Executives Give Hauliers Guarantee
Page 32
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WHAT amounts to a guarantee of the freedom of the independent " haulier to carry. On his business witliout fear of undue encroachment by the State has been given by the Railway, Road Haulage and Docks and Inland Waterways Executives.
It is contained in a. statement drawn up by the Executives and the Road Haulage Association., the contents of which was reported to the national .council of the R.H.A. on November 24. The document
reads:— .
" The Executives • and the Road Haulage Association are determined that the liaison machinery already announced and set up should work smoothly and effectively. Liaison may not dispose of all the problems arising from the operation of the Transport Act, 1947, but it can help to promote mutual understanding and co-operation.
" While the Act gives to the Commission exteneive .powers, it also leaves a considerable field in which independent road hauliers have a substantial interest. By the use of the complete system of contact provided at all levels between the parties, full regard will be paid to the part which independent hauliers can play in the transport of goods by road.
"The following are examples of matters which can thus be dealt with to mutual advantage, subject always to statutory provisions:— .
" (i) Avoidance of the development between the Executives and independent hauliers of competition along uneconomic lines which leads ultimately to lower standards of service
and higher real costs to. trade and industry.
44 (ii) Cases where the Road Haulage Association feel that the Executives have made unnecessary additions to their fleets for short-distance work or the carriage of traffics in respect of which the Act gives the Commission no powers of compulsory acquisition. (The Executives will not seek to encroach unreasonably or unfairly as road hauliers in the field which the Act leaves open to independent hauliers.)
"(iii) The use of the services of independent hauliers by the Executives and vice versa by the sub-contracting of traffic from one to another where appropriate.
"(iv) The preservation of existing contracts between the Executives and independent hauliers (particularly those covering short-distance terminal work), subject always Co due standards of efficiency and to the Executives•making proper use of their own resources."