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ESCALATION
Page 62
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ANGER AROUSED among road operators and users by Mrs. Barbara Castle's latest White Paper may, to the outside world, seem disproportionate. Most of her proposals were already known and the new tax on heavy goods vehicles, although harsh, scarcely seems to give sufficient justification for manning the barricades.
• For an explanation of the strong reaction it is necessary to examine the White Paper against the background of the evehts of the last few years and particularly those of the present Government and its short-lived predecessor. Mrs. Castle's proposed tax is then seen as one of a series of actions or measures all tending towards the disadvantage of the road operator.
She has not been directly concerned in every one. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. James Callaghan, was responsible for the 6d per gallon on fuel tax in November 1964 and the additional 4d per gallon in July 1966, as well as other fiscal measures involving National Insurance, SET and investment allowances.
It was Mr. George Brown, when at the head of the Department of Economic Affairs, who referred the subject of road haulage charges to the National Board for Prices and Incomes.
Vigorous language
Mrs. Castle made full use of the Board, however, when she asked for an opinion on a statement by the Road Haulage Association relating only to costs; and she did not hesitate to support that opinion with vigorous language of her own. In one way or another the level of rates has been kept down, perhaps below a desirable minimum, if evidence recently submitted to the Board by the RHA gives a reliable picture.
This has not prevented the Minister's active administration from introducing or promulgating new laws and regulations which in almost every case will have the effect of increasing the cost of road transport.
Specific standards of braking and the arrangements for the plating and testing of goods vehicles are all involving operators in expense. The occasional concessions such as those permitting the use of larger vehicles than before may be of less benefit than expected in the light of the proposals for quantity licensing.
Difficult to complain
Where the legislation is plainly in the interests of road safety it is difficult for operators to complain. They have themselves asked for better standards and have cooperated in drawing up the specifications. Mrs. Castle's sincerity in this respect is beyond question and is recognized by the public. The niggling suspicion in the minds of operators is that she may have a subsidiary motive.
The freedom of the haulier to put up his rates has been shackled. At the same time most of his costs are rising often as the direct result of Government action. Unless he is able to escape fforn this nutcracker situation he may have to go out of business. The danger is accentuated by each one of the proposals in the White Paper.
Arch-enemy?
No doubt Mrs. Castle is not aiming to eliminate the haulier. Her frequent references to the indispensable part which he plays are genuine. Unfortunately, from where he happens to be standing she appears more and more like the arch-enemy in visible form, false-tongued and malevolent.
Much of the White Paper is familiar. The plans for cutting drivers' hours mean a considerable shrinking of the present limits. Considered in isolation the proposals are not unreasonable. Regarded as one link in a plot they look more sinister.
Safeguards against the unjustified refusal of a quantity licence have been emphasized in the White Paper. It goes into considerable detail on the method of making and deciding the application. The conclusion is still difficult to avoid that the basic purpose of the new type of licence is to ensure that as much traffic as possible is transferred from the road to rail, and that if this does not happen new ways and means will be found.
Crowning blow
The crowning blow is an entirely new tax. It will be raised on the heavier vehicles and there will be an additional heavy imposition on the carriage of abnormal and indivisible loads. Once again reasons are put forward which it is hoped will be found plausible.
Ministry research into track costs, which it is well known has been dragging on with little success for many years, has conveniently come up with the verdict that the taxation already paid by heavy goods vehicles, high though it is, does not meet the cost which those vehicles impose on the road system.
If the road operator were susceptible to a persecution complex the facts would fit the picture all too well. Ever since Mrs. Castle took over the war against him has steadily escalated. There is no guarantee that the pro
cess will stop at the point reached by the White Paper. There is sufficient excuse for imagining that at any rate the road haulage industry is doomed.
Obviously this is not the case. Neither the country nor Mrs. Castle can manage without road transport. Hauliers have overcome in the past problems much worse than they now face.
No mean judge
It would encourage them, however, if the Minister would disprove the theory of escalation by taking at least one action which could clearly and unequivocally be to their advantage. Even a genuinely rapid acceleration of the road programme would be welcome provided it were not accompanied by still heavier taxation.
Mrs. Castle has at least signalled her legislation well in advance. The full effect will not be felt for two or three years or in other words when the last application for a quantity licence by an existing operator has been determined. No mean judge of other people, the Master may be aware that in one respect at least time is on her side.
Those operators who now appear dangerously hostile will exhaust their fury. They will pass through a period of resignation and even become reconciled to the new order. They will plan accordingly on the assumption that what Barbara wants Barbara usually gets. The stage may even be reached at which they would become indignant if after all the Minister changed her mind.
Resilient
At her Press conference Mrs. Castle spoke with some displeasure of those manufacturers and operators who were "lightheartedly putting abnormal loads on the road". The spectacle of 200-ton transformers carelessly bowling along the roads to the disgust of the more seriously minded motorist would need a Walt Disney to do it full justice. As applied to operators in general the epithet is not out of place. Most of them have the resilience to withstand the shocks so far received.