Anti-Denationalization
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,AUTUMN will be a busy season for the leaders of the road transport industry, who have to make important decisions that cannot be delayed indefinitely Associations of passenger-vehicle operators and of goods carriers are holding conferences in October Political prophets are still placing the date of the next General Election somewhere within that month, and postelection policy, especially if there be a change of Government, must be determined and brought into focus. The return of the Conservatives to power would presumably be followed by an early attempt to carry out the Conservative promise of denationalization Operators must make up their minds as soon as possible how far the promise and the plan for fulfilment meet their own requirements.
For passenger-vehicle operators the matter is reasonably simple. The British Transport Commission has So. far done little to alter the structure of the road passenger industry. The Road Passenger Executive, recently described by Mr. Peter Thorneycroft, M.P., as "a purely frivolous assembly," has done work towards three area schemes, but so far has hatched nothing from them. The acquired bus companies are continuing to operate very much as they .have done in the past,
The Conservatives intend to wind up the R.P.E., together with the Docks Executive and the Hotels Executive. For the most part, the municipal undertakings and certainly the free-enterprise operators will not object.
Denationalization of road haulage cannot be achieved merely by the abolition of the Road Haulage Executive There is more than one possible method, and each method has several stages at which the process may be halted if thought desirable_ No great surprise need be felt if operators, anxious to reach the right conclusion, canvass a wide variety of schemes, ranging from the dispersal of all the assets of the R.H.E. to the retention of the 25-mile limit.
Multiplying Divisions
Most hauliers would be found to agree on the main features of the abortive Transport (Amendment) Bill_ They would like the 25-mile limit to be raised, if not abolished. They would prefer the Licensing Authorities to administer the permit system. They would place upon the R.H.E. the onus of obtaining licences for its vehicles. Beyond this stage the divisions of opinion A few hauliers have adopted an attitude which may best be described as one of anti-denationalization. Although they do not go so far as to approve of the Transport Act and the R.H.E., they are apprehensive at the prospect of a return to free enterprise by many of the people who, voluntarily or otherwise, threw in their lot with the nationalized organization.
The existing state of affairs always finds some supporters, even among those people who would be expected to oppose it. The licensing system now has the general approval of the hauliers whose activities it Was primarily designed to restrict. This is due partly to the real need for some organization in an industry made up of many small firms and partly to the wise administration of the Licensing Authorities. A third .reason is undoubtedly the feeling that the system is not as bad as at first it seemed and that an alternative arrangement may be much worse.
In the same way, once the shock of the Transport Act has been forgotten, and the existence Of the R.H.E. and the 25-mile limit accepted, operators mostly find that their business goes on much as before Sometimes, in fact, the position seems to have improved. Some operators find competition less fierce when it comes from the R.H.E Nationalized transport has increased the price and slowed down the service. Hauliers wonder what will happen if the former owners—more often than not now serving as group managers or in some other capacity within the R.H.E.—redeem their undertakings and gear them up to the speed and economy of free enterprise.
Glad of an Excuse Other operators, forced to concentrate on the shortdistance field, find it to their advantage.. They are well rid of their unprofitable long-distance work, and may be glad a an excuse to refuse it and at the same time turn the indignation of the customer on to the R.H.E. Hauliers who have always confined their activities to short-distance work find little change and see no reason for upsetting the apple-cart.
If the R.H.E. be dismembered, say the opponents of denationalization, there is a risk that some parts of it will quickly come together again. The colossus would merely pass over the fence into the free. enterprise fold, where it might be able to do more harm than when it was outside.
The Pickfords division of the R.H.E., whatever success it may or may not have had with the trading community, has impressed its power and prestige upon the minds of many hauliers who have come into contact with it They envisage a change of ownership under a Tory dispensation whereby the Pickfords organization, gorged with practically all the special-purpose vehicles formerly belonging to the acquired undertakings, would return to free enterprise like a giant refreshed, but with the edge still keen on its appetite for absorption of mom
undertakings
Some hauliers would prefer that Pickfords should be stripped of what they regard as its ill-gotten gains, but should remain as an entity within the Commission. Nationalization on this basis is regarded as a cordon sanitaire, on the other side of which the monopolizers may safely be left to exercise their acquisitive tendencies on each other.
The views of one important group of people should not altogether be left out of account. The majority of the former owners of acquired undertakings who are now with the R.H.E. had little real choice in the matter. Haulage was their business, and when their business changed hands they had to go with it in order to earn a living. Many would prefer to start up again as their own masters.
The Road Haulage Association has wisely attempted to take a poll of their views on denationalization. The Association cannot at the moment expect much help from them in deciding how the job is to be done. The first task, which must be tackled this autumn, lest it be too late, is to secure agreement on future policy among the remaining free hauliers. Huntingdon, York and Montrose„ and L. Rose and Co., Ltd., of St. Albans, Edinburgh and Liverpool; distribute their preserves and other products through A.D.L., whilst the remaining member company is Holbrooks, Ltd., Birmingham, well known for its sauces and pickles.
A.D.L. has split the country into 36 delivery areas. A depot is centred in each, with a fleet of vans. The size of each district is such that the farthest return trip that any van may run from its depot can be completed in a day. Most of the depots have up to 10 vehicles and the maximum single fleet strength is 15. Reading, however, is credited with 32 vans, but this figure includes vehicles passing through the workshops.
Each depot is virtually a wholesale store for the 12 manufacturers' goods. A.D.L. is not responsible for supplying the depots, this being done by the railways or British Road Services. The member cOmpanies them
selves distribute their own products within a radius of about 30 miles of their factories, thus -avoiding dupli; cation of handling. Normally, however, the • depots stock the goods of all manufacturers. Orders taken by representatives are sent to the depots, and invoices are prepared at the depots and delivered with the goods.
All the A.D.L. vehicles run under A or B licences, according to the decisions of the individual Licensing Authorities, although the powers' granted under them are the same. Vehicles may be switched from one depot to another as occasion demands. Permits have been granted by the Road Haulage Executive, so that A.D.L.'s work continues normally.
Most of the company's,vanszre Commers of the Q.2, Q:3 and Q.4 types, there being 145 of the lightest model. Oil engines in some of the Q.4s are being tried, as the result of .experience with six Vulcan 6-tonners in the fleet. Other vehicles are 16 Guy petrol-engined