Hard Times
Page 49
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'MOSE people with tidy calendars who like events to follow one another in chronological order must experience a feeling of nausea whenever they have asion to study the Transport Act, 1953. It takes lost as many liberties with time as the Mad Hatter, vildering all but the most stout-hearted of us with flurries into the unplumbed future' and its equally concerting plunges into the dark backward and ism of time. Some of the clauses are not unlike tructions for some involved and esoteric game of ace blended with skill. In such a game, not only he value of the cards important, but also the order ivhich they are played; and an important point is that much of the time -the British Transport Commission re the lead.
['hey have made a smooth beginning by replacing moribund Road Haulage Executive by an underlag with the familiar name of British Road Services. is move is a reminder to the customer that he has need to take his traffic elsewhere. Naturally, the mmission want as much of it as possible to remain h their services, whether by rail or by.road. Many the provisions of the Act appear unfavourable to this t, and the Commission can scarcely be blamed for king full use of what opportunities they have. They L, for example, cut down in various ways the number vehicles that can be offered for sale and for ration under free enterprise with special A licences. lame time soon, and in any event before November
h e Commission will apply for licences to cover the of the vehicles they operated at the date of the sing of the Act in May. In respect of British ilways, the Commission are entitled to a special A nce covering the 15,000 rigid and articulated vehicles stock at that date. Subsequently, the figure has rcely varied, so that one may assume the whole of railways' road fleet will be fully licensed. If Liked, permission to operate additional vehicles, parilarly for collection and delivery work, will no doubt obtained fairly easily from the Licensing Authorities.
Eleven-twelfths 4ow, the number of vehicles the Commission will be tied to licence on behalf of B.R.S. will be calculated, from the total fleet at May 6, but from the total he end of 1952. There were 39,320 motor vehicles ;tock at that time, and the special A licences may cover more than eleven-twelfths of them, that is to 36,043. By what may or may not be a coincidence, B.R.S. operating stock, afterremaining fairly con1 at between 39,000 and 41,000 vehicles during the )leof 1952, has declined rapidly since the significant 3. It was 35,137 at July 12, and may now be even . This should mean that the Commission will be to have special A licences for the whole of the ..S. fleet as well as for all the railway vehicles. 'hrough the process of disposal, B.R.S. are destined ose most of their vehicles, but may retain a fairly stantial undertakings. We must now go back farther um to January 1, 1948, when nationalization of the ways engulfed some 3,899 vehicles, with an aggre!. unladen weight of 13,723 tons, formerly operated companies under railway control. B.R.S. will be wed to keep vehicles amounting to the same tonnage
plus 25 per cent. The addition is presumably intended to represent what would have been the normal growth of the railway-controlled fleet, although the number of R.H.E. vehicles has declined and the eleven-twelfths formula was designed as a recognition of the extent to which nationalized vehicles were not being used.
The permitted increase will bring the tonnage up to 17,154, and the number of vehicles to 'approximately 5,000 made up of vehicles engaged on heavy haulage and other special activities, and on parcels carrying and general haulage. No more than about 30,000 vehicles
will be left for disposal, and when the time arrives the figure may be even less., Although the Disposal Board
have received the first batch of suggested transport units, there are still many things to be settled, including the form of tender, and arrangements for advertising units and making them available for inspection. There is time for the Commission, if they feel so inclined, to makefurther reductions in the fleet of B.R.S.
Deliberate Sabotage It would be absurd to suggest that the Commission would deliberatelysabotage the Act by getting rid of all their road haulage vehicles in this way. Their report for 1952 reveals that at the end of the year there were 4,216 serviceable vehicles not being used. The sale Of this redundant stock might normally be regarded as a prudent business move. One cannot help noticing that, at this particular juncture, it makes nonsense of the laborious calculations by means of which somebody decided that eleven-twelfths of the vehicles in possession at the end of 1952 was just the right number that should be licensed at somewhere round the end of 1953 with a special dispensation from the 25-mile limit. .
. For a further year, the carriage of goods by road for hire or reward beyond that limit will be the prerogative of the Commission, the buyers of transport units and the holders of permits. The actual number of vehicles that will become available for transport units is therefore important. The Commission might hope to benefit to the extent that the number is kept down. Many of the successful buyers will also be pleased at the indication that competition will be restricted at least for 12 months or so. Some of the existing hauliers are also likely to approve; they would have preferred the fraction to be substantially less than eleven-twelfths, and they have grumbled because, in spite of the Act, the. Commission have continued to take delivery of new vehicles.
This enthusiasm to be at the .providing end of 12 months of transport shortage may be misguided. The trader at the other end will look at the matter from a different angle. He will expect an improvement in service, and possibly even some reduction in rates, as soon as he realizes that a fair number of transport units are back on a free-enterprise basis. To his way of thinking, the testing time for denationalization will be in the early stages. References to December 31, 1954, and to the other dates that clutter up the Transport Act, will cut no ice with him. He will think more seriously than ever before of putting his own vehicles on the road, and no doubt for good measure will curse the professional carriers every time he remembers the levy.