Delegates are warned: 'Don't cut back on training'
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OPENING the Industrial Transport Association's annual conference in Nottingham on Wednesday, Mr A. E. Higginson, national chairman, said that many complex problems in transport must be resolved by determination, new systems, technologies and sufficient capital resources. Transport and distribution involved many interconnected activities and therefore it was essential in these days of rising costs, more complicated legislation and irksome restraints to conduct a thorough survey of these operations in order to plan for more efficient implementation.
The chairman discussed the changes brought about by containerization; the environmental issues facing the industry; labour relations; and the human problems. Mr Higginson referred to the rising toll of mental illness among workers caused by the rapid progress of technology outstripping other factors, "Inadequately trained management failing to understand the importance of job satisfaction has made decisions without understanding the psychological needs of employees, thereby contributing to stress and mental ill health," he said. Management should look inwards to see whether job satisfaction, the key to good workmanship and health, was fully understood and implemented.
Physical distribution Mr D. R. Hunter, head of ICI's central distribution department. presented the first paper at the conference. He declared: "The industrial transport user needs to have clearly in perspective where transport fits into the wider concept of the physical distribution of goods, and at higher management levels physical distribution needs to be seen in the wider context of any business as a whole."
He said this premise was apparent if one accepted the definition of Prof Peter Drucker that physical distribution was another way of saying the whole process of business; that business could be looked upon as a physical flow of materials.
Dwelling on this conceptual aspect at some length, Mr Hunter said he felt it should condition the attitude of the industrial transport user towards a proper realization of what was his particular function, hence the title for his paper "Physical distribution — transport in perspective".
Mr Hunter said no manufacturer could expect to succeed in business if he did not control to the maximum extent his costs right through to the point at which his customer received the goods. The traffic manager — Mr Hunter prefered this title to transport manager — was in the business of providing services for movement which he could either procure or undertake himself. The reason for choosing the latter course might be dictated by cost or service — in some cases by a policy decision in order to keep abreast of new techniques, thus retaining the capacity to innovate; own-account haulage, too. could help in the measurement of costs.
The manager was, in Mr Hunter's opinion, dealing with a most perishable commodity because there was no way of recouping empty transport. Mr Hunter questioned how the manager should set about carrying out his critical role.
The first point was that he should use the advantage of knowing before external transport providers knew, what demands were to be made upon him for the movement of goods. If he integrated himself into his business he should be able to anticipate movement patterns and even influence them if his advice was sought before the planning of new projects was started.
In his operational role the manager had the choice of operating his own account vehicles or hiring. If he was hiring, Mr Hunter recommended frank interchanges of information and views between provider and user to get the best results.
Looking five years ahead Mr Hunter felt that the opportunities offered by the 1968 Transport Act in terms of freedom of operation would increase with entry into the Common Market. Within our small island with its short distances the potential which this offered, he said, might not be considerable but if this were translated into a European scale, assuming our philosophy about transport prevailed, then a very different prospect arose.
Government and transport Mr R. J. E. Dawson, head of the DoE road goods division, also looked five years ahead. His paper concerned Government and transport during this period and he prophesied that the most important single decision which would affect Government, transport and the relationship between them over the next five years would, of course, be finalizing the entry into Europe.
Mr Dawson speculated as to the objectives the Government would seek in the regulation of transport by the end of 1976. He hoped to see further steps in Parliamentary reform in the way of permitting more minor, non-controversial legislation in each Parliamentary session, and in the field of transport he looked for ,a more managerial approach to business resulting from Civil Service upheavals. He anticipated that increasingly the same language would be spoken on both sides.
Mr Dawson foresaw less secrecy, with those affected by contemplated changes of policy being consulted at an early stage.
He expected that the policy allowing Department officials to address the industry would continue but he reminded delegates that this was a relatively new venture. "If it continues," he said, "and we enter Europe I and my staff can look forward — with mixed feelings — to addressing many seminars to explain the transport implications."
Governmental interest in the environment would grow in the next five years, Mr Dawson predicted, but he was disappointed by the attitude taken by some people in transport to the increasing importance placed on these matters today. "To resist this interest will be short-sighted and doomed to failure," he said. "A much more positive and constructive approach is what is wanted."
Social changes "The transport industry is not at this moment prepared to meet the demands that are going to be placed upon it by the social and economic changes that are taking place or about to take place."
For this reason, said Mr Len Payne, NFC's director of technical services and development, presenting his paper, a better title for the conference would have been "the partial missing link" rather than "the vital link".
