PROPOSED FUSION OF NORTHERN TRANSPORT ASSOCIATIONS.
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THE ROAD transport associations in the Liverpool district are exploring the possibilities of a fusion scheme. The theme is not a new one, and the suggestion was made in The Commercial Motor three or four years ago that a conference of all the local transport associations should be established in order that there might be a common policy on common problems. As it is, 'however, each of the six associations is governed by its own constitution and regulations, and this obviously means that the personnel of the huge transport trade of the district is grouped in a rather arbitrary manner, and difficulties in the matter of rates are of frequent occurrence.
At the present time there are six associations, as follows :—The Commercial Motor Users Association, the Birkenhead Road Transport Association, the Liverpool and District Motor Haulage Contractors Association, the Liverpool Cart and Motor Owners Association, the Liverpool Short Cart-owners -association and the Wallasey Cartowners Association.
Apparently the success which hes been achieved in the Manchester fusion scheme has revived the desire for a similar consummation in the Liverpool area,
Initial difficulties, however, seem to have been encountered at Liverpool in determining whether or not the Mancheater scheme could be applied in the Merseyside area. Already one conference has been held, and it was suggested that each association should put forward propositions embodying conditions which it would require to be included inany local scheme of fusion. This is the point which negotiations have now ripparently reached, and a further conference is to be held towards the end of this mouth, with a view to finding out whether it is possible to formulate a scheme acceptable to all associations. So far as the Liverpool area committee of the Commercial Motor Users Association is concerned, it has been decided that attention be given to the Manchester fusion scheme to ascertain which of its conditions are applicable to Liverpool transport requirements.
The difficulty of reaching a decision in the Liverpool district is apparently greater than that of Manchester, where there were only. three parties to the compact—the C.M.U.A., the Amalgamated Horse and Motor (inners Association and the Manchester Transport Owners Association, for, as we have already indieated, there are six distinct associations which are directly concerned in the project. The outstanding benefit. of the fusion is that a common and uniform subscription is payable by the members of each association. There is mutual interChange of membership, and the advantages of membership are correspondingly increased.
This organization has two main sections ;—(1) The trade section, confined to those engaged in the trade of road transport, such as haulage contractor, carriers, motor coach proprietors, and so on ; and (2) the commercial section, restricted to those who use transport as an auxiliary to their main business and are not engaged in transport as a trade.