A New Era for Grouping

26th September 1952, Page 110

26th September 1952

Page 110

Page 110, 26th September 1952 — A New Era for Grouping

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Co-operative Working Will Keep Hauliers Out of a Jungle of Merciless Competition, but Llie Idea Cannot be Spread Without Strong Backing by the Road Haulage Association., by M icawber IT is unfortunate that the leaders of the independent hauliers are so divided in their opinions about the Transport Bill that they find themselves unable to g:ve a lead and, indeed, have had to ask for one from those who expect to be led. By now policy should have been clearly decided. Instead, not even a statement on the Bill has been issued by the Road Haulage Association. If private enterprise, whose dislike of the Bill is growing, cannot influence changes by persuasion and is not willing to tell the Government to keep its Bill, it could at least be drawing up plans and helping its members to prepare for the struggle to come—the

struggle for existence. -, As the advertisement used to tell us, " Nature in the raw is seldom mild." The Government's proposals are the start of a " back-to-nature " drive for road haulage. If he does not watch out, the haulier will find himself 'back in a jungle which he has not quite forgotten, and with not much more than a broken spring leaf to cover his nakedness.

Survival of the Fittest What can we do to avoid a stupid lack of policy where "survival of the fittest" is the only rule, instead of an intelligent policy of co-operative aid and mutual succour? How can we prevent the playing off by customers of one haulier against another; a frenzy of rate-cutting; short-distance operators looking with dislike and distrust at long-distance hauliers; old hauliers resentful of new, and, as is all too obvious at the moment, the old enthusiasm and belief in the future of the industry gone with the winds of time and nationalization?

Of policy there is nothing but the desire to make a profit. Of planning there is little more than wisdom after the event. Of .co-ordination there is no more than agreement to compete. Private-enterprise haulage is in real danger. Easier licensing, C-licensed fleets vastly greater than before, and the railways newly capable of a degree of competition which only their obsolescence is likely to curb—these call for something more than a catch-as-catch-can style of policy making and planning.

Safeguards for the Haulier

What, then, can be done to give the country efficient and cheap road haulage while safeguarding the haulier, as licensing will no longer do? (In passing, it should be realized that the new licensing provisions of the Transport Bill are likely to be as damaging to the railways as to road hauliers, who, in the new era, can have no compunction whatever in an all-out onslaught on the railways,which they will have to make to survive.) We Must strive to retain the flexibility of independent, decentralized road haulage, whilst aiming to bring in the benefits which co-ordinated, but not hide-bound, operation can give. We must achieve economic rates such as come only if standard rates be avoided and the freedom to quote for the job be retained.

02 We must have something more, however; something that private enterprise has often talked about, but never yet achieved. We must create vehicle and stores purchasing organizations which will secure terms no worse than are granted to those huge operators of road transport, the railways. We must be prepared to build up our own consumers' "co-ops." We must open jointly owned depots for our Long-distance drivers and have industry-owned storage, warehousing, packing and other facilities to offer our customers. We must have our own clearing houses.

In short, this must be the policy of private-enterprise road haulage—whatever can best be provided by individual concerns should be provided by them; what individual enterprise cannot accomplish, joint efforts must secure. That should be the dividing line between competition and combination within the road haulage industry.

How is all this to be done? Of one thing there can be no doubt—the will to do it does not exist at the moment. It must first be created. For a start, the merits of the idea must be broadcast far and wide and converts made throughout the country.

. The R.H.A. would find here a job suited both to its role in the industry and its organization. Initially, the idea must be put to every member of the Association, and afterwards to every non-member. Basically it is not a new idea. We have heard of it before as grouping, or mutual co-operation. It could perhaps best be named "combined operations."

New Hopes for Grouping

Future events, shaped by the proposals of the Transport Bill once they are law, will create favourable circumstances and conditions such as never favourecIthe efforts of previous advocates of grouping. It may even be that those advocates who are still with us have, as it were, worn themselves out, as do all who are born before their time, so that the new effort will have to come from new men. It is still the R.H.A. to which we must look for the first move.

Combined operations are not likely to come from poorly considered schemes initiated abortively by questionnaires sent to people who, after all these years of licensing, still do not know how to complete properly en a licence application form. In fact, the Association should not attempt to formulate actual schemes or organize groups. Its task—and until the idea "catches on" it will be difficult—must be simply to spread the idea.

It is only along such lines that the road haulier will find a fife worth living. The alternative policy would be the abandonment of the Transportiiill in its present form and a completely new approach to the problem. The leaders of the R.H.A. have a grave responsibility in this matter. I hope that the question may be raised at the Association's conference at Blackpool, next month, and that the seeds of closer co-operation will be sown.