Why Not Define the Haulier?
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nNE of the closest corporations in the world is the British Medical Association. Road haulage contractors, there is no doubt, would very much like the Road Hauliers' Association to be in a correspondingly strong position, so that they could control, not only the entry into their ranks, but the business procedure of those , , to whom admittance had been granted. It Is, therefore, of interest to observe that the strength of the former association is derived mainly from the fact that entry into the medical profession is in any event difficult, involving years of study and the passing of difficult examinations. In other words. the qualifications which are an essential preliminary to practising as a physician and surgeon are such that only the minority can attain them. contraire, there is no industry so readily accessible to all and sundry as that of road haulage. The only essential qualification, under existing conditions, is the possession of enough capital to be able to buy a second-hand motor vehicle, and that is little indeed in the present state of this market.
That is the circumstance which responsible hauliers should seek to amend. The logical and fundamentally sound procedure would seem to be the formulation of a standard of attainment in the theory and practice of haulage such as woUld, at one and the same time, raise the status of the industry as a whole and automatically limit the number of those eligible for admission.
If the licensing of hauliers ever be brought into force the grant of a licence should be made subject to proved proficiency in the practice of road haulage. To make the issue of a licence dependent upon the existence or lack of some, more or less corresponding, railway facility, to make it dependent upon some coincident condition of transport generally, is as illogical as to make the admission of a doctor dependent upon the number of chemist shops in the district in which he proposes to practise.
The road haulage industry, and the motor trade, too, are strenuously resiSting excessive restriction, but to do so with any real hope of success they must have an alternative proposition, and that should be an agreed definition of a haulier.