The Price of Interference
Page 30
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
ARGENTEs1A, being a great grain-growing country, is naturally extremely interested in means for the conveyance of this commodity. In 1945, • following the reopening of international trade, the country was faced with serious and important problems of transport. With the stoppage of imports of equipment and spares, much of the existing transport media became unserviceable and certainly inadequate to convey to the ports the large quantities of grain available.
It was then that the Government decided to go in for road transport in a big way, and it bought abroad fleets of vehicles for this purpose, these being ceded, in due course, to private owners on generous terms. Whilst this solved the immediate difficulty, it sowed the seeds of a conflict between road and rail which is now showing itself, and which is emphasized in a leading article in " Revista del Rio de la Plata."
One reason why the railways had previously been incapable of dealing with this important freight was that their carrying capacity had been reduced as a result of the locomotives being fired by wood, maize and other unsuitable materials to such an extent that some 20 per cent. of what would otherwise have been useful payload was occupied in carrying these bulky "fuels," but now more normal qualities are available. Combined with this increasing railway competition is a fall in agricultural production, so that now many road hauliers have difficulty in finding adequate loads.
Because of the increasing gravity of the problem, the Government promulgated a special decree in 1948, followed by Government regulations from the Secretariat of Transport at the end of that year, which provided for the special registration of all motor vehicles engaged in carrying grain. Dealers and co-operative societies without motor vehicles were required to give hauliers the transport of the merchandise they handled. If, however, they possessed vehicles, they were required to hand over only 75 per cent, of their freight to hauliers, if the latter could carry out the work.
This also applied to grain dealers with their own vehicles, many of which had to be laid up, and they had no guarantee that the hauliers would transport their grain. The arrangement failed to provide a permanent remedy.
Following recourse to strike action, hauliers were given the right to charge higher tariffs, but they continued to demand participation in traffics hitherto reserved for the railways. Another disturbance occurred for the reason that the Government grain buying and selling department, which had previously paid the wages of drivers' mates, ordered that these should in future be chargeable to the carriers. The strike lasted a month, but was called off when certain increases were made in the haulage rates.
Vital Importance of Road Transport To avoid further trouble, " Revista del Rio de la Plata" demands freedom for shippers to choose the transport media they favour, and points out that to enforce the granting of part of any traffic to certain transport interests is unadvisable. Tariffs should also cover all costs and leave a reasonable profit, so that the transport favoured will be that which best serves the individual economy of the consignors. It adds that road transport is a factor of the greatest importance in the agricultural economy of a country, and that the mechanization of farming in the U.S.A. saved 4,200,000,000 man-hours in 1944 compared with labour in the years between 1917-21. Of this figure 1,400,000,000 was derived from the use of motor vehicles. Here, again, however, the problem of road and rail competition has not been solved