C DRIFT
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INQUIRIES into road transport these days usually begin I with the C licence holder, whether the conclusions are in his favour or against him. The people concerned have at least the right instinct, for a comprehensive study of those transport operations the trader prefers to do for himself, and of those he has to do for himself because no suitable alternative is available, should provide a true picture of the nation's transport requirements and an indication of the best way to meet them. Useful information along these lines is contained in the survey of C-licensed vehicles issued a year ago by the Traders' Road Transport Association, but there iS not much available from official sources to match this document.
Once a quarter the Ministry of Transport provide for publication an analysis of the number of vehicles on C licence, and a comparison with the equivalent figures a year previously. The original purpose, as far as it can now be gathered, was to provide information to help to examine the suggestion from a number of Labour M.P.s that traders were running their. own vehicles in order to escape the stranglehold of transport nationalization. As might be expected, the question has never been settled to the satisfaction of everybody interested.
Rapid Increase
There was certainly for some years an extremely rapid rate of increase in the number of C-licensed vehicles. The Ministry at one stage issued a report to the effect that the growth reflected the rise in the volume of traffic to be carried and had nothing to do with the 1947 Transport Act. But there were two schools of thought that agreed neither with this nor with each other. The increase was regarded as evidence on the one hand of the customer's dissatisfaction with nationalized transport, and. on the other hand of the need to force him to give up 'his alleged political boycott of the British Transport Commission.
Although echoes of this controversy may still be heard, they are dying away. The C licence holder is still prominently involved in discussions on transport, but he comes in at a different entrance. The carriage of his own goods in his own vehicles, especially over long distances. is now criticized as anti-social rather than anti-socialist. His fault is said to be that he adds to road congestion by carrying traffic that ought to be entrusted to the railways, not only because they can carry it more efficiently and more cheaply, but because the revenue it brings would reduce their losses, or rather reduce the subsidy from the taxpayer.
Once again, statistics are brought in by both the opponents of the C licence holder and by his defenders, and once again they use the same figures to prove different things. The quarterly analysis from the Ministry is still the only regular information available. One may wonder whether it has now served its purpose—some people may suggest that it has not served that purpose particularly welt—and should be revised so as to make it more in line with present requirements.
Each new set of figures is worth having, but its value is becoming progressively less. After the dramatically rapid increase in the years following the war, progress has settled down to a fairly steady pattern of which the latest figures provide as good an example as any. In September, 1960, the total number of vehicles on C licence was 1,181,665. This was 66,699, or something under six per cent., more than in September. 1959. The total number of n22 operators, previously well over half a million, went up 1 no more than 8,572, or less than two per cent.
Within the various categories of unladen weight ti increases vary widely. They are almost negligible in tt middle categories and most rapid in the heavier class( Most of the vehicles are small, nearly two-thirds of the having an unladen weight not exceeding 1+ tons. Th category alone accounts for 38,042 out of the increase the total number of C-licensed vehicles during the yez up to September, 1960, and the percentage rise within th category is near to the general figure of nearly six per cen By way of contrast, the number of vehicles of an unlade weight of between 1 and 3 tons has remained almo unchanged. The actual increase in the year is 264 on starting figure of 323,074. Above an unladen weight ( 3 tons there are fewer vehicles, but the rate of increa! has been much more rapid. From a total of 100,925 the earlier date, the number has risen during the year I 119,318, that is, by 18,393, or getting towards one-fifth These statistics are being used to support the argumei that the country's C-licensed fleet is growing too fast an in the wrong places. It is not easy to refute the argurnet on the basis of the statistics by themselves, or even wit the help of other available information. It is not sufficien for example, to argue that the growth in the number c cars is far more rapid. Presumably the use to which ft cars are put grows with their number, whereas there evidence of a slight decline in the amount of traffic carrie by C-licensed vehicles in proportion to their number an size.
Such evidence, based as it is on the available statistic merely increases the suspicion that the statistics are n longer doing their work properly, and ought to be aye! hauled. It might be worth investigating in particular wh the heavier vehicles are increasing so rapidly in numb( and the medium-sized vehicles hardly at all and to wIN extent the tendency to substitute a heavy for a light vehicl is responsible for the , change in the pattern of th C-licensed fleet. It would be interesting to know in whic industries and in which areas the increases are taking piaci Another subject for inquiry might be the proportion c C-licensed vehicles on contract hire.
Problems Ahead
Operators of vehicles on C licence might find the inforn ation of great use to them in dealing with the probleni that seem to lie ahead. The grand inquest now bein made into transport is primarily concerned with the rai ways, but cannot leave the road operator out of th reckoning. There are too many people, either becaus they like restriction or because they are exasperated wit the whole intractable transport problem, who are toyin with the idea of restricting or taxing the trader wishing t use his own vehicles, especially for certain purposes.
This approach to the problem is in fact a blind alle) If the implication is that there is something vaguel dissolute about operating under a C licence, the idea mor in line with modern thought would be not to inflict punish ment, but to provide a more wholesome influence. At thi stage the reformers would at least be talking the sam language as the C licence holder himself, who is in th main a sensible fellow and would not bother to have hi own vehicles if he could get the job done better b somebody else.
The aim should be to provide a proper service.