Trunk Calls
Page 61
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
AS on one or two previous occasions, the Association of British Chambers of Commerce have contrived to introduce something unexpected into their recent statement welcoming what they call the statesmanlike action of the Government in deciding to allow the British Transport Commission to keep more vehicles than the Transport Act, 1953, provides. The Association suggests that the decision makes it necessary to curb the freedom the Commission are now seeking from the Transport Tribunal to vary their rates for the carriage of goods.
The reason given by the Association is that the curtailment of disposal will mean "some diminution in the extent of competition to be faced by the Commission," although a few lines earlier the statement was approving the competition that the Act had already introduced.
Perhaps the Association take too optimistic a view of the future of British Road Services. There is no assurance even that B.R.S. will remain part of the Commission. The desirability of making them an independent body was suggested recently in the House of Commons, and the Minister of Transport did not altogether reject the idea. Even if there is. no change in organization, the function of B.R.S. will,_in practice, be separate from that of the railways.
Hot and Cold
The Association leave just a suspicion that they are blowing hot and cold on the subject of competition. The Commission can have fewer illusions. They are already meeting keen competition from numerous small operators and a small number of large operators. If any attempt were made to fix rates too high, the immediate effect would be the appearance of a rival. trunking service, and in these circumstances one cannot imagine a Licensing Authority placing obstacles in the way of its formation.
With the co-operation of the Tribunal, the railways may fix their maximum rates too high for the liking of the Association. They will not be able to sustain their rates at or near the maximum by clipping the wings of B.R.S., who, at best, will not have an easy task. The good results for 1954 provide no positive assurance for the future, when every A-licence holder has the right to enter the long-distance field. Even in 1954, the miles per vehicle at work, which had risen steadily during the previous three years, showed a slight setback. Continued through the next year or two, this could become serious.
The terms of the Bill the Government propose to introduce in the autumn will be important to trade and industry and to hauliers as well as to the Commission. 'I he Minister suggested that it would merely allow B.R.S. to retain extras vehicles, perhaps' as many as 4,500, bringing their total fleet to about 8,000. There will, however, be a good deal of lobbying on this point.
Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve, chairman of the Disposal Board, has the task of advising the Government on the number of vehicles needed to keep the trunk service network intact. Only the Commission have the information he needs, but this will not prevent other people from giving him their own views. In one statement the Road Haulage Association implied that the description of trunk services was applied " loosely " to the organization of B.R.S. Marty of the long-distance vehicles are engaged on what would be called tramping if it were carried out by the vehicles of independent operators. If the truth were known, perhaps surprisingly few vehicles are engaged on regular scheduled runs.
As the retained fleet is to be possibly more than doubled, the precise arithmetic of the 1953 Act seems a little out of place. The Commission were allowed to keep vehicles with a total unladen weight not exceeding five-fourths of the weight of vehicles taken over at the beginning of 1948 on the acquisition of the railways and their road transport interests. Three categories of vehicles were recognized, and it was further laid down that the vehicles to be retained in each category must not have a total unladen weight exceeding thirteen-tenths of the basic figure.
Sake of Equity
These equations were evolved for the sake of equity Disposal was conceived as the return of their property to the former owners, and the railways were entitled to their share, plus the increment they might reasonably have expected to add in normal times. As it happens, the former owners have not been prominent among the successful bidders. Otherwise, in fact, the need to extend the retained fleet might not have arisen.
In the new situation, the historical remnants so carefully preserved in the disposition of the original retained fleet have no more significance than landmarks that have disappeared in a flood. An estimate of the vehicles to be retained made a total of approximately 3,500. About 150 were in the category of abnormal indivisible load carriers. Nearly 1,000 were in a category of special-type vehicles, and the third category consisted of 2,400 other vehicles.
The Disposal Board had to approve, or" indicate their willingness to approve," the composition of the retained fleet, and the Minister's consent was subsequently required. In practice, as one might expect, the Commission appear to have had matters their own way. They naturally chose to keep the best, and the types of vehicle in which they showed no interest have proved difficult to sell. Within the category of special-type vehicles, they kept as many furniture vans, tankers and heavy-haulage vehicles as they could. Those they were forced to offer were no doubt the inferior vehicles, but nearly all were sold. On the other hand, the Commission put up for sale all their 575 meat-carrying vehicles, and over 500 remain unsold, including, it is true, one large unit on which the Minister's decision is awaited.
To make their change of policy consistent, the Government should treat the B.R.S. fleet as a whole, and consider from the beginning what vehicles ought to be kept. According to the Minister, the reason for the new decision is that the Commission's trunk services have developed -substantially in scope and efficiency during the last year or two, and are rendering a good service to trade and industry. If the Commission are to keep these trunk services, it seems reasonable to ask them to give up their other vehicles, so that they may operate an augmented fleet free from distractions.