Mr Payne said that to meet the future it was necessary to identify some of the factors that would be influencing the social and ecOmomic environment. He listed these as entry to the EEC with the inevitable rationalization of production that this would bring; the higher service levels required by the affluent society; stimulated total consumer demand for products from other countries by a more widely travelled public; greater competition from other advanced countries; traffic congestion in urban areas; environmental forces creating more control legislation as ,society tried to balance quantity with quality; the technological obsolescence caused by the quickening pace of change; the shortage of resources, land, capital and labour; and the demands for greater participation from a more educated labour force. This was the measure of the challenge we had to face and he considered that the need to reconcile demand from a more affluent society with the economies of large-scale production techniques would need scientific distribution to complete the equation.
For too long the transport industry had applied the elements of modern distribution technology piecemeal, each element justified in isolation. This would not be done with the computer industry, for example, Mr Payne suggested, so why do it with transport? "In fact one of the methods we can use to meet the challenge is to systematize distribution and make a proper interface between the different modes. This means embracing the total distribution concept which is based on the simple principle that 'in any one business equation an economy in one element can often cause a greater dis-economy in another element; the inter-relationship of the whole being more important than the savings on one particular part'."
To make the concept work monitoring and control were necessary. Budgetary control was particularly important in the speaker's view and he advocated a clear enunciation of the distribution system, the need to set standards for each part of the system and a need to ensure that performance was monitored. Mr Payne outlined four types of preparation which he thought the industry should make. New organizational approaches in distribution policies should be allied to marketing requirements. Existing facilities had to be utilized to the full and new concepts embraced to solve the real problems of society. New approaches to the labour situation were needed.
Managers were required today, he said, who could communicate and educate the labour force into the objects and requirements of the business by which they were employed. With entry into the EEC this would become more vital than ever.
Earlier in his talk Mr Payne, referring to the shortage of labour, had strongly warned delegates not to be misled by the present high unemployment figures. Next year, he said, the industry would be crying out for drivers, fitters and managers. "If you are cutting back on training as an economy measure my advice to you is—`don't'."
Discussion Opening the discussion following the papers, Mr F. Woodward (transport services executive, The Plessey Co Ltd) said he felt that in the next five years distribution might become part of transportation rather than the other way round, because there were many other aspects besides just freight movements within its sphere.
A question was asked about the ideal background for the prospective distribution manager. Mr Hunter felt that, ideally, experience in marketing would be a good start but practical experience in the operating side of industry was an equally good basis.
Questions were asked about ICI's policy on the movements of dangerous goods and the general effects on transport of entry into Europe. Asked one delegate: "How can we best influence transport policy in the EEC?" Mr Hunter replied that it could be done on a number of levels but he was involved by approaches made by the CBI to its opposite number in Europe. In the end, he said, it would be our MPs who would have to be persuaded if we were to get our way.
Mr Woodward asked Mr Dawson if the same decisions on larger vehicles taken by the DoE would have been taken had this been the responsibility of the Department for Trade and Industry. Mr Dawson said the ,DoE would have been consulted on the environmental questions and these would have been pressed without putting forward the interests of the transport industry. "It is better for you that these powers are in the hands of the DoE which has the transport interests as well," he said. Mr Dawson was pressed for assurance that the DoE did take account of industrial aspects in its decisions and confirmed that this was so.
The problem of guarded lorry parks was raised and the question asked whether the DoE had looked at the problem of getting heavy vehicles off the street at night. The Department was very concerned with this, Mr Dawson replied, and had recently published a report on the subject. Referring to the report Mr Payne said BRSL was also very interested in this problem and was looking, along with other bodies, towards providing commercially viable security parks acceptable to drivers and operators.
Mr Dawson was asked to deny that the DoE tended to opt for solutions to the trendy topics rather than taking a completely unbiased view. The, questioner had in mind the restrictions on heavy vehicles compared with the lack of restriction on the use of private cars. Mr Dawson said that the Department considered all environmental issues.
Mr Payne was asked what he felt about requests for instant delieveries to retailers to meet immediate customer demands. He said that customers would make demands for goods that were not available and as they were not instantly available the order was lost. "The goods must be in the shop when they were required—this is the essence of what I have been saying," Mr Payne declared.
Questioned about the effects of European entry and the penalties against those areas a long way from Channel ports, Mr Payne replied that provided we got our distribution systems in order we would sweep the field. Distribution on the Continent was archaic.
A delegate put to Mr Payne the problems resulting from attempting to make deliveries to the motor manufacturing industry from mid-afternoon onwards. This, he said, was one of the very points he was trying to make; co-ordination was needed in distribution. "I think the distribution of consumer products on the whole in this country is far better than on the Continent."
Referring to Mr Payne's comments on labour participation, a delegate asked to what degree he thought participation was coming in transport and whether it would affect management control. It depended on the style of management, Mr Payne replied, but he believed it was possible to bring people into participation although in the end management had to make the final decisions.