C.N.R. May Enter Road Transport
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INDICATIONS that Canadian National Railways may shortly enter road haulage were given recently by Mr. Donald Gordon, president and chairman of the undertaking._ He said: " If the railways are to give the public the full benefit of co-ordinated' techniques, the expansion of their services to include highway competition is inevitable."
Commenting on Mr. Gordon's statement, Mr. J. 0. Goodman, general manager of the Automotive Transport Association of Ontario, declared that such a course could lead only to complete monopoly. If the railways wanted to enter road transport, he added, they should have to do so on the same footing as any other concern. Ontario was already getting excellent road services and the field was overcrowded.
Canadian hauliers have opened a campaign against what they .allege to be undue bias for the railways the part of the Federal Department of Transport, which has a " staff loaded with former railroad employees."
The Canadian Automotive Transport Association has authorized an expenditure of $232,000 to attack the department's policies, and a Press and radioadvertising campaign has been called for.
Hauliers are particularly aggrieved by a contract concerning transport charges, agreed between the railway companies and the large oil concerns, which is now before the Board of Transport Com missioners. This contract covers all movements of petroleum from the Great Lakes and the Pacific coast and excludes all forms of transport other than those of the signatory parties.
It is stated that 1,200 small road tanker operators would be put out of business if the contract became effective.