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RHA ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Haulage in Common Market :.Industrial Relations : Environment : Marketing topical issues paramount at Brighton PICTURES BY DICK ROSS OPENING the Road Haulage Association's 23rd annual conference at Brighton on Tuesday Mr W. McMillan, the national chairman, warned the Government that while it was easy to win popularity by measures designed to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, such action could have an adverse effect on the economy of the country.

Mr McMillan considered that holders of operators' licences were working within the standards already set by the Government and suggested that anyone who used the roads to any extent must have noticed that few vehicles fell below that standard. The chairman conceded that there were "pirate" operators who offended against the environment and declared that they must be eliminated. "We are playing our part as the organization representing legitimate hauliers by encouraging our members to provide evidence of undesirable operators which can be passed on to the Department of the Environment for action", he said.

Continental challenge for UK traffic

"BRITISH HAULIERS must expect to face serious competition both at home and in Europe in the future." This warning was issued by Mr J. M. Clayton, National Freight Corporation management trainee, when he presented his winning RHA essay on Tuesday.

Mr Clayton saw the competition coming from. two quarters. He reminded the conference that the railway systems of Europe, particularly France and Germany, had traditionally been propped up at the expense of road haulage. He could not see that our entry into Europe would make ely appreciable alteration in this situation. The other source of competition he saw coming from Continentals who would have freer access to UK traffic than at present.

Mr Clayton told the delegates that European restrictions would hamper their operations in the face of this fiercer competition — he pointed out, for example, that more and more European cities were banning the use of heavy vehicles in the city centres and that transfer terminals were becoming the order of the day. In this respect he imagined that liner train traffic using the Channel tunnel when it came into operation would cream off much more road traffic than many people imagined.

There was a , possibility, he said, that while the 1968 Transport Act had almost obliterated the distinction between own-account and hire and reward work in this country, entry into Europe might reintroduce that distinction. He could see that while own account operation might go unhampered, some new form of licensing for professional haulage might be implemented.

In the discussion which followed, Mr P. R. May (Met and SE area) suggested that negotiations for terms of entry should include a provision that restrictive licensing would not be reintroduced in the UK. Mr Clayton said he believed that negotiations might take that particular road but he felt that EEC drivers' hours and the introduction of tachographs would apply. across the board.

Mr J. J. Baylis (Western) asked the speaker if he could see a change in the ratio of road to rail movement of'90 per cent to 10 per cent. Mr Clayton said lie believed that as the Freightliner system developed the balance would certainly change. On this point Mr G. W. Quick Smith, the recently retired deputy chairman of the National Freight Corporation, pointed out that Freightliners should not be looked upon as an alternative system but as in integral part of the whole transport system,. in the same

way as were shipping and air freight services. He did not believe that traffic carried on Freightliners was traffic lost to road haulage and suggested that Freightliner movement was a service to the road haulage industry.

Mr K. Rogers (Eastern) asked what advantages there might be for British operators in Europe. Mr Clayton believed that the real advantages lay in the fact that 1200 or more British operators would have EEC permits for European operation and that this would be a welcome relief from the severe permit restrictions which they experienced at this moment.

Before he presented his paper Mr Clayton received from the RHA chairman the winning essayist's medal and a cheque for £31.50.

No surprise costs up again

A PROPOSAL by the RHA that taxation of commercial goods vehicles should be based on their gross vehicle weight rather than, as at present, their unladen weight, is one of the major topics being dealt with by the Association's commercial committee. Mr Harold Russett, chairman of the committee, reported this to the Conference on Tuesday morning and said that discussions on this point were taking place with the DoE.

The committee had dealt with many other subjects, Mr Russett reported. and among them he listed the day-to-day running of the Association's cost and productivity scheme (CAPS) as being perhaps the most important. The CAPS report was published annually in February or March, but it would not surprise members to hear that there was every indication that costs had increased substantially again this year. Drivers' wages. maintenance and repairs were the main causes of the increases.

