A case for handling
Page 31
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IT was probably Confucius who said: "He who would run with the pack must learn to bark like a wolf." Whoever said it, the moral is universal and is worth considering at the moment by those road carriers who are hammering home the theme that road transport is part of the national production line and must be treated on the same terms as the manufacturing industries.
It is very necessary that transport should be regarded in this way and encouraging to see that the Road Haulage Association's proposed new constitution would tend to promote this. But it is equally necessary that the protagonists should realize and accept the corresponding extra duties and responsibilities which such status may involve.
One aspect of this is to be seen in materials handling. As reported in this issue, a full-scale meeting of the National Joint Council was thrown open to the Press last week for the first time and, as though it were not obvious enough from a common-sense consideration, matters of interest and importance to road transport were touched upon in the report of study group after study group. And how many of our associations are members of this national body? One . . . the Institute of Road Transport Engineers. How many hauliers? Two . . . and both are involved through their other interests as much as through actual transport operations.
One looks in vain through the 130-strong membership list for such initials as RHA, TRTA, BRS (although the railways and docks boards are members). Yet the committees and groups of this Council are discussing and making recommendations on such matters as bulk handling, the possibilities of a national pallet pool, space utilization and automation in distribution warehouses and the handling of drums and coiled materials. New study groups soon to be formed will impinge even more directly on road carriage.
The subject provides one example of how the road operator, burdened by day-to-day business though he may be, must learn to concern himself more actively in the affairs of his partners in the national production line—not least in his own interests. It is one way of ensuring that they in turn concern themselves with his problems when they arise.