Apres la Guerre
Page 75
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rHETHER or not there was a political motive somewhere in the background, the recent survey carried out by the Traders Road Transport iation among members has thoroughly justified itself. dverse criticism is that there are no figures of tonnage il or miles covered (not to mention ton-mileage). would have provided the best opportunity of cornn with the similar survey that the Ministry of port published a few months ago. There is no lack Ler statistics. and combined with what other informahere is in the Ministry survey they make it possible c first time to present a detailed and accurate picture country's C-licensed fleet.
;re are now well over im. vehicles in the fleet, and arprising how little has previously been known about irying purposes that those vehicles serve. No less 15 per cent, of the vehicles in the T.R.T.A. survey no load of any consequence, although the law .es that they should be operated under C licence. are used for service or maintenance, and others by lets and representatives. The survey also reveals a percentage (28) of specially constructed or fitted es. Less than half the total of nearly 100,000 vehicles 311 by the inquiry can be described as standard loadng vehicles, and many of them, the survey comments vhat obscurely, "are used in a specialized manner.' haulier and the British Transport Commission may much to interest them in the reasons given by
members for using their own vehicles rather than of a professional carrier. Cost was important but the top of the list. "Speed of delivery and certainty ling " were considered more vital. The survey presses Oint home by saying that most of all the trader s to deliver his goods punctually and in perfect con, and tries to work to planning production schedules L depend upon the accurate and swift flow of goods.
Prompt Delivery
newhat unexpectedly, the survey continues: "Control his own vehicles also means that a trader is more rably placed to effect prompt delivery in an emer, or in cases where his transport requirements cannot reseen in detail far in advance." It has usually been or assumed that in circumstances of this kind the isional carrier is called in. One of his constant taints, in fact (particularly if he happens to be a tyman), is that the public, including trade and try, use their own vehicles for general purposes, but t the public service to be there in an emergency.
:11 a radical departure as the T.R.T.A. survey makes the accepted version must, one would suppose, be irted by facts and figures. No evidence is offered here in the survey. The somewhat casual alternation :en well-grounded statement and highly controversial tent can have the unfortunate effect of making the : exercise seem suspect. One must hasten to add that vould be a false conclusion to draw. The T.R.T.A. been at great pains to make their statistics as accurate ssibIe and to set them out impartially.
is only certain items in the text surrounding the .ics that might with advantage have been omitted. ise the figures are so impressive as they stand, it is r that an attempt should have been thought necessary to make them prove more than they are capable of doing. In its over-anxiety, the document at times succeeds in sounding faintly ridiculous. The first page makes the startling claim: "Traders and manufacturers will always choose, if free to do so, the most efficient means of transport for their requirements." This sounds far too much like an echo from the opposite side of the extravagant boasts once made about the flawless service that would be given, once the experts were allowed to run an integrated transport undertaking with the benevolent support of the Labour party.
It would be ironical if, now that the unseemly political squabble over transport has died down, perhaps forever, the T.R.T.A. should proceed to build an Ivory Tower of their own. Fortunately, this is unlikely. The T.R.T.A. issued their survey after the General Election, but it was printed or gone to press some time before the result of the Election was known. For this reason, it reads like a call to arms when the battle is over.
Threat of Restriction
Perhaps as there was no urgent need for publication, it might have been better to have delayed a little longer and revised the text. The T.R.T.A. emphasize that they are "strictly non-political," but they may have been wrong in supposing that they would say exactly the same thing whether or not they were faced with a threat of restriction. As a blow for their freedom, the new document could hardly have been improved. As a statement in the calmer atmosphere that (as far as the transport industry is concerned) has followed the Conservative victory at the polls, the document appears somewhat strident, One of the many bad consequences of the harassing of road transport by the Socialists during the past few years has been the fraying of nerves and the growing tendency of various forms of transport to snap at each other. In this context. the T.R.T.A. surVey has a natural place. • The B.T.C. have not hesitated to lay the blame for most of their troubles upon the growth in private road transport, and although they have not launched a full-scale attack comparable to the "square deal " campaign just before the war, the possibility was always. there. It has been accompanied by an occasional nudge to the haulier, the likely inference being that, instead of a road-rail war or a struggle for traffic between transport under public ownership and under free enterprise, the professionals should make common cause against the "amateurs."
Naturally enough, the T.R.T.A, have wanted to show that the amateur knows what is good for him without being told. In fact, the survey by the Ministry of Transport did this more than adequately, and on this score the T.R.T.A. survey is merely underlining what has already been proved. What is more valuable in the later document is, for example, the more exact information it provides on the kinds of vehicle in operation under C licence, and the kinds of business in which the trader finds it necessary to use his own transport.
The pattern chosen for the survey makes it almost inevitably look like an attack upon, or at the least a severe criticism of, road haulage and the railways. If there had been more time to appreciate the altered circumstances resulting from the Election, a different and more balanced form of presentation might have been preferred.