Is the Consultative Committee a Flop?
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The Road Haulage Consultative Committee is Making no Progress and Will Not Until it is Free from M.O.T. Domination IT was recently announced that " the -1 Road Haulage Consultative Committee has met nine times. . . . Amongst the subjects discussed have been the pooling of road transport
. . . adjustment of speed restrictions . . . . measures for preserving road safety."
Three months, nine meetings, and the result is " discussion." There is no report of achievement in that statement, which, incidentally, originated from the Ministry of Transport. Nothing has been done. In effect, that piece of propaganda is a confession of futility.
The industry is asking for results and, as none is forthcoming, it wants to know why. To me the reason is Jew-. The Committee is wrongly constituted. It is not a homogeneous whole, but contains elements which, by their very nature, cannot do otherwise than' produce stagnation.
It is worth while to re-read the opening paragraph of this article, the tale of three months' accomplishment, and to realize that even if the Committee had done better than merely discuss the matters therein mentioned, the industry would have been very little better off.
This country is in dire need of improvement of its internal means for transport_ The railways are being worked to the limit of their capacity and road transport, the alternative and, in the majority of cases, more suitable means, is in a parlous state and rapidly deteriorating.
The position as regards the supply of spare parts has become desperate. None is available and vehicles are being laid up one after another.
New Vehicles Unobtainable The delay in dealing with applicalions for new vehicles .needed for andeniably urgent traflic—is there any to-day which is not urgent?—is such 'that, to all intents and purposes, it is true to state that new vehicles are unobtainable.
To complete the vicious circle, those vehicles still usable are being worked beyond capacity as to load, and many of them for 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
It is indeed a fact that, without some amelioration of these conditions, only 20 per cent. of the road transport vehicles of the country will be • usable in a few months from now.
The procedure under Regulation 53 of the Defence of the Realm Regulations, whereby vehicles are being acquired from operators, and especially the method of assessing the amount of compensation as prescribed In the Compensation (Defence) Act, 1939, is utterly to be condemned. As a means for curtailing direct expenditure on acquired vehicles, it is, no doubt, effective. , As a measure of economy, it is the reverse. Operators all over the country are being ruined and are Ceasing to take any part in transport operations for the reason that, when they have been deprived of their vehicles hi this manner they find that they cannot replace them for less than three to five times the price they have been paid.
Inequitable Rates of' Hire No less unfair and inequitable are the rates of hire which are being imposed upon the Industry for vehicles requisitioned by the authorities, Military or Civil. Schedules of rates have been compiled for this purpose by the Ministry of Transport. The briefest study of them shows that those who have assessed them are entirely unconversant with presentday costs of operation. There has been no consultation with members of the industry in dealing with this matter. The Road Haulage Consultative Committee has been entirely ignored.
Amongst the problems which the Committee is stated to be attempting to solve is that of the pools. . Those of our readers who are not directly concerned with this new department of the industry may wonder why_ the Committee should spend much time on this problem. It should be appreciated that, if something be not done, difficulties may arise in meeting claims for work done. The liability for payment for much of the traffic which is handled by the pools is that of the Government. The Ministry of Transport steadfastly denies that it is in any way concerned with these pools, and that in the face of the fact that at Bristol, for example, the pool was formed in consultation with the Regional Transport Commissioner, as also was that at Liverpool, where, it is interesting to note, they actually use Ministry of .Transport notepaper.
These are the things with which the Road Haulage Consultative Committee ought to be dealing, as well
as those which I mentioned in the previous article which appeared in this journal in the issue of November 8. All of them require immediate attention at the hands of soMeone. When I say immediate, I use the word in the old-fashioned sense, that is, forthwith, and not, as seems to be the present interpretation, a few months hence. In a few months the situation will have become so bad that a national disaster will be imminent.
It is absurd to suggest that the road-haulage members of the Committee lack the ability to deal with these problems; we know them and that they are fully capable of handling them. The only possible conclusion, therefore, is that it is the nonhaulage members who are to blame, and that is what I mean when I suggest that it is the constitution of the Committee which is at fault. It should at once be purged of its alien elements and reconstructed in su,c.h a way that its membership comprises only those who are at grips with the situation, who know what is wanted and are energetic and businesslike enough to go all out for what they know to be needed.
There is no doubt whatever that it is once again the dead hand of the Ministry which is stifling what otherwise would be an active and helpful body. The original purpose of the Committee, to present the point of view of the industry direct to the Minister, to act, in a sense, as a liaison body between the industry and the Minister, is being stultified and blocked because of the inclusion in it of members of the Ministry. The Committee actually embodies, within itself, the dead hand which it was deliberately formed to eliminate.
S.J.C,to Take Action
It is good news that the Standing Joint Committee, at a recent meeting, decided to take action, and has instructed its representatives on theR.H.C.C. to press, at the next full meeting, for a statement on the question of procedure and to learn if better progress cannot be made. In the absence of any satisfaction, the S. J.C., will itself go direct to the Minister.
I would suggest that something more than that be asked, namely, that the Ministry be requested to make a statement as to its policy, if it has a policy. The industry will then, at least, know where it stands and; if the policy thus disclosed be not to its liking, or if no satisfactory statement as to policy be forthcoming, can take action accordingly.