No compulsion for managers
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The decision of the TML committee to plump for a voluntary system of education and registration of transport managers, and to abandon the proposals for a compulsory licensing scheme, will come as no surprise to readers of CM, who will already have learned of the new Minister of Transport's apparent lack of enthusiasm for the statutory scheme. But the news will be greeted with bitterness and regret by many managers who had seen the compulsory scheme, with all its drawbacks, as a ladder to higher status for themselves and their industry. Operators on the other hand may be relieved that, as employers, they now seem unlikely to be faced with the prospect of having to pay premium salaries to obtain the services of men able to meet a statutory level of competence.
Whatever scheme is now put to the Minister by the committee seems likely to be accepted: Mr Peyton is clearly not impressed with the need for compulsion. The collapse of plans for statutory licensing of managers is therefore to some extent a reflection of the official attitude, but the actual abandonment is the direct result of pressure from the trade associations—pressure which has been fought unavailingly by some of the educational interests on the committee.
Any voluntary scheme must depend for its success upon the attitude of the employers, but they are unlikely to take any initiative unless led by the more enterprising spirits in the frade associations. Since employers appear to have torpedoed the plan for naming a manager to carry legal responsibility for vehicle condition and driver behaviour, self-interest should now encourage them to support any scheme promising more responsible and professional management. But it will have to be paid for. Employers will need to be farsightedly generous if the proposed registration board is to get off the ground: and with the continued disgruntlement over the Training Board, it would be idle to pretend that there is industry-wide enthusiasm for training and education just now. The protagonists have a hard struggle ahead of them.