Among the other topics covered by Mr Russett in his report was that of increased postal charges which added an estimated f+m to Association members' costs. Individually, the increases were estimated at E2.10 per vehicle per year.

Overloading and the legal responsibilities were matters which caused the committee concern, and some members were pressing for it to be made compulsory for gross weights of consignments to be shown on all haulage documents.

A working party of the committee had been set up with the FTA to consider alternative methods for charging road haulage operations, said Mr Russett. A suggestion had been made that charges should be based on loading, travelling and unloading times so that there would be an incentive for customers to help reduce loading and unloading times. However, the committee felt that such methods had limited application and no real advantage would be gained. It was left to members and their customers to discuss the matter between them.

Following Mr Russett's report, Mr D. 0. Good (D and C) said he was concerned that Parliamentary time was not made available for the discussion of vehicle weights and overloading. He felt Parliament should make time to consider this matter — one of the most important affecting haulage operators.

Mr Good believed that hauliers should be able to prosecute customers for overloading as they themselves could be prosecuted.

Mr Russett replied that he was sure everybody in the conference hall would agree with Mr Good's comments; he thought it was possible to take civil action against customeis who knowingly overloaded vehicles.

Mr C. J. Palmer (Met. and SE.) asked how much time the commercial committee devoted to the profit aspects of the industry and how competent it was to discuss specialized matters. Mr Russett answered that the CAPS report which was provided for members helped them to set rate levels from which they could determine profits. On the question of competence he said experts were called in as necessary to give advice on special matters, VAT for example.

Preston lorry park acts as a warning

AT THE final session on Tuesday morning Mr J. T. Brown, chairman of the vehicle security committee, told the delegates that they were winning the war against crime: the 19'70 losses in the Metropolitan Police district were 19.3 per cent below those of 1969. Mr Brown believed it was the continued pressure of his committee which had motivated the Government into introducing security devices as standard equipment on new vehicles.

Mr Brown further claimed that his committee's 1963 report on guarded lorry parks was the forerunner of the DoE's report on the same subject issued last month. He warned that a park in Preston similar to those envisaged in the DoE report was seriously under-utilized — despite the fact that many loaded vehicles were parked throughout the night in surrounding streets. "The message is clear," he said, "vehicle operators must ensure that the Preston park is well supported or face up to the inevitable outcome that a national network will never become a reality." He also warned that lorry parking bans were a distinct possibility.

The speaker declared that many of the 700 members of the Vehicle Observer Corps paid only lip-service to the scheme. Despite this, however, the security committee would, he said, continue to encourage security training, attack the criminal with every possible means of publicity, educate customers and encourage staff co-operation.

Mr Brown, asked if any compensation could be obtained from the police if a load was lost as a result of a staged trap which went wrong, replied that there was not — operators obviously went into that sort of thing with their eyes open.

The subject of the Preston security park drew a number of critical questions relating to its site and use. Mr Brown said he was assured that there was ample accommodation within reasonable distance. Delegates seemed to disagree with this point and one said that he thought the park was badly signposted.

Industrial Relations in the '70s

SPEAKING at the business luncheon on "Industrial Relations in the '70s". Mr Ray Gunter, PC, MP, said he believed that peace came through communications, an acknowledgement that people were the most important things in industry.

Mr Gunter believed that machines alone were not the solution to the world's productivity problems. Change was inevitable and never again would we see a labour intensive industry, he said.

It was his contention that politicians had not yet discovered how to translate the problems which beset the work force, into human terms. He asked: "How do you get into the minds of men?"

He advised the delegates that it was important to consult with the work force before making decisions. "In management today we must think of people, not wages. Policies should only be implemented when we know how men and their families think." "I wish the trade unions would lift their eyes out of the dirt," he said. "They must not look for more wages each week but for a shorter working week. This is not a dream of the next century, it should be a reality of today."

The Industrial Relations Act was only a start. "You will be daft if you think this is the end," he said. "Don't bring in the lawyers to solve what is without a doubt a human problem."

