Inquiry. Into the Chartered Fleet's Activities
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LAST week, in a leading article entitled "The Future of Government• Haulage," we suggested an impartial investigation into the pros and cons of the Government Road Haulage Scheme, particularly in relation to the activities of the Chartered Fleet.
We pointed out that such an investigation should deal -not only with the cost of carriage but also with the effects of the scheme upon the haulage industry, and whether it be beneficial or otherwise to the war effort.
We were, consequently, not surprised at receiving from two normally reliable sources, which have assured us that the information is authentic, news that :there has been an official call for such an independent inquiry as we have suggested. It is even said that it is at the instigation of the Minister of War Transport. Our informants go so far as to give the name of the man who is to carry out this work, and whilst we have no official confirmation of its authenticity, the Eelection of Sir J. F. Heaton would not seem to us to be at all out of place. This gentleman is well known and esteemed in the transport industry, chiefly on the passenger side. Not only is he chairman and managing director of Thomas Tilling, Ltd., but he is a member of the War Transport Council set up to advise the Minister on questions of transport policy.. One of his useful credentials is that in his youth he was trained as an accountant, and it was in this capacity that he entered the service of his present concern.
If such an important move has actually been made, it will certainly indicate that the volume of criticism regarding the Government Road Haulage Scheme has been sufficiently extensive to cause some measure of flutter in the dove-cotes of the Government, and in that of the Ministry of War Transport in particular. No . doubt Sir John, or anyone else selected for a task as important as this is, would be helped and supported by other picked men.
It is unfortunate for us that the big adjourned annual general meeting of Associated Road Operators, timed for last Wednesday at Caxton Hall, Westminster, fell on a date too late to enable us to deal in this issue with the conclusions arrived at there. All prognostications, however, have indicated that it would undoubtedly be an extremely lively affair, and one which must have 'awakened those in control of that body to the. discontent which has been aroused within the road-transport industry at the prevailing conditions, whether or not these can be blamed, partly . or entirely, upon the Government's participation • in haulage. There is little doubt that some of the so-called leaders of our industry will have to look to their laurels if they are to satisfy the rank and file that their efforts, past or present, have contributed to the welfare of the industry.