A New and Formidable Challenge
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THE national chairman of the Road Haulage Association, Mr. D. 0. Good, speaking at the annual dinner of the Association's North Western (Eastern) Area at Blackpool on ,Saturday, drew attention to the future freight policies of British Railways.
" No R.H.A. spokesman at this time can ignore the recent announcement by Dr. Beeching of the railways' future freight policies, his intention of streamlining the service and his ohjective of securing the transfer of 90 m. tons of freight from the roads to the railways," said Mr. Good.
"Here is a new and formidable challenge. It is new because, unlike the previous experiments, it is not a matter of reconditioning an old and very tired machine: and it is formidable because the approach this time is practical and recognizes at last that if a railway system is to succeed in the second half of the 20th century, it has to be a very different railway system from that which enjoyed a monopoly in the first half of the century.
In the face of this challenge, hauliers have not only to fill the gap that will be left by the withdrawal of railway services for some traffics on some ,routes: they have, in addition, to make sure that they retain the traffics they are moving over the main trunk routes. I am sure that the scope and reality of the challenge will concentrate their attention wonderfully.
"At the same time it should not be overlooked that, although we are corn
petitors of the railways, there is nevertheless a community of interest between the two forms of transport. As professional hauliers, both road and rail face the further challenge of attempting to demonstrate by the efficiency and economy of their services that the carriage of goods on own account is a luxury, whatever benefits it may have in prestige."