Whither the N.R.T.F.?
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GOOD work has been done by the National Road Transport Federation during the past 12 months. The latest annual report shows that the Federation, if they have not succeeded in any of their major aims, have at least ensured due recognition in Government circles and elsewhere for the views of commercial vehicle users in general. Among users themselves there is a greater appreciation of the Federation's value, which not so long ago many of them were inclined to write off completely.
Perhaps the outstanding activity of the year was the compilation and publication of a detailed report on the improvement of highways. There were 330 schemes in the plan, and it would appear that the experiences of operators bore out the views of the Government experts, for half the schemes are on the priority list and of the remainder only 13 do not have the approval of the divisional road engineers of the Ministry of Transport. From the careful examination to which the schemes were subjected, it is evident that the Ministry give full weight to what the actual users of the roads have to say.
There is sufficient encouragement here for the Federation to go further. The plan submitted to the Ministry was not completely comprehensive. It did not include, for example, many stretches of new motorways that operators would agree to be badly needed. There is room in due course for a supplementary report. Another useful undertaking would be the preparation of occasional progress reports to show what schemes in the original plan had been completed and how many had not yet started.
Action to follow up the original memorandum would increase the prestige of the Federation in the eyes of their own constituents: The work so far has carried only a little way the ideas of the original founders. Their plan was for an organization that would unite all operators and rank as at least of equal importance with the constituent associations. The tendency has been for each section to go its own way, and there have even been rumours from time to time that the Federation would be wound up.
Many operators have always preferred their association to be as free as possible from ties with other bodies. Nearly 10 years after the merger it is hard to believe that previously the membership of certain of the old road transport associations was compounded of hauliers, passenger-vehicle operators and ancillary users. One tries to imagine how they fared when they met in grand council. Did the passenger operators listen patiently to discussions of interest only to goods operators, and vice versa? How did the traders in an association react when their haulier fellow-members proposed an increase in rates?
Difficulties of this kind were met and overcome, but the need for separate counsels was clear. One can understand the feeling among operators of the same kidney that they prefer to control their own destinies without reference to a higher authority, however mild its sway.
The merger not only joined together; it also divided. B14 Like a fractionating column, it separated the three types of operator in accordance with the functions that each performs. In spite of this, the general opinion was that the resemblances were more numerous and more important than the differences.
At first the merger worked on this assumption. The associations are autonomous except where action by one would be against the interests of another. The main link was in the secretarial and other services given by the Federation. Imperceptibly the associations have taken away these common services until comparatively few are left. The residue includes at least two important subjects, roads and vehicles, on which there is not likely to be much difference of opinion. Unity on these subjects is always better than fragmentation, and the Federation are wise to stress the work they do on them on behalf of all operators.
The Federation are affected by their remoteness from the ordinary members of the constituent associations. The member sees himself first of all as belonging to his association area or division, or even sub-area or district. He admits the need for a national headquarters, but is at times suspicious of and even hostile to what is done at national level. He does not easily accept, or assimilate, the idea that beyond head office there is a further body to which he belongs.
The merger took place on the crest of a wave of enthusiasm, lit by the publicity an event of such importance naturally produced. The excitement died away. The operators were not so much disillusioned as forgetful. Separated from the day-to-day activities of the ordinary operator, the Federation fought hard, but not successfully, against growing indifference. An attempt was made to extend the Federation ideal to the areas, without much result except in one or two parts of the country.
A recent revival of interest in the Federation does not mean that their troubles are over. Progress and decay are the alternatives for most human institutions. The hardest thing for them to do is to mark time. It is in some ways a handicap to the Federation that their membership should be limited, apparently for ever, to three. The reasons are historical but may not be conclusive.
The Road Haulage Association are alone in their class, and in a sense the same may be said of the Passenger Vehicle Operators' Association and the Traders' Road Transport Association. There are, however, organizations looking after other sections of road passenger transport, and innumerable associations dealing with trade and industry. Many of them on occasion make known their views on such matters as better roads. Individually they may have no claim to speak for a large number of vehicle users, but their support would be helpful in some framework enabling them to come within the N.R.T.F.
As transport is not the main concern of most of these associations, they would not expect full membership on equality with the three present constituents. ,They might do no more than take a friendly interest. The important result would be the completion of the merger begun in 1945.