Baby, It's Cold Outside !
Page 41
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
ADVERSITY makes strange bedfellows. A cynic would take the point a little further with the suggestion that men seek the co-operation of their fellow-men only when difficulty or danger arises.
Much discussion has gone on among hauliers during the past two or three years about mutual help. A little has been done to give practical effect to the opinion of the more far-sighted that inter-working, through some scheme of co-operation, is the haulier's one salvation.
The march of events is making more and more operators realize what they must do. One point to show which way the wind is blowing—and it is an ill wind that does nobody good—is that membership of the Road Haulage Association continues to increase numerically, even if the loss through acquisition of several members with substantial fleets has meant a drop in its income. Problems connected with applications for original permits last summer led to the signingup of several hundred new recruits, and the burden of the 25-mile restriction is bringing in a good many more hauliers who had previously remained aloof.
This is not the only sign of the present trend. The R.H.A., after all, has a vested interest in co-operation. Leaving on one side any question of counting heads, it is still remarkable in how many different directions hauliers are making arrangements to work together more closely. Some of these arrangements, of course, fall entirely within the R.H.A.'s organization. From the beginning, the association has had a number of so-called functional groups, each concerned with the special problems of one class of operator, or one class of traffic. Among members of a group there has always been a measure of co-operation. One member, unable to carry a particular consignment, would refer the customer to another member.
Deliberate Basis This rathercasual relationship is now being placed on a more deliberate basis. The functional group is beginning to regard itself more as an entity rather than a collection of operators who happen to have certain things in common. Groups may well come to regard themselves as functioning as well as functional.
Where the traffic concerned is subject to the 25-mile limit, there is an obvious extra inducement for the haulier to graft on to his mangled business the service of a fellow-haulier. Nevertheless, functional groups of operators carrying excluded traffics, such as bulk liquids or indivisible loads, are equally concerned to foster inter-working.
It appears, paradoxically, that the ranks of the general haulier have been thinned by nationalization far less, in proportion, than those of the carriers of excluded traffics, whom one would not have expected to be nationalized at all. The remaining operators of these traffics are unexpectedly few in number and have to meet a formidable challenge from the Road Haulage Executive. Their continued prosperity depends largely upon their ability, in collaboration with each other, to give a complete national service.
A similar desire to show the world that free-enterprise road haulage remains a power to be reckoned with, lies behind the, attempts being made, once again mainly within the framework of the R.H.A., to compile and circulate lists of operators. To date, the most ambitious production of this kind covers the R.H.A.'s eastern area.
It does not give one important piece of information, namely, the area within which each haulier is permitted to operate. In fairness, it should be added that the information was not available when the list was compiled, some time before the appointed day. The wish to incorporate details shown on original permits explains why some other parts of the country have not so far followed the example of the eastern area. Following the appointed day, one may now expect to see several new gazetteers, from which it should be possible to compile a detailed map of the facilities available from free-enterprise transport in the areas concerned.
While the 25-mile limit remains in force, no gazetteer by itself can give traders exactly what they have had in the past. Few of them can now find one haulier in a position to carry whatever traffic is offered. They are not always willing to entrust their goods to an unknown operator whose name, with many others, happens to be in a gazetteer.
" Old-Boy " Basis Attempts by means of co-operation to meet the requirements of traders with a preference for using one organization have often been made in the past They range from the clearing house at one extreme, a business altogether distinct from the traders and the hauliers making use of it, to the loosest possible system whereby perhaps a dozen operators pass surplus traffic to each other on what it is fashionable to call the " oldboy" basis and meet once a week to square up accounts. In between, one has pools set up to handle large blocks of traffic, and groups of various kinds, of which the best known are the 20 or so comprising the membership of the National Association of Road Transport Groups.
Reports have been heard of a rapprochement between this organization and the R.H.A. The step appears logical, as practically all group members also belong to the R.H.A. Any duplication there may be in the work of the two organizations will be removed by combining them. The R.H.A. will have the nucleus of the inter-working scheme for which its members are becoming increasingly anxious as the cold wind of nationalization plays upon them. The N.A.R.T.G. will have the prestige attaching to the name of the R.H.A.
The exact terms of the merger have not yet been determined. It is believed that the N.A.R.T.G. will lose its identity and become one of the R.H.A. functional groups. Segregation of the grout) activities in this way will help to overcome the opposition of those R.H.A. members who have no particular use for grouping, or even a positive dislike of it. The business side of the N.A.R.T.G. will continue, presumably, much on the same lines as before, except that its benefits will be available only to R.H.A. members.
Everybody concerned with road haulage will look forward with interest to the results of the negotiations now going on. A suitable scheme of inter-working will be invaluable, not only in helping to overcome the handicaps of the 25-mile limit, but also in maintaining a homogenous road haulage industry in the doubtful months that lie ahead.