CHANGES SOON

6th May 1960, Page 115

6th May 1960

Page 115

Page 115, 6th May 1960 — CHANGES SOON

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CHANGES now taking place among the people responsible for running the road transport industry may transform it before very long. Every week, or so it seems, there comes news of retirements. Often the people who go have seemed permanent features of the transport, landscape, and their departure leaves a gap it seems impossible to fill. Some of them are operators, others have given many years of service to the associations

in the industry. Al least four area secretaries of the Road Haulage Association, for example, have left within a short time, and they must have been with that body or its predecessors for an aggregate of well over 100 years. According to reports, several other secretaries will be due for retirement within the next few years.

There is more than mere coincidence in this. It was a generation or so ago when road transport first got down seriously to the task of organization. It was a risk and an adventure to set up as a haulier. Although there were a few venerable and welt-established businesses, the industry was regarded pre-eminently as a field for youth. There were opportunities to be had, but there were also disappointments, and a good deal of hard work was required for laying the foundations. The youag men who threw themselves into the task with such enthusiasm and energy set the pattern that was subsequently followed.

The early associations were created out of nothing, and the officials who are now retiring are handing over to their successors something that they can claim as almost entirely the result of their own life's work. The operators who formed the associations were for the most part selfmade men with very little capital, and it was their activities that built up the picture in the public mind of road haulage as an industry of small businesses—a picture incidentally that stood the industry in good stead during the political troubles that followed the war.

For 30 years the picture has needed very little retouching. The people who first took control of the industry in their competent hands have retained it until now. It is only at this stage that the pioneers, as they are usually called, are handing over to a new generation with the wider outlook that comes from starting on an assured basis. The small man is still predominant numerically, but there is a greater tendency than before towards amalgamation, and towards experiments in grouping that cover practically the whole range from sub-contracting to complete absorption,

Drastic Change

The transition is drastic. It is taking place throughout the industry and at all levels. There may be sweeping changes over the next few years, and the possibility is increased by the fact that the transport industry itself is ready for a change. The legislation of a generation ago is at last beginning to show cracks. The wind of change is blowing, as the Prime Minister might put it, and the new generation will pursue a very different line from that taken by their predecessors.

It is significant that in Mr. Ernest Marples the transport industry has a new Minister with a new approach. He has shown a remarkable talent for disturbing established ideas and showing them up as hollow. Parliament and the public, including many operators themselves, have for too long adopted a rigid attitude towards the transport system. Mr. Marples seems to enjoy upsetting this attitude, arid may be looking forward to a good time in his post.

He has already set in train activities that may be thee shape of things to come. He has dared to set up a body with the task of advising the Government on their policy for the railways and without a single railway man as a member. One need only read the comments in Hansard and in the Press to know just how daring this is. The Road Traffic and Roads Improvement Bill now passing through Parliament is equally characteristic of Mr. Marples. It will give him powers to take swifter and more drastic action to deal with, the traffic problem. In the meantime, he is not sparing in his efforts to build new roads. He needs much more money than has so far been allocated, but few people would doubt his ability to get it.

Some interesting conclusions are likely to be reached by Mr. Marples and the Government when they have completed their inquiries and the time comes for 'action. One likely change will be in the opinion still generally held about the railways. They can no longer be regarded as the force they once were, especially on the goods side. Their activities will have to be cut down more in accordance with their reduced circumstances.

Restricted, Expansion To redress the balance, the Government may have to rely upon the public road carrier both of passengers and of goods. Expansion in road transport for many years has been almost entirely restricted to the private car and the vehicle on C licence. The man who owns his own vehicle cannot be expected to take over where the railways leave off. The responsibility can be transferred only to the professional.

The restrictions with which the old generation of road operators had to contend were imposed in the first place because the railways were regarded as the sheet anchor of the transport system that must be protected against irresponsible competitors. Road operators, especially those who did not run to an established pattern, were described variously and unflatteringly as a rabble and as pirates. Their activities were a nuisance that ought to be suppressed.

It was as well that this negative policy was resisted or failed to have its full effect. As observers from other countries, and especially the U.S.A., have said more than once, Britain is fortunate in having such a well-established system of road passenger services. Many of them are in financial difficulties, caused by the growth in the number of private cars rather titan by railway competition. The Government may feel that active steps should be taken to preserve and extend bus and coach operation.

There are far fewer financial problems facing hauliers. They have stood I.1D to railway competition and to the right of the trader to use his own vehicles, and have emerged stronger than ever. The prevalence of ratecutting may be causing anxiety, but hauliers have contrived to meet it mainly by carrying a greater volume of traffic. The main obstacle to growth is the stringent licensing system, which has had the unnatural effect of keeping the number of road haulage vehicles almost down to the level of 30 years ago.

This has had no effect whatever on the total number of goods vehicles. Those operated under C licence have continued to increase in number, not at an unreasonable rate, but certainly more rapidly than would have happened if hauliers had had greater freedom to expand. The Government may decide that there are no longer obstacles to the granting of this freedom. The new generation of hauliers and of passenger operators should therefore be able to look forward hopefully.