Prices Board May Not Support Rates Increase
Page 41
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT THE National Board for Prices and Incomes is to publish its " judgment " on the proposed 5 per cent increase in road haulage charges next Monday— just one day within the time limit it set itself when the reference was announced last month by • Mr. George Brown, Minister for Economic Affairs. •
The report—not just the main conclusions, but the arguments used by the Board in supporting them—is eagerly awaited by a far -wider circle than the people most immediately concerned: the road hauliers. For this will be the first effort of the much-heralded body to try to establish a policy for productivity, prices and incomes in this country.
It is expected that the report will lay special emphasis on the first of these
three objectives — productivity. Mr. Aubrey Jones, chairman of the Board, is keen to make the question of productivity one of the chief touchstones of whether an increase in .either wages or mices is justified, He has certainly taken the keenest personal interest in this first report, which will set a pattern for what is to come. .
Indications this week were that the report would withhold its approval from the proposed increase. lt was believed that it would argue against passing on the admittedly higher costs straight to the customer without trying to absorb part of the increase by higher produc tivity. •
It was suggested that the Board might propose further consideration to see whether a lower figure than 5 per cent might not be sufficient at the present time.
Any suggestion of this sort would meet with determined opposition from a considerable body of road hauliers. Even the deeision, at the request of the Minister of Transport, to postpone the operative date of the new rates for .four weeks was taken only reluctantly and against the wishes of a sizeable minority.
The executive of the Road Haulage Association is due to hold its normal monthly meeting next Wednesday, when the report will be considered. But there may well be a first reaction from the Association as soon as the report is published. Officials have been given a clear idea of the way the Board's thoughts have been going and they will he ready with their Comments.
On the question of productivity they see only three ways of achieving any improvement—increasing the speed of transit, a faster turn-round time and a higher volume of traffic on each journey. Efforts in all three directions are constantly being made, although much of it is outside the power of the road haulier.
'Licence Vendors'
SAFETY experts in the West Midlands last week backed a call for a ban on ice-cream street vans unless the owners had local authority licences 10 use them.. The call came from the West Bromwich Accident Prevention Committee. Mr. fr. Parry, road safety officer for West Bromwich, said that in view of the increasing number of accidents to children the time had come for more rigorous control of ice-cream vans. It was vitalfor local authorities to be empowered to permit under licence the time and areas where such. vans could operate.
NEW ROAD SAFETY GROUP
A N association has been formed for -CA. industrial road safety officers who are employed by companies or organizations ocher than local government bodies. The founder members are front the British Motor
Corporation. Rolls-Royce Ltd.. the Schweppes Group and \Varney, Combe, Reid and Co.
Companies interested in the scheme. designed to further road safety in the industrial field, are invited to contact Mr, H. J. Shillabeer,/WC Advanced Driving School, Abingdon-on-Thames, Berks.