Square Pegs Drop Out
Page 30
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NEV1TABLY, hauliers who, by their energy I and foresight, established themselves as their own masters, must find the yoke of officialdom oppressive. Their success was achieved at the sacrifice of leisure and by the application of practical knowledge. Their background is one of independence and initiative. The Road Haulage Executive can offer no outlet for those qualities and is gradually losing the services of the pioneers who built up the industry.
Practical engineers and business-getters are becoming carbon copies of transport managers. Personal initiative, they complain, is of less importance than clerical ability.
They allege that vehicles are returning empty over long distances, whereas, in the days of private enterprise, back loads would have been found. Official statistics relating to a recent four-week period showed that 20 per cent. of the mileage run by Vehicles of British Road Services was empty. Such a high proportion of dead mileage must make appreciable inroads into profits.
In the circumstances, the conscientious unit manager can hardly fail to feel oppressed by what he considers to be the misdirection of energy in compiling returns, when more urgent business -equires attention. If he protests and resigns, he :s liable to be accused of making political capital out of nationalization.
The position of the unit manager whose business has been acquired is, however, extremely difficult. His relationship with his staff becomes delicate. Trade-union officials have been known to take pains to point out to workers that their former employer is now no more than a paid employee of the R.H.E. and no longer holds the authority that he enjoyed in the past. Incidents of this kind may make the unit manager's position almost or wholly untenable.
The question of salary also arises. Every successful independent haulier earned far more than he now does as an R.H.E. official. If his qualifications be more practical than academic, he finds himself in a junior position, and, although the profits on his unit may be high, his salary is not adjusted accordingly. By its very nature, the R.H.E. cannot offer the encouragement that the pioneer spirit needs and has a right to expect.
Everyone who was experienced in road haulage knew that State control could not be as effective as private enterprise. It has always been an industry of small units, and its success was built on its elasticity and the personal service given by individual operators. " Know-how " was its greatest asset.
No matter how good the intentions of the chief officials may be, British Road Services will always be an unwieldy machine. Its administration is. in danger of falling into the hands of clerks who have never driven a heavy vehicle, have no personal knowledge of the difficulties of handling loads and cannot reach those snap, but shrewd, decisions which the customer expects and the credit side of the balance sheet reflects.