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'Free Enterprise Road Transport' will
Page 42
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• Road Haulage Association members throughout the country are incensed at the decision of the association's national executive council to drop the words "Free Enterprise Road Transport" from the chairman's badge of office and reproductions of it. The decision was taken when the association was designing the badge to replace the one recently stolen from its headquarters.
It is understood that the decision has not yet been conveyed to the full membership and some operators this week expressed shock and regret when CM told them. Mr. R. I. Cooper, Coopers Road Services Ltd., Wednesbury, who is a sub-area chairman in the West Midlands area said: "I regret that this decision has been taken but, unlike some members, I shall not be resigning from the 'RHA."
We understand that a number of members in the South East are considering withdrawing
some support from the association to signify their disapproval. Where an operator has more than one company registered as a member the plan is to withdraw all except one. In this way he will retain a voice in the association's affairs but pay less for the privilege.
Paradoxically, it is the lack of opportunity to voice an individual opinion on this issue which is causing feeling to run high. Members feel they should have been given the opportunity to vote on what one man described as the "cornerstone" of the association.
The omission of the wording and the comparatively recent admission of the nationalized sector of the industry to membership are seen by some as more than a coincidence. One London operator suggested that the £5,000 membership fee paid by State transport could be regarded as sufficient inducement to ensure that the reference to free enterprise would be dropped.
Reports that the decision of the national executive council was passed by the narrowest majority have been denied by the association this week, It had also been suggested that the State transport members had hinted that continued membership would be incompatible with retention of the former wording.
RHA opinion is sharply divided on the issue. There are those who feel that the time has come to close the gap between the private and public sectors. Others, however, are violently opposed to the change, especially without wider consultation. "Confidence trick", "dictatorial", "underhand" were some of the words used to describe the affair.
A spokesman for RHA said that the wording was considered not in keeping with the 1969 image of the association. The proposal to drop the wording, he said, was made by