Post-Jones Stocktaking by RHA?
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FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT THE rough handling which the Road Haulage Association received in connection with the report of the National Board for Prices and Incomes has prompted serious refictions on the Association's role as a national organization. At both national and area levels there have been searching inquiries into the RHA's poor showing in its confrontation with the First Secretary of State. In many quarters it is felt that the Association lacks the professional touch in handling the political aspects of its affairs and that this basic weakness could be rectified by the appointment of a full-time salaried president on the American or Continental style.
Another subject for criticism is the constitution, in which the full allowance made for democratic procedure tends to inhibit administrative efficiency and the inability to make quick decisions in a crisis. As the pace of public life accelerates, the slow, unwieldy constitutional machinery of the RHA becomes more and more outmoded.
To a lesser degree; the Conservative Party's official blessing of the report of the Geddes Committee has also caused a re-assessment of the political alignments of the RHA. In some quarters doubts have been expressed as to whether the Tories are, in fact, the Association's political allies. There can be little doubt that the Geddes Report would be implemented if the Tory Government came to office within, say. the next 12-18 months. Cynics confirm that the Tories would have no hesitation in ditching the RHA if the Geddes Report was thought to have *popular appeal.
Against this line of argument it is maintained that the Labour Party's support of the licensing system is motivated solely by the need to keep in being suitable machinery for the possible integration or co-ordination of transport. Whilst many members of the RHA were severely jolted out of their complacency by the Tories' eagerness to endorse Geddes, the general climate of opinion throughout the Association is probably a cynical realization that politics is a dirty game and that the RHA has only one reliable ally—itself.
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