Gadarene Folly
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MOB mentality is causing the wastage of millions of pounds worth of capital assets. This wanton extravagance to satisfy a whim cannot be allowed to continue. Just because workers insist on travelling to and from their employment in a herd, and management in industry is too apathetic to act in the matter, three-quarters of Britain's buses are used for only. a quarter of the working day. For the rest of the time they stand idle while operating staff may be paid for nothing. Many buses male only two effective journeys a day during the morning and evening peak periods, varying from 15 minutes to an hour.
This ridiculous situation is aggravated by the intransigence of education authorities, who refuse to stagger school hours so as not to conflict with commercial and industrial traffic at peak periods. The result is that, although the road passenger transport industry has invested millions of pounds in unnecessary vehicles, it still cannot fully meet the demands of passengers, who expect buses to be available whenever and wherever they require them.
The Commercial Motor has made a national survey of the subject, and the first of three articles appears in this issue. Since it was conducted, a 42-hour working week has been introduced in shipbuilding and engineering. A change in the working day has had serious repercussions on bus services in some areas, particularly where there has been no consultation,between industry and bus operators.
No Action in Isolation
Industrial management and trade unions are slow to learn the simple fact that bus operation is intimately connected with the country's social and commercial life, and that any widespread alteration in working hours or social habits is immediately reflected in timetables and duty rosters. Bus timings and staff duties cannot be changed overnight. They are part of a long-term pattern interwoven into a complex fabric of organization dictated by the needs of all classes of passenger.
Full consultation between industrialists, unions and operators is essential before a change in working hours affecting a large block of passengers can be put into force. The alternative is the non-availability of buses at the time required.
Any aggravation of the present peak-load problem is intolerable. Its cost is already enormous, and the discomfort and stress that it -causes are entirely unnecessary. Passengers have only themselves to blame for the present level of fares, which is artificially inflated by the need to maintain fleets far in excess of reasonable requirements, and for the inconvenience of queuing in the morning and evening.
But they cannot be regarded as having expiated their folly by discomfort and expense. Britain cannot afford to continue the present wastage of capital equipment. If the staggering of business and school hours cannot be achieved voluntarily, there must be official pressure on industry and education authorities to make the most economic use of transport facilities.
Peak traffic of all kinds is responsible for choking towns, which, if the load were spread a little more evenly over the day, might be able to absorb an increasing number of vehicles with less rebuilding than will otherwise.be needed. The cost to the nation of the drastic reconstruction . of cities, largely to enable traffic to flow more freely during a few hours of the day, will far exceed that—represented by hundreds of idle buses. Unless the community awaken quickly to the consequences of their folly, they may find themselves saddled with a burden of expenditure that removes indefinitely the hope of a reduction in taxation.
Everybody's Business
UNLESS the frequent strikes in the motor industry are maliciously inspired for political ends, morale generally must be low. Ultimately, management must accept responsibility for them, for it alone can create the atmosphere in which a healthy relationship with the workers can exist and thrive. It may well be that, apart from the formation of great units in modern industry, the cult of specialization has caused a narrowing of contacts between employees and management. There may well be a tendency to leave staff relations to the personnel manager, whereas the creation of harmony and understanding is a matter for the whole of management.
Mr. R. R. Hopkins, of Vauxhall Motors, Ltd., who have an enviable record of industrial peace, expressed his attitude in a paper read• to the British Institute of Management last Friday. "This is no job for just a limited number of personnel specialists, or even senior managers endowed with a social conscience," he said. "The whole management team must understand, accept and act upon a validated and appropriate company-wide philosophy."
It was not enough to treat people as one wished to be treated oneself, or to regard morale as the outcome of applied common sense. "Every aspect of a company's policy, procedures, organization and system of communication must be socially sound, in that they encourage satisfaction and avoid provocation," he declared..
Happily, the complex problems of staff relations do not worry the average haulier, who is in constant contact with his men. But they are ever-pressing on big bus and haulage organizations, as well as on large manufacturers, and Mr. Hopkins' words merit careful attention.