Rotarians Given Transport Facts
Page 22
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S.T.R. Points Out Road Transport's Obvious Advantages and How Restrictive 'Legislation Has Curtailed These in the Interest of the Railways
AN address by S.T.R. was given at a luncheon gathering of Rotarians at Stroud on August 4. He 'chose as the subject " Transport in its Relation to Trade and Industry." After indicating how absolutely essential transport was to the community in general, and commerce and trading interests in particular, he ventured to draw the deduction that the Government of any country would naturally, it -Would he thought, be most careful to ensure that the best that was available in means for transport was given the maximum of encouragement. He then indicated the particular advantages which road transport possessed over competing forms. The railways, he pointed out, were in some of their operations, obsolete, because the work was muCh better done In; road transport. On' the Other hand, it was true to state that for some traffics the railways were still the best form of transport to use.
These, he said, are the facts with which we have to deal. It is a fact that the railWay's are there. It is also a fact that road transport has developed to such a pitch that, except for certain traffics, it is better than the railways.
It is true that some of the railway operations are obsolete, because they are better performed by road.
In view of these points the obvious course, which must . have been perceptible to any Government, is so to order matters that the best use was made of both, that the services should be co-ordinated and, aboveall, that nothing should be done which would interfere •with the right of the trading community to select that form of transport best suited to its needs. Indeed, in 1929, a Road Commission recommended that procedure. Of its recommendation, nothing has come which has really encouraged road transport to develop. The outcome has been restriction after restriction.
How Restriction Has Progressed
First came the Road Traffic Act of 1930, which laid restrictions upon the free development of passenger transport by road. Then came what is familiarly known as the Salter Conference, especially convened by the Government to suggest. means for co-ordination. All it did was to propose restrictions and increased taxation on the road transport of goods and additional freedom of action for the railways. These proposals were embodied in the Road and Rail Traffic Act of 1933.
Amongst other things, these two Acts of Parliament set up a system of licensing for which a new bureaucratic body, consisting of 13 Regional Traffic Commissioners, was created, of which more anon.
At last, in desperation, and this shows that it is not the leaders of the two forms of transport who are obstructive, the Road and Rail interests got together, and,, in 1939, formed a Road and Rail Central Conference, with a view to agreeing. upon some effective form of co-ordination amongst them
selves. They had begun their work when the war broke out and suspended these normal activities.
This Conference had, however, set up Regional Committees and machinery for effective co-operation. That machinery still exists.
It will be agreed that if transport and the effective co-ordination of all forms of transport be essential during times of peace, it is vital when the nation is at war. Even cur Government, as represented by the Ministry of Transport, recognized that, and last November asked the Road and Rail Central Conference to suggest measures for such co-ordination.
Valuable Memorandum Rejected In January this year, less than two months after receipt of the request, a plan was submitted. It took the form of a Memorandum which was generally admitted to be the moSt statesmanlike document that has been produced for a long time in connection with transport matters. Indeed, when, after four months of delay, publication of that document was permitted, it was unanimously accepted as embodying an excellent plan. It provided for full co-ordination of road and rail transport and the most economic use of all the national means for internal transport, for the rational distribution of all the available fuel, after a fashion which would have removed all existing causes for complaint, and would have relieved, so far as humanly possible under the prevailing conditions, the hardships which road hauliers were suffering due to fuel rationing.
The scheme also provided for the maximum effective use of these fuel supplies and it took into consideration that important matter, cost of transport, for it accepted the principle of agreed charges and publication of these charges, so that they were to be laid open for inspection by all concerned.
Finally, the Memorandum indicated the willingness of •both road and rail transport so to apply the scheme in practice that it would eventually be useful as a method of maintaining the orderly operation of both means for transport when the war is over.
As indicating the amiable relations hetween the two forms of transport, provision was made whereby, in the event of road hauliers suffering because of diversion • of their traffics from road to rail, as would happen particularly in the case of long-distance traffic, the railways would compensate them by giving short-distance or local work, The machinery for putting the plan into effect was to be the Road and Rail Central Conference and its Regional Committees operating in conjunction with the Regional Transport Commissioners, to which these expert transport operators, both road and rail, would give their support and advice.
The question of canal and coast-wise shipping had already been raised and the Ministry of Transport had agreed that these interests could be cared for by co-operation. That plan which was prepared in two months, was in the hands of the Transport Advisory Council for over seven months, at the end of which time, entirely ignoring the fact that provision had been made for canals and coast-wise shipping and that machinery for executing the scheme was and still is, in existence, recommended the creation. of an• entirely new and complicated organization to co-ordinate all four forms.
The Minister rejected the whole scheme because, he said, it would take too long to get that organization together.
Once again, therefore, the industry's efforts to co-ordinate and organize transport in a way best to meet Hu needs of the Nation has been frustrated. A further scheme to provide e for the effective use of road transport as a whole, in emergency, met with similar treatment.
What is the reason for this continuous thwarting of efforts to improve the means for transport?
Some Sources of Obstruction When it was a case of road v. rail, the answer was " vested interests," coupled with the fact that the railways were better organized than the road-transport operators. Now that the two have buried the hatchet and are working together for the Common good, another factor has arisen. Transport interests, and the community at large, especially traders, who are so dependent on transport, have to face an old menace in new guise: the dead hand of the bureaucrat. There is good reason for stating that the two schemes mentioned were wrecked by the Regional TranspOrt.Commissioners. They are afraid for their jebs, which will become sipeciires if road and rail work together for the common good.
Regardless of the interests of the public and of trade and industry, they are obstructing all attempts at concord. If they succeed, traders, after the war, will find themselves hampered and restricted at every turn and their transport costs will increase and the service they get will become more and more inefficient. • Concluding, Mr. Scott Hall said:—; " I have used this opportunity of 'addressing you to bring these matters to your notice, so that you may bestir yourselves,. check over the facts I have presented to you, and take such steps as are. open to you, through your Chambers of Trade and Commerce. to remedy matters before it is too late."