The New Rich
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T is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the British Transport Commission regard the road transport branch of their family as socially unfortunate. British Road Services and the Commission's road passenger transport interests cannot, however, by any means be regarded as the poor relations.
As the Commission's report for last year shows, they earned between them greater net receipts (£9.7m.) than all the other activities put together. It is perhaps its relative affluence, in comparison with the railways' penury, which puts road transport, regardless of ownership, slightly beyond the pale of a railway-dominated Commission.
Persuasion by Congestion Nevertheless, the B.T.C. say they do not aim to curtail their road services for the benefit of the railways. Their expressed hope is, by modernizing road, rail and water facilities, to give "service equal to, or better than, that which most private operators can render." But they obviously pin great faith also to "the growing congestion of the .roads . . . to exert some corrective influence in favour of public transport."
In this context, as in some others in the report, public transport clearly means railway transport The mantle of the railways hangs heavily over the report and possibly explains why there is no suggestion that the roads should.be improved. It seems strange that a Commission who at present rely almost entirely on road transport to diminish their losses shouldnot offer evidence of the wastefulness of poor roads.
Instead, they gaze wide-eyed at the steady growth of C-licence vehicles, which they hold partly responsible for the loss of railway and B.R.S. traffic and for road congestion. • How 0licence vehicles, despite the artificial. obstacles placed in the way of their efficient operation by inadequate roads, can still give their owners more satisfactory service than the railways, is not explained.
The simple answer is that no matter to what extent the railways are modernized, they will never be able to offer the advantages of door-to-door 'transit given by road vehicles. _It is perhaps significant that the trunk rail services introduced during the fuel emergency jointly by B.R.S. and the railways, ceased to function immediately, fuel began to flow freely again.
There is a note of -sardonic satisfaction in a paragraph explaining the result of the fuel shortage earlier this year. It says that the "increased earnings of the Commission's services were large enough to put the Commission within measurable clistanceof balancing their accounts in total. This fundamental reversal of fortune was occasioned simply by the fact that the public transport facilities were being used more nearly to the capacity for which they were designed." Clearly, "public transport" excludes B.R.S., who were underemployed at that time.
C-licensees Attacked Constant references are made in the report to the datnaging effect on "public transport" of the free use of privately owned transport, particularly C-lieence vehicles. The suggestion is not directly Made, but in the background 'there is the implication that the Commission would not be loth to see fetters placed upon their competitors, This accords ill with a cOmtnent last week by Sir Brian Robertson, chairman of the B.T.C.: "If we are to regain and develop our railway freight traffic we must rely, however, upon a better price and better service, rather than grumbling about the other fellow."
When he made this remark, Sir Brian must have forgotten the fatuous comment in the report on the advantages conferred by restrictive licensing on long-distance coach operators. This was .substantially• a repetition of an argument advanced in the 1955 report to explain why coach fares were lower than rail charges.
The reasoning was that "these road services, owing to the strict limitation of their numbers by the Area Traffic Commissioners, operate with high and steady loadings and, in consequence, at a relatively low cost per passenger mile." Once _ again, the B.T.C. failed to explain that it was they who were largely responsible for the" strict limitation" on the number of coach services, and that they had been hoist by their own petard.
If the next Labour Government—as is threatened—decide to renationalize road haulage and to take powers of compulsory acquisition of bus companies, they will be able to turn to the Commission's reports for evidence to justify their action. Yet the B.T.C. express the hope "that they will now be allowed reasonable freedom and a period of stability to press on with reconstruction, and that the whole fabric of public transport will no longer be subjected to periodic and seismic upheaval on political account."
If the Commission genuinely wish for peace, they should cease to dabble in politics and to arm the opponents of the present competitive pattern of transport.
Taking Road Traffic Stripped of its propaganda, the report presents a useful survey of the Commission's achievements, which hauliers cannot afford to overlook. Practical results of the modernization programme on the railways are beginning to be shown, and the Diesel train sets, in particular, are attracting new passenger traffic. Already this has had a serious effect on the fortunes of at least one bus undertaking.
B.R.S. are fortunate in having the financial and physical resources to experiment on a large scale in vehicle design, although there are inevitably frustrating delays in persuading higher authority of the advantage of a break from tradition.
As already reported, B.R.S. have standardized on eight main types of rigid vehicle and three articulated models. The aim in development has been to reduce unladen weight, and the most economical ratio of payload to tare weight has been placed at 21 to 1. This is obtainable by making the utmost use of light alloys and plastics. Mechanical handling is rapidly growing and van bodies have been redesigned for easier loading. Bulk carriers are being developed and art experimental self-loading container transporter has been evolved. The teleprinter network has been extended and the use of V.H.F. radio to control collection and delivery parcels and market vehicles has been expanded.
Challenge to Hauliers Independent hauliers cannot afford to lag behind such improvements. If their own resources will not support lavish facilities, they should combine with other operators to provide them jointly.
Professional carriers may be inclined to agree with the charge of exploitation made in a section of the report referring to the present level of road and rail freight charges and to the wholesale prices of manufactured goods, building and civil engineering materials, and iron and steel. It points out that, in real terms, rail charges for these traffics are still below the pre-war level, and that road transport rates are probably in the same case.
"Certainly, the rise in the general level of charges is below the increase in the price levels of the commodities carried," says the report. "It would seem, then, that in so far as high transport charges are put forward as a major explanation of increases in selling prices, either the explanation itself is open to doubt, or there has been a transfer to private transport costing more than the public service, however much a trader may value the convenience and prestige of possessing his own vehicles."
The Commission can never resist a sly dig at the C-licensee, although it is probably true that necessary increases in both road and rail charges are often used as an excuse to justify proportionately greater rises in wholesale prices. The transport operator is born to the role of whipping boy and, unless there is a radical change in human nature, he will continue to Ell it.