Tomorrow Never Comes
Page 59
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"If all the interests concerned can come to me and say they have worked out a practical compromise I will give the 30 m.p.h.speed limit tomorrow."—The Minister of Transport.
NEWS of formal and informal discussions between the Minister of Transport, hauliers, British Road Services and the unions has given the impression that agreement will soon be reached on the raising Of the speed limit for heavy goods vehicles, and that the Minister will then be able to make the necessary order. Rumours apart, there is still no reliable evidence that the representatives of operators and of drivers have done much to close the gap that has separated them
for so long. .
At least it is something that negotiations have been resumed, just as internationally there is some small comfort in the fact that the Russian leaders have seen fit to come to this country to talk things over with the Prime Minister. Few positive results• have come from these talks, and it may be that no definite decision will be reached on the speed limit, although hauliers and unions have co-operated to the extent of going through the motions of the willing buyer and the willing seller.
The passage of time has tended to narrow the field of conflict on this issue. It would be surprising if no progress whatever had been Made in a dispute that has now lasted upwards of 20 years. At least there is no longer any great opposition in principle.
More is also known about the conditions laid down by the unions. They want safeguards on the mechanical fitness of the heavy vehicles that will be affected. They want assurances that drivers will not be made to lake journeys ahat cannot be completed without exceeding a speed of 30 m.p.h. Above all, they want the drivers to have a share in the financial benefits that the higher speed limit is expected to bring.
Enough Restrictions
Possibly the hauliers are willing to accept these conditions in general terms. They are more likely to argue about the precise application, and they will almost inevitably object to the suggestion that the safeguards and rewards proposed by the unions should be enforced by regulation or statute. Hauliers say with some justification that they have more than enough restrictions laid upon them as it is, and are not prepared to burden themselves with more even in order to buy an uplift in the speed limit.
There may be a reasonable compromise on the question of vehicle fitness. Some time ago it was suggested that vehicles first registered before a certain date should continue to be limited to 20 m.p.h. This may be conceded because it is a fairly simple provision to enforce, although operators who have lavished skill and affection an maintaining their elderly vehicles in tip-top condition may feel they have a grievance. Neither they nor operators in general will welcome the additional proposal that heavy goods vehicles should be required to have a clean hill of health from the Ministry of Transport.
Even less acceptable is the idea that adherence to journey schedules should be made a condition of a carrier's licence. If the unions insist on this point, it is unlikely that agreement will ever be reached. No haulier would consent to add another risk to the security of his licence. Whatever opinion his representatives may hold at the various meetings that are taking place, they would certainly not commit the industry without a reference back that could have only one result.
Consultation among the rank and file of hauliers wilt also be necessary on the subject of wages. There seem to be substantial difficulties in the Way of reaching a satisfactory formula. Nobody knows how much extra money vehicles would make if the speed limit were raised. Each operator may give a different answer according to his circumstances, and in the event his extra profit may be completely wiped out by an irresistible demand from his customers for a reduction in rates. In the recent discussions there appears to be some measure of agreement that the benefits of greater transportivity to be obtained by raising the speed limit should be shared, not necessarily equally, between operators and drivers. No plan has yet been .put forward for preventing the owner of the goods from taking his own cut.
Substantial Increase
If higher wages are to be compulsory, they must be incorporated in the structure of the road haulage wages orders. This cannot be an easy task. If would scarcely be feasible to add a new category for the drivers of vehicles with an unladen weight exceeding 3 tons. Vehicles not engaged on long-distance work might find their daily mileage not greatly increased, so that higher wages would not be justified. Drivers of two vehicles weighing 2 tons 19 cwt. and 3 tons 1 cwt. would be paid differently, although there would no longer be any difference in their permitted speed. Even a minor addition to the weight of a vehicle, such as would be caused by conversion to oil, would mean a substantial increase in the driver's pay.
The only fair and sensible basis would seem to be payment by results. The driver who, by taking advantage of the higher speed limit, will find he can do in eight hours a journey that now takes 11 will expect to be paid at least what he is getting at the present time. There will thus tend to be a rate for the journey. Each long-distance trip will have a different rate, and it is hard to see how this principle can be incorporated in the wages orders without complicating them.
Voluntary agreement may have to be adopted as the ultimate solution. This may be distasteful to the unions, who seem to prefer national scales of wages backed by legal sanction to more individual voluntary arrangements that may appear to lead to a system of negotiation with a number of separate operators. Even at this stage it seems hardly possible that hauliers would agree to wholesale changes in the structure of the wages orders; that may set off a chain of other modifications, all of them to the advantage of the workers.
The Minister has pointed out that, unless agreement is reached by all the parties concerned, he can do nothing. Observance of schedules within a maximum of 30 m.p.h. cannot be made the condition of a licence while the limit remains at 20 m.p.h., and similarly the Wages Council cannot operate in a vacuum. The Minister can, of course, decide to raise the speed limit before agreement is reached. He may yet find it necessary to do this.