Hauliers Count on Tory Pledges
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EVERY anti-Socialist candidate in the General Election was sent, last week, a . resolution on denationalization passed unanimously at the annual conference of the Road Haulage AssociStion, at Torquay. It expressed confidence that "the Opposition parties in the last two Parliaments will honour their promises made repeatedly and at all levels, that they will, if elected to power, immediately abolish the 25-mile limit, and work with speed towards complete denationalization of goods road transport."
Over 400 people attended the conferenee-100 more than last year.
Ald. E. G. Ely, Mayor of Torquay, in welcoming the delegates, said he• hoped that the ...Association's efforts would be blessed with fulfilment.
Users' Interests Sacrificed Mr. Frank F. Fowler, national chairman of the Association, replying, said that the Socialists had placed the country's transport system in grave peril because of their blind belief in nationalization. The interests of trade and industry and of independent hauliers had been sacrificed to bolster up the costly and disastrous experiment in State transport.
Despite every legal advantage, the Road Haulage Executive could not give the service formerly offered by free enterprise and still given within the 25-mile radius. Trade and industry declared unanimously that the nationalized system was more expensive and vastly less efficient.
The R.H.E. must be cut down, root and branch. The railways, this winter, faced the biggest crisis in their existence. ." It would be ludicrous," Mr. Fowler declared, ." for them ta expect any real help from the R.H.E., which has become a laughing stock because of its bewildered inability to solvt even the simplest transport problem."
Mr. Fowler assured delegates that they need have no fear aboutthe Conservatives' intentions.
A highlight of the conference was on exhibition of enlarged photographs or British goods vehicles under test by " The Commercial Motor."