'Rail no answer to environment problems'

AN ASSUMPTION that the environmental consequences of operating commercial vehicles need to be taken very seriously and that few people today would deny that preservation of the environment is a vitally important problem. was the basis from which Dr Clifford Sharp. of Leicester University. presented his paper, "Lorries and the environment." on Tuesday.

The environmental costs • of vehicle operation were affected not only by the actions of road hauliers but also by the policies of vehicle manufacturers, road builders and all those who consumed transport services. said Dr Sharp. All these groups had to be involved if attempts to minimize the environmental costs of lorry operation were to be successful. He believed the point at which some of the most important environmental costs of vehicle operation could best be reduced was in vehicle design. Although operators asked for the vehicle they wanted, its design was the responsibility of the manufacturer. He considered that road building was an even more important consideration in the search for a solution to the problems, and hauliers were in the difficult position of controlling only a part of the process which produced transport services as they ran the lorries but did not build the roads.

Dr Sharp discussed the Civic Trust report "Heavy lorries" and said that the most popular solution to the problems of lorries in the environment was to transfer traffic to the railways. "The railways appear to constitute in many people's minds a kind of magic wand which can whisk away the unloved heavy lorries from the roads without anyone, except presumably the displaced haulier, having to pay the bill. Those people who believe this should investigate the situation a little more thoroughly." he said. A look at a map showing both road and rail networks would soon indicate the deficiency of rail routes in certain areas and reveal that in such areas there was no alternative to road transport. "I believe it is quite important today to get over the message that whatever the future of the railways may be, they do not provide an easy answer to the problem of the environmental costs of goods transport," he declared.

Warning hauliers of another blow which was about to strike them "under the cover of the environment". Dr Sharp said that if Britain joined the EEC. the eight-hour day would be accepted. "This arbitrary limit to drivers' hours appears to have no justification at all", he said, "except possibly as an attempt to boost the fortunes of French and German railways If the Common Market countries have any evidence to show that accident rates would be cut by reducing drivers' hours then they have kept it well hidden. Unless there is some pay-off to the community in accident reductions the eight-hour day will merely act as an anti-productivity device which will increase prices and reduce the standard of living."

Dr Sharp, asked why his views on transport economics differed so much from those of many other economists, replied that that must be because he had made a special study of the road haulage aspect of the subject. Transport economics was an undeveloped area of study because generally facilities and finance were not available.

Mr J. Brown (Met and SE) said he disagreed with the theory of establishing freight terminals on city perimeters. Such a siting involved delivery vehicles having to approach the centre with the morning commuter traffic and leave with evening traffic. But with the present system of terminals in centres, said Mr Brown, commercial vehicles travelled in the opposite direction to the heavy commuter (lows. Dr Sharp agreed this method was the best.

Mr K. Robinson (E Mid) asked whether planners recommending the closure of city centres to traffic were in the habit of first asking the advice of people such as Dr Sharp as to the implications for trade and industry. Dr Sharp replied that they did not and he said he thought such decisions had been made without a thorough consideration of all the implications.

Hauliers must market their services

AT the final session on Tuesday Mr C. Goldby, a lecturer at Ashridge College, told the delegates that marketing was as essential in transport as it was in any other branch of industry; it was essentially an attitude of mind and had to be related to customer requirements.

Mr Goldby suggested that when all other services and costs were equal, customers demanded added value in another field. "You must consider your packaging, the design of your containers, a brand name which will demonstrate the difference between your service and that of your competitors, and your after-sales service," he said. It was important to reduce customer risk to the minimum and ensure that driver turn-out met customer requirements. Then hauliers could market their service without employing either a sales force or using advertising media.

To market a product the supplier had to ask himself a number of questions, for example: "Do you know your customers' problems and their related problems? Do you discuss these problems with them? Do you understand their long-range plans? Are you aware of their marketing plans? Do you get beyond their transport managers to the policy-makers? Do you get to their customers and learn of their requirements?"

