Service or Subsidy
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pRICES and incomes are currently in the news. But what of the end product—the goods that are manufactured or service which is provided?
Standards of quality or service are an integral part of the livelihood of a country. They proclaim a nation's level of development and have a marked impact on its economic viability.
Competition within a free market can provide the spur necessary to maintain and improve standards, but tradition can frustrate the process. In the tangible world of commodities, resulting defects are usually a visible reminder. But in the transport industry the lines of demarcation between inadequate, adequate and excessive levels of service are arbitrary in the extreme.
Frequency of delivery is a case in point. When operating costs • were a fraction of what they are today, an excessively high level of transport service could often be absorbed in overall costs. Not so today. If transport operator and customer alike are to be reassured that they are both getting value for money despite continually rising costs, excessive levels of frequency must be reduced. Too often the answer to the question: "Who last authorized this frequency of service?" is: ",it's traditional ".
Meanwhile, the likelihood of unnecessary transport costs subsidizing convenient inefficiency in other sections of the distribution chain remains. Where this does apply there exists also the opportunity for an exacting review by provider and user alike if maximum efficiency is to be achieved. In the atmosphere of today, such opportunities should not be ignored.