Triton Among the Minnows
Page 77
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TO the extent that It represents a compromise acceptable to moderate politicians of all parties, the Transport (Disposal of Road Haulage Property) Bill should be welcome. The natural but somewhat misleading inferences drawn from this are that the Bill is an ideal solution, and provides a stable framework for the road haulage industry for many years to come.
Somewhat out of character, the Minister of Transport indulged in one or two mild metaphors on the theme when winding up the debate on the third reading in the House . of Commons. The Bill, said Mr. Harold Watkinson, Minister of Transport, "is an attempt to put the pendulum where:it ought to be, in the middle." It is ".the end. of a long chapter, as well as the right end,"
he added. .
The ironical overtones must have been unintentional. When the pendulum is put in the middle, the clock has stopped; and the end of a chapter, 1165R/ever long, is also the beginning of another. -The Bill may have the effect of calming political:passions, but it..Presents a number or novel problems to which one can do no More than guess
the answers...-. • .
Nationalization was intended to carve out a monopoly in long-distance road haulage, and for this end British Road Services were formed. The Transport Act, 1953, aimed to destroy the monopoly. The new Bill will preserve the nationalized organization in an environment for which it was not designed. ft is 'a freak, an artificial creation turned loose in an industry that has never known anything like it. . .
The read haulage industry now consists of a large number of small operators, a small number of larger operators, and one big business, perhaps 50 times the magnitude of its nearest riyal. If the triton among minnows were not owned by the State,. it would make short work of the other operators, or of a good many . of them. It would offer to buy them up on terms they would be foolish to refuse, or it would squeeze them out of business.
Genuinely Free
Neither method is likely to be adopted by B.R.S„ but it is naive to suppose that the existence of one disproportionate business Will not have a profound effect upon the rest of the industry. However Much independent hauliers may desire to remain genuinely free, they will inevitably find themselves responding to the gravitational pull of B.R.S. It is too early to know what the ultimate result will be, but one may be certain it will differ considerably from the ideas of either the Conservatives or the Socialists.
Consciously or unconsciously, checks and counterchecks are already being introduced. • Provision for safeguards against unfair rate-cutting by the British Transport Commission has made a fleeting appearance in the new Bill, and is now making its way to the Road Traffic Bill, where it will be accompanied by similar safeguards to protect the Commission against hauliers. This complementary provision, added as a sop to the Socialists, merely draws attention to the oddness of the situation. Cut-throat competition the hauliers have always had with them, but until now nobody has thought to propose that it should be restrained by force of legal measures. In whichever Bill it is inserted, the clause will be a dead letter from the beginning. According to the original drafting, an A or B licence might be suspended or revoked if the rates charged were insufficient to meet the costs, and if competitors were thereby placed at an undue or unfair disadvantage. The competitor who complains must presumably first find what rates are being charged, and must then prove they are both inadequate and unfair. Neither task is likely to be easy, and even when a case can be proved to the hilt -there is no certainty that the Licensing Authority will take the drastic step of revoking the offender's licence.
During the war and for some time afterwards, a customer was entitled to legal redress if a haulier overi charged him. Although therefore_ the.customer had a direct interest in bringing a case, hardly any use was made of the Road Haulage and Hire (Charges). Orders. A similar neglect is in store for the proposed legislation to ban rate-cutting.
No Justification
The Government seem to think no new licensing provisions are necessary to meet the situation-created by the new Bill. A possible exception • is the decision to deprive of licences 582 of the 7,750 general haulage vehicles that B.R.S. will retain. As the Socialists have been quick to point out, there is no logical justification for this decision.
The Minister has given the practical justification. "This provision," he has said, "merely puts up-on the
Commission the necessity to ask, for 1933 Act licences for these lorries, and if the Commission can justify the licences on the normal grounds it will get them." There is here a partial recognition of the fact that, once the Bill becomes law, if not sooner, the licensed fleet of B.R.S. will expand. There is something to he said for leaving a little slack to be taken up at the outset.
Already there are portents of a determined onslaught hy B.R.S. in the licensing courts. At present they are filling up gaps left by migrating purchasers of transport units, but further applications may subsequently be made in more general terms, The size and scope of B.R.S. tend to give their applications a strength that individual hauliers cannot match, and recent plans to mobilize defence in the traffic courts show that hauliers appreciate' the danger.
During the report stage of the Transport (Disposal of Road Haulage Property) Bill, Mr. Gerald Nabarro, M.P., drew attention to another important difference between nationalized and independent transport. The Commission are able to raise loans at a rate of interest
far below the rates available to hauliers. Mr. Nabarro might have added that the Commission also escaped the hazard of bankruptcy, and would continue to operate even if they made a loss.
The third reading of the Bill was more of a military display than a genuine' battle. Whether they knew it or not, both sides were aiming at dummy targets. It
may have been too much to expect the House of Commons to devote attention to the problematical effects
of the Bill on the structure of the road haulage industry. The first signs of these effects may become apparent even before the Disposal Bill finally reaches the Statute Book.