Prompt Payment
Page 72
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EVERY haulier ought to respond to the appeal by the Road Haulage Association for contributions to a fund that will be used to counter the threat from the Labour Party to renationalize long-distance road haulage when they
next get an opportunity. The exact details of what the Socialists propose to do are still uncertain_ If they once begin to compose the necessary legislation, they. will find themselves placing restrictions on other operators besides those engaged on long-distance work.
. The effects will also spread to the C-licence holder. Trade and industry are well aware of the danger, and would, one imagines, be pleased to contribute to a fighting fund for freedom if their own associations made the request in due course. The associations may have hesitated because of the absence of any specific reference by the Labour Party so far to the future of the C licence.
The short-distance haulier knows as well as the C-licence holder that he is not safe merely because he is not men tioned. He wants the whole of road transport to be kept clear of party politics, and if that result can be obtained from the R.H.A. campaign, he will consider his contribution as money well spent.
If first indications are reliable, the campaign will be nothing like as virulent as its predecessor in 1946 and 1947.
There was no doubt in those days who was the enemy. There. may be no more doubt today, but the hauliers seem to be more cautious about calling him names.
The first official announcement of the campaign, by Mr. R. G. Crowther, the retiring national chairman, at the R.H.A. annual luncheon this month, was somewhat graceless towards the Conservative Government. "After two governments of different political complexions had applied their political theories to it," said Mr. Crowther, "the industry was entitled to more settled conditions."
Bend Over Backwards
By thus appearing to indicate that there was not a pin to choose between the Transport Acts of 1947 and of 1953, Mr. Crowther was almost bending, over backwards to show how non-political hauliers are. He restored the balance a little by an attack on "left-wing political thinkers," and a promise that the R.H.A. would "carry out its duty in.protecting the interests of its members."
Apparently, however, the interests needed protection not so much from the Labour Party as from other sections of the public. The proposed campaign was intended "to strike at the root of the present threat," which might be largely due to ignorance by "the public and industry of the activi ties carried on by independent road hauliers." On this basis, Mr. Crowther continued, the campaign might be doing no inure than advertise the services of the road haulage industry. It was not, therefore, an attack "on any government."
Whether it will be possible to keep the campaign on this neutral plane remains to be seen. Many of the hauliers who are most anxious to subscribe are the most downright in their opposition to the Labour Party's plans. Politics must provide the fuel for the response to the appeal for money, •even if politics do not determine the direction of the campaign.
The new element in the reaction of hauliers is the existence of British Road Services. Their advertising, whatever the opinion may be of its effectiveness, has kept clear of politics. They have merely offered a service that they c34 claim to be economic and efficient, as any advertiser would do. 'The suggestion that they can call upon the resources of the railways and of other branches of the British Transport Commission is no more than the truth.
The hauliers can do no more than respond in the same spirit. In any event, the experts say that it is bad advertising to cry down the wares of a competitor. As Mr. Crowther suggested, the campaign will be a straightforward attempt, by means of advertising, to make the public better informed about what free-enterprise road haulage can do. In speeches and articles, presumably, the R.H.A. will continue to praise free enterprise in the abstract, although this may not seem appropriate for their press advertisements.
Advertising Campaign In view of this, it is surprising that the preliminary stages of the campaign were not put in hand earlier. Hauliers are not, after all, to be whipped up into a political frenzy as a method of opening their purses. They will be asked rather to share in a joint advertising campaign, very much like that of other industries made up of a large number of undertakings. The threat of nationalization has provided the final impetus to the launching of the campaign, but the lines along which it will run have been laid down virtually ever since hauliers agreed to unite and call themselves an industry. Many of them would willingly have subscribed a year ago, when the Labour Party published the pamphlet on .state ownership that was ultimately accepted as policy at the autumn conference.
There have been, it is said, legal difficulties. The R.H.A.
commendably have been careful to safeguard the tax posttion. All this could have been done in a short time, and the fund set going. The association would have had ready money to start the campaign, and an inkling of the likely general response.
For the campaign, however purely commercial it may appear to outward view, cannot 'entirely slough off its political origins. The risk the R.H.A. have taken, no doubt deliberately, in delaying action for 12 months is that nobody can prophesy with absolute certainty the date of the next General Election. As far as the signs are reliable, the Conservatives intend to remain in office until perhaps the end of 1959. But the political scene is subject to rapid changes, and a snap -election is always possible. If, as a result, the Labour Party came into power, the R.H.A. would have to revise their leisurely time-table in a hurry. In the process, they would soon throw off the non-political mask.
Grand Strategy
One assumes that the grand strategy provides for an immediate change of direction to deal with a political upheaval, but this would be easier when the campaign is in progress. Money would be available; space would already have been booked. It would be necessary only to alter the message.
What the R.H.A. would like to avoid is a sudden call for .rapid action at a time when they are not ready to begin. Hauliers must keep this point well in mind. The effective opening of a publicity barrage, which may at any time have to be switched to the defence of their very livelihood, depends upon their prompt and satisfactory response to the appeal now being made. It should be marked for their immediate attention.