Good marketing, he contended, would get operators out of the price war, particularly important at a time when there were more vehicles than jobs; he submitted that the hire-drive principle was encroaching on the traditional hire and reward market. But the more deeply the haulier became involved in the business of his customer the more assured he would be of retaining his business.

Mr Goldby posed a series of questions. asking delegates it' they knew what their competitors thought of them. and if they knew their customers' costs and profitability?"

Marketing was a long-term technique, he warned. "You will not receive an answer in less than three years. The gestation period in transport is three to four years, whereas in a highly intensive capital industry it is 15 years." Impatience should be avoided. "The whole essence of good marketing is dependent on personal involvement and patience."

'Establish grievance procedures'

TRADE UNIONS will not be able to boycott the Industrial Relations Act for any length of time according to Mr M. Cobb. deputy director of industrial relations at the Confederation of British Industry. He told delegates on Wednesday that while union membership was to be encouraged employers should understand they could make it a condition of employment that employees must not be members of an unregistered trade union.

Unofficial strike leaders would no longer be protected by law. Employers should get procedures for handling grievances established and clearly understood by both management and staff, said Mr Cobb who warned that using industrial courts too much could cause serious damage to industrial relations.

A great danger For large cornpanies lay in inconsistent management decisions. An employee might claim unfair dismissal if he could show that another employee at a different depot had been guilty of similar misconduct and had not been dismissed.

Employees might be considered guilty of unfair industrial practice if they indulged in a go-slow technique. "But this would not be the case if they worked to rule." explained Mr Cobb.

In reply to Mr E. B. R. Smith (Eastern). he said companies should seek at least one week's strike notice in an endeavour to stop overnight action.

Mr A. R. Butt (W Mid) asked what advantage there would be in the RHA registering under the Act. Mr Cobb could see little practical advantage but thought registration might show that employers were in earnest about making the Act work. He recommended that the RHA should set up regional groups of three or four employers to keep in touch with local union activities and industrial relations developments.

Mr Cobb believed the white-collar trade unionists would have to be taken much more seriously in future. The Act involved employees at all levels from managing director to office boy.

Mr Cobb made the point that in the industrial relations field delegates would be living with considerable uncertainty for the rest of their business lives and it would take many years before all the aspects of the Act had been before the courts.

European effects on lorry design

THE INFLUENCE of Europe on the future legislation governing the construction and use of road vehicles was emphasized by Mr J. W. Furness in his paper on Wednesday morning under the title "Legislative influences on vehicle design". Mr Furness is assistant chief engineer at the Department of the Environment.

In his paper Mr Furness covered many of the same points that he had made in a paper at a recent CM seminar (CM October 8 and 15).

He told the RHA members that the DoE was well aware of the effects of uncertainty about relaxed axle spacing/gross weight regulations, and that this was delaying orders for new vehicles. It was hoped to finalize details of the revised axle spacings and weights in a matter of weeks. He added: "We are at this moment in discussion with the SMMT, the FTA and your committee and all I can tell you at this stage is that I think most of you will be satisfied with the outcome."

On noise, Mr Furness referred to the regulations announced by the Minister on October 7 and said that for goods vehicles the regulations could be summarized as shown in the accompanying panel (right).

Larger-capacity engines and a more widespread use of turbocharging would be among the results of the 6 bhp/ton requirement, he said, and the need to meet the quality control provisions by 1974 should make production engines more reliable and less prone to emit excessive smoke after relatively short periods of service.

Turning to noise, the speaker said that, while the December 1970 draft regulations had proposed that noise levels should be reduced to 82 dBA and 86 dBA respectively, further consultation had shown that for heavy vehicles with engines of more than 200 bhp it was very difficult and costly to reduce the level to 86 dBA with present designs. Indeed, some existing engines could not meet the 89 dBA now proposed for over-200 bhp types, even using the latest palliative tech niques, which was why the concession of 92 dBA had been given for this class of vehicle until October 1974. In the long term, suggested Mr Furness, 80 dBA might be feasible for heavy vehicles.

