its nember firms will deliver the joods, and make restitution if here is any incompetence on he way. Such a worthy aspireion cannot, alas, be financed by 3AR alone. Hence the current roves to compel overseas -emovers, and perhaps before ong, domestic removers, to nsure their services, in the fear :hat if BAR does not insist on :his, a Big Brother Government Nill require it to be done.
Hugh Wilson ts assisted by a staff of six at the Gray's Inn Road, London, HQ. All the staff, and Hugh himself, wear a number of hats; versatility is essential with many diverse tasks such as chasing up laggard members' subscriptions, liaising with area secretaries, servicing committees, vetting new membership applications (senior BAR members help with this) and so forth.
Conference organisation, arranging study tours, the training activities of the admirable Institute for Furniture Warehousement and Removers, all demand administrative effort. The Institute, founded in 1 937, has done, and continues to do, sterling work. It deserves stronger support from some member firms.
How many people, I wonder, realise what a burden of work is carried by the officers of an association like BAR? Committee meetings involve lengthy sessions, research, travelling time — sheer altruism on behalf of the membership with no material rewards save, perhaps, the respect of members?
Of course the prominent members may hope to wear the presidential chain of office one day, with the junketing that that implies, but the office is such a demanding and costly chore that only the well established, or the subsidised, can aspire to it. Last year's president, Geoff Pygall, notched up 82 meetings in his presidential year. He told members in his annual report that if he was overweight, alcoholic, debilitated and slightly punch-drunk, it was all their fault!
Hugh Wilson attended 62 BAR committee meetings last year and these, with accompanying paperwork, took up nearly a third of the 1666 hours he reckons to have worked. Often committee meetings are spatchcocked together at such close intervals as to make the paperwork something of a nightmare, but as much as possible is done to fit in with members' convenience.
BAR is represented on FIDI {Federation Internationale des demenageurs Internationaux) and FEDEMAC (Federation des demenageurs du MarcheCommun). BAR members criticise both bodies at times, though it is hard to see how the international side could function well without a strong British voice in the arena.
Hugh Wilson is also a member of the moribund Road Haulage Wages qouncil, which, he says, has "a secret life of its own", and he sits on the RHA Labour Relations Committee, since liaison on pay and conditions is important.
There are other bodies in which the voice of BAR is heard, such as the British Road Federation and the Institute of Transport. Government bodies such as the TML Advisory Committee, the Office of Fair Trading, the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection, Customs and Excise and the grand-daddy of them all, the Department of Transport, all exact their burden of attention from the general secretary.
There are social functions to attend, often with the president of the day, with such bodies as the RHA and the National Association of Warehouse Keepers.
Hugh Wilson last year visited seven of the 17 areas. He is required to attend a meeting at least once every two years, so this year he will have to make a special effort to. keep to schedule. Public lectures are a regular responsibility and the Institute's training activities provide Hugh with a welcome chance to hear the views of young members. Preparing lengthy submissions to Government and other agencies is time-consuming but essential.
BAR, as such, is a mere infant of six years but its origin makes it 78 years old — or young! I think the Association should make more serious efforts to merge with that section of the forwarding industry concerned with overseas removals and to recruit all domestic removals contractors with any aspirations to professionalism. Most sizeable firms in membership pull their weight, I believe, though they sometimes appear overlarge cuckoos in a nest of fledglings.
Perhaps inevitably, the removers who are patronised by the well-to-do home owners, or who prosper through long-term contracts with multi-national companies and the armed, or diplomatic, services, tend to behave as if they are in a superior league. They should recall the words of Brian Barnes, of Lincoln, in a memorable speech at the recent Bristol conference. Of the "cowboy" competitors with small vans he said. "Don't forget, that's where most of us came from."