Diamond Cut Diamond
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MORE important than any other part of the Government's plan for transport is the. way in which the Road Haulage Executive will be divided and sold. Upon this operation depends the future pattern of the country's long-distance road transport.
Not much information on the matter is available even now. The White Paper proposes to split up the R.H.E. into "operable" units, which will be offered to the public for disposal by open tender. In accordance with the Government's intention, most of the units will be small and there will be a certain number of singlevehicle businesses for sale. The Minister of Transport has expressed the hope that ex-operators, whose undertakings were nationalized will take the opportunity to come back into the industry.
They will not be given preferential terms or a favourable place in the queue. The Government wants the process of denationalization to be as rapid as possible, and hopes to avoid any complicated procedure likely to slow things down. The Government, or the Treasury, is equally anxious to make a good bargain and to give no grounds for an accusation that units are being sold at less than their market value in order to set former hauliers up in businessagain.
A disposals board, no doubt 'made upof impartial assessors, will conduct the actual sale. It is doubtful whether the same or a similar body would be competent to decide how the R.H.E. should be divided. The operation requires as skilful and knowing a hand as the division of a diamond, and on the analogy of diamondout-diamond it may be said that the only organization capable of splitting the R.H.E. into viable sections is the R.11.E. itself.
The chief objection is that many individuals inside the R.H.E. have a personal interest in the sale of its assets and might be tempted to make the division on lines that suit themselves. As the whole operation is to be public, such a manoeuvre would soon be detected. It could be avoided or countered either by providing that no employee of the R.H.E. wishing to buy should be allowed to take part in the formation of units or, by giving the disposals board power to veto decisions flagrantly biased.
Likely Interpretation In carrying out its task, the R.H.E. will have to keep several things in mind. Each unit must have a reasonable chance of attracting enough traffic to make a profit; this seems the most likely interpretation to put upon the word "operable." There must be many hundreds of small, and only a few large, units. The division should be exact, in that no vehicles and other assets should be left over. To help ex-operators, who in the main would prefer to resume the traffic with which they were familiar, some regard should he had to the structure of the industry before nationalization.
Whatever approach is made to• the problem of denationalization, it leads sooner or later to the conclusion that the ex-haulier must be given a preference. particularly in respect of a unit corresponding to is former undertaking. There would be wide sympathy with his chagrin if, after waiting so long, he lost " his" business possibly to a R.H.E. official who happened to have a. little more capital.
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The most glaring anomaly is that the Government's plan for an auction bears no relation to the comperi..:a tion formula prescribed by the Transport Act. On the whole, the large concern did better than the smaq, particularly the very small: Many operators with one or two vehicles received extremely little. When the sale of the R.H.E. takes place, it may be that the one-vehicle or . two-vehicle unit will be most in demand, and the former owners, even those who have managed to keep their compensation intac.t, will be unable to bid high enough. The promised greater latitude in the licensing system may ultimately enable them—especially if they have retained some sort of contact with their old customers—to start again from scratch, but it would obviously be better to allow them to re-enter the industry by taking back their old haulage businesses from the R.H.E.
Other Fish to Fry Already some past and present operators are saying that when the Tories were in opposition they found it convenient to point to the haulier as the archetype of suffering humanity under State control, but that now they are in power they have other fish to fry. This is a short-sighted view, but it is useful as a reminder to any Tories who may have -forgotten that the emancipation and resurrection of the present and former freeenterprise. undertakings. are an essential part of the Government's scheme for a better transport system.
The wise ex-operator should be making his plans without delay. He should have a good idea as to how far it is possible to find in the R.H.E. vehicles, equipment and accommodation which could be -formed into an undertaking not greatly different from the one he lost. There is no reason why he should not at once get into touch with his old friends in trade and industry, look for new customers and new traffic and seek out his old drivers and other staff. Much as if he were preparing a case for the traffic court, he should secure evidence from the customers who wish to use his services and from the • drivers who want to work for him.
Where this can be done, what better proof is possible of the existence of an " operable " unit? If the ex-haulier be prepared to offer for it an amount corresponding to what he himself was paid in compensation, the Government would find it difficult to resist his claim and still maintain that it was anxious to welcome back the dispossessed. This is an obvious case in which, should the R.H.E. refuse to meet his wishes, the man should. have the right of appeal to an impartial tribunal— perhaps the disposals board which will supervise the sale of the nationalized assets.
By adopting a scheme of this kind, the Government would reap several advantages. The experience of the ex-operator would supplement that of the R.H.E. and in many cases help to accelerate the process of dismember• ment. There would be no loss on the transaction. ThE new unit would be able to give continuity of service Above ail, the man would be getting back something in the creation of which he had played a leading part, and which he knows best how to use efficiently. Solomon's • celebrated judgment was based on his knowledge that a parent's love is greater than a stranger's. The reputation for wisdom.that he-acquired on that 'Occasion would he sufficient to keep a modern Government in .office for a couple of decades.