Mr Furness said the ECE had accepted limits which followed the BS AU141a Smoke Curve, so British vehicles would not infringe Continental limits.

He reminded the conference that the RRL and the industry had been working on plans for a quite heavy lorry with a noise level of 80 dbA or less, but this was some years away. Even with eight-wheeled rigid vehicles the difference in speed between stability and overturning on roundabouts was critically small.

The first questioner, Mr K. S. Robinson (E Mid), suggested that fuel additives cut smoke but turned relatively harmless exhaust into poisonous gas. Mr Furness said the side effects of additives had been studied and medical authorities did not think they were particularly dangerous. In any case, he preferred the problem to be tackled at source and not by additives.

Mr N. R. Wynn (S Wales) wondered if noise and smoke standards would provide a margin for deterioration in service and Mr Furness replied that although the DoE continually pressed makers to better legal standards there was very little room for manoeuvre, especially on noise.

Mr P. R. May (Met and SE) suggested that to encourage electric retarders their weight should be excluded from legal limits.

Mr C. E. J. Peak (Western)* asked about jack-knifing research. Mr Furness replied that 300 vehicles equipped with anti-locking

devices were on service test and it was too early to say whether there would be legislation; but even if there were, it would be in the form of a performance requirement and not a "you must fit" law.

Panel splits on need for new laws

THE final session was devoted to a brains trust. Under the chairmanship of Mr E. J. Barber, commercial manager of Road Way, a four-man panel — Mr T. D. Corpe (western area legal advisor) and Mr G. W. Quick Smith representing the legal profession, Mr C. Jones and Mr C. Klapper

the Press accepted questions from delegates.

Mr E. R. Smith (Eastern) asked why certain papers made out that transferring freight from road to rail would enrich the environment. Mr Klapper replied that even if the railways worked at capacity with freight, only another 20rn tons a year could be transferred to BR. Much road freight would be unacceptable to BR. Mr Jones said the argument was ill-informed and had no influence on DoE decisions.

Mr D. 0. Good (Devon and Cornwall) wondered what legislation the legal minds would like to see introduced. Mr Quick Smith wanted a stop to new transport legislation. Mr Corpe. on the other hand, said he would re-introduce carriers' licensing for hgv. Mr Klapper agreed that there should be a moratorium on legislation but liked the idea of re-introducing Carriers' licensing. Mr Jones was less enthusiastic: "I like competition and restrictive legislation required to be looked at very closely" he said.

Mr J. Kirby (E Mid) asked whether de-taxing the haulage industry on such matters as road fund tax and fuel would not reduce the cost of living. Mr Quick Smith considered this an excellent idea; Mr Klapper was sure something of this nature should be done; Mr Corpe considered transport was grossly over-taxed but doubted if Mr Kirby's proposals would reduce costs as hauliers' customers would immediately demand lower rates.

In reply to Mr D. F. Dowsett (W Mid) who wanted to know what would be the Association's role in Europe, Mr Jones said that it should try to eradicate some of the nonsense contained in the common transport policy of the Community.

Mr K. Rogers (Eastern) wondered if the Association should not be more selective in its membership. Ideally, every haulier should belong, replied Mr Quick 'Smith, and Mr Jones could not visualize selectivity achieving very much. "After all, 'pirate' operators don't want membership," he said. Mr Corpe said that under the Industrial Relations Act selectivity would be impossible if the Association became a registered body.

Mr J. J. Baylis (Western) raised the question of the prime objectives of the industry and Association during the next 15 years. .Mr Jones had no doubt that the maximum energy should be expended 'on European affairs and the environment. Mr Klapper believed that much more should be done to teach managers how to use management techniques.

Some delegates complained of apathy at * sub-area level and asked what hq staff were doing about it. The general opinion of the' panel was that the impetus had to come from the bottom. However, when Mr McMillan closed the session • he told delegates that the council and permanent staff had noted the feelings on this matter and would be looking at the situation very closely.