Incentives or Subsidies for Bus Industry?
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SOME most outspoken comments were made by Mr. Fe R. L. Fitzpayne, general manager of Glasgow Transport I .eartment, when he addressed the work-study conference of the British Institute of. Management in London last week, His theme was work study and transport. He believed that work study had been successfully applied to engineering sections of road passenger transport, but had failed on the traffic side,
Workshop incentive schemes had been tried by the London, Ulster, Manchester, Coventry and Glasgow undertakings, and the trade unions, being aware of such a development, might ._ well. attempt ' to establish national ratings for particular jobs. " If this is so, it should be strongly resisted, as it is unreasonable to standardize times of jobs throughout the country, since there are so many variable factors," said Mr. Fitzpayne.
The Glasgow scheme was based on the principle of payment by result. Payments were calculated by reference to time saved against agreed standard times for each job. The total of hours saved in each bonus pool, which was usually a group of one trade, was distributed according to the total of each operator's attendance hours for the week. Standard times had been set which should enable bonus earnings of 33. per cent. to be achieved by the average workman, provided that a steady and continuous effort was maintained. No minimum was guaranteed and neither was a ceiling set.
The men were fully aware of the increases in output which had followed the bonus scheme. Criticism was sometimes made that the department were obtaining relatively greater benefit than was represented by the increase in their earnings. The reply to this was that the increase was not only because of employees' efforts but was partly the result of an improved flciey of work and materials, together with 'the provision of more power toolS.'
Live Foreman
A reorientation of the attitude towards supervision on the shop floor was necessary. Whilst it became superfluous under bonus conditions to watch that operators did not spend too long on a job it called for a really live foreman to have jobs always ready, and waiting for 30 or More operatiVeS.
Turning to deal with incentives for platform staff, Mr. Fitzpayne observed that in America the earnings of bus drivers were improved by the operation of one-man vehicles. A driver received a percentage of the money saved by the elimination of the conductor. This form of operation had not caught on in Britain because of our graded fares system and the general adoption of double-deckers. The trade unions here
were not enthusiastic about one-man operation, and certainly had net pressed employers to adopt it to boost men's earnings.
It had to be understood, affirmed the speaker, that road passenger transport was an industry which suffered from the competition of electric suburban railways and private means for travel, and that increased wages could not readily be granted while the law of diminishing returns was a constant threat. Every municipal operator was anxious to improve the standard of the staff, to reduce the turnover of staff and to employ men instead of women conductOrs, Operators would quickly adopt an incentive scheme for platform staff to effect these improvements if a feasible one were forthcoming.
Although operators had not found such a successful scheme, Mr. Fitzpayne had noticed that industrial consultants were invariably wildly enthusiastic about those which they could introduce. "The main weakness of industrial consultants, and one which 'every employer should guard." against, is that they never admit a problem cannot be solved, of course, they are not responsible for the financial stability of an enterprise. It cannot be too often stressed also that if one starts negotiations with employees on the basis of work study with the promise of enhanced earnings, it is almost impossible to draw back if, as the scheme develops it becomes obvious that the original promises are not going to -be fulfilled."
Glasgow had invited the chief firms of consultants to prepare proposals for a traffic-incentive scheme, but none of those put forward appeared feasible, The most ingenious planwas that of Personnel. Administration, Ltd. This company_ recommended, the introduction of a five-day week On a rota basis, the consolidation into a standard hourly rate of payments for Saturday and -Sunday working, and the introductiein of, longservice and efficiency bonuses. .
It was appreciated that a five-day Week would require more staff than were immediately available. The company felt, however, that labour turnover would quickly be reduced and the extra number of staff would thus be provided. The extra personnel required would not be as peat as would appear because the working day would be extended, and each employee would still complete 44 hours of work in the recommended basic week of fivedays.
A long-SerVice bonus could take the form of payments of Is. per week per year of service up to a maximum of 10s. Where there was only a limited number of promotional Opportunities for traffic staff, it had been previous practiceto give long-service men preferential duties, but as the result of pressure from the trade unions this practice had been discontinued.
The consultants felt that there' should he some recognition for long service as the department's records showed that old employees were by far the most satiss factory, being more reliable and less prone to accidents. A bonus—Would encourage More experienced employees to stay with the undertaking.
Injury to Health
It was possible for a matt to:earn a satisfactory income only by ieorking excessive overtime—an undesirable practice from many points of view, not the least of which wag the difficulty of maintaining long . working hours without injury 'tohealth and morale. If there were sufficient personnel to eliminate the need for the working of overtime, the basic wage of about 17 a week would need to be augmented.
It was therefore recommended that an efficiency bonus should be introduced. This would amount to about 11 a week and be based on a combination of freedom from accidents, regularity of attendance and punctuality and discipline.
Payments of commission to platform staff on the basis of the revenue they collected were not practicable. The prime duty of a passenger transport service was to operate with regularity. Commission payments would mean that each bus would operate as a separate unit, and drivers would be encouraged to slow down or accelerate in order to gain as Many passengers as possible, , Basic Fact
We come back, tothe basic fact that the public are not prepared to pay higher fares, whilst any form of incentive scheme for drivers and conductors must substantially increase our operating costs, This .being the case someone must decide how inaportant an efficient public transport service is to the community; and it may well be that it will be necessary to meet some of the costs of operation by either local or national funds," he emphasized.
This could be accomplished by the abolition of the fuel tax. Although subsidies of any kind were bad in principle, the suggestion was not revolutionary as many large cities throughout the world were running their public transport at continual losses which were met from public funds. If financial assistance appeared untealistic, even more so would be the suggestion that public transport should be free. This would eliminate conductors, cash clerks and all the elaborate machinery associated with the collection of tons of copper each day and its subsequent delivery to the banks.