A" Smalls" Rates System that Works Well
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Sterling Work Carried Out by a Leading Scottish Association Which Has Materially Assisted in the Solution of a
Difficult Problem
By Hamish MacDougall, A.C.I.S., A.B.1.
THE late Mr. David Gordon Wright, chairman of the Scottish Carriers' and Haulage Contractors' Association, was a pioneer and expert in the matter of " smalls" rates' classification L.nd schedules in Scotland. Early in 1936 he, along with colleagues on the Board, decided that the problem must be solved on a wide basis and that the rates finally compiled should be applicable to any carrier emanating from any town in Scotland, They have now rates for all carriers operating within a radius of about 40 miles of Glasgow.
The procedure adopted was as follows:—Meetings were held in towns and villages within the selected radius of Glasgow. The opinions of carriers were noted. After months of untiring effort the information was compiled and presented to the AssociationetRates Committee.
This committee sorted out the details received, and after adjustment by Mr. Wright it was found that some measure of order was disclosed. Five areas were compiled, No. 1 being Glasgow and No. 6 taking in places as far distant as Ayr and Stirling. The accompanying diagram gives some idea of what was indicated by this plan.
How the Rates Applied
As there were about 200 carric:s operating from Glasgow, it was agreed that these rates schedules could be made applicable to any district, provided the carriers operating to a particular district agreed to adopt the appropriate rates schedule.
Reference must be made once again to the system of carriers' quarters in Glasgow. Operators use these quarters as small clearing houses, but no competitors are allowed in the same quarters. As most quarters were owned by operators themselves, an attempt was made by the Association to make it a condition of the "let " of the quarters that all operators must observe the
proposed rates schedules. Notwithstanding meetings and assurances and, in fact, signed agreements, the scheme, whilst operating for a time, fell through, and the old chaotic conditions prevailed once again.
The writer recollects the first day he took up duties as secretary of the Scottish Carriers' and Haulage Contractors' Association when Mr. Wright called at the office with a huge bundle of rates files. "This will be one of your first jobs, Mr. MacDougall," he said, " to get these rates put into force." An attempt was made once again, on the old lines, but the memory of the previous failure still rankled.
When the Road and Rail Regional Committees were formed in 1939, Mr. Wright and the Association welcomed the opportunity' provided of stabilizing
the rates. The war prevented any further meeting of the Regional Committees, but a new desire on the part of the carriers to maintain rates resulted in the Association once again opening -up the problem on an area basis.
For example, it was learned that tile 12 carriers operating to Ayr were most anxious to secure some unification. A meeting was held and schedule No. 5. along with classification, presented for their consideration. These 12 opera tors signed a statement binding themselves to the agreed rates. . and on October 16, 1939, they came into force.
The next step was an agreement for area No. 4, between Glasgow and Irvine, where the same procedure was adopted. Other carriers got to hear of this, and soon Clydebank had adopted schedule No. 2 and Bellshill and Motherwell districts fell to considering area No. 3.
Schedules for All Carriers The bulletins which were issued by the Association from time to time reiterated the statement that it had rates schedules for all carriers emanating from Glasgow, and provided carriers were •prepared to observe the agreed rates they could be put into force at any time. This resulted in numerous inquiries from operators and the next districts tackled were Glasgow to Stirling.
In all these steps Mr. Wright was most active and would not permit operators to cut and carve the rates schedules to suit themselves. He maintained that one area must merge with another and if existing rates differed one from another, then it was better to make a deletion from the schedule than to alter it. That was a sound principle. In March, 1940, a meeting of the Road and Rail Regional Committee was held, and it was with deep regret that it received intimation of the death of Mr. Wright. He did not live to see his work completed and both road and rail representatives agreed that whilst the schedules were by no means perfect, they provided a start and would be a foundation of " smalls " rates for the future.
The keynote of a general rates structure must be simplicity. On all sides one hears of the difficulties to be surmounted and the problems to be solved. In this way the issue has been strained, and the whole problem made to look more formidable than it really is. The truth is that whilst there are numbers of hauliers who have their own rates schedules made out, comparatively few of them are competent to deal with the subject along broad lines. The solution to the problem is found in two basic principles:—(1) Schedules . of rates to be national and rigid. (2) Classification of merchandise to be national and flexible.
Simplicity the Keynote Schedules of rates must be simple, so simple in fact that only a mental calculation will be necessary in a great many cases. Obviously, hauliers doing a cash business cannot spend valuable time working out prices into fractions. Multiples of a penny must be graded with weights, that is to say, is. 8d. per ton is Id. per cwt. and 10s, per ton is 6d. per cwt. It, therefore, follows that rigid schedules of rates should increase by is. 8d. per ton.
Increasing by Is. 8d. per ton right up to £5 per ton would mean 60 different rates, which are sufficient for the purpose of this article. Now, 60 different schedules seem a rather formidable ensemble, but when it is borne in mind how traffic flows it will, at once, be realized that most traffic streams are at rates ranging from 10s. to 30s. per ton; that is to say, th:y are covered by 12 rates schedules.
If the rates be absolutely rigid no dispute or confusion can arise. The flexibility of the classification comes when it is found that the particular commodity is being rated too high. It then becomes • a simple matter to reclassify it in a lower schedule,say, from four into five.
So far as the " smalls " rates are concerned, it must be noted that the classification is divided into six classes and, below, Class 2 is given as an example.
CLASSIFICATION OF MERCHANDISE
Beans, bitumens, butter, belting, biscuits, cheese, confectionery, bakers sundries, candles, chicory, coffee, custard, canned goods, eggs (owners' risk), fertilizer in bags, gum, glue, ginger, glucose, disinfectants (solid), gut, heavy drapery, ink-powder and graphite, hardware. honey, hams, general powders, mixed groceries, mustard, ironmongery, oils, oatcakes, paper, pickles, pepper, jams, raw leather, roofing felt, rusks, soaps, spices, starch. string, syrup. seeds, sugar (except Greenock), soda, tinned milk, treacle.
The list serves to show the types of commodity included. There is also given below the rates that are appli
cable. There are, of course, exceptional rates, and these are noted in the schedule as separate items.
Practice has shown that this method is a simple and wise one. An operator is asked for a price. He looks in the classification for the commodity. Having found it, he notes the number of this class and applies it to the rates table. The answer is discovered, by this means, almost at once.
If at any time it be found a C. is being carried too cheaply, o 9 t 2 a meeting of operators can 6 that a particular commodity
1 6 be held and that item inserted 9
2 0 in a higher classification. At 2 6 no time should rates be altered. 3 0 3 7 Once these rates have been 4 2
4 fixed they should be fixed
5 3 for all time, subject to 5 9 6 2 increases in general costs, 6 7 but for purposes of rates 7 0 charging, the flexibility of the 76 7 11 classification is found to be 84
S. 9 the only reasonable one for 35 0 operators w hose class of business does not permit an elaborate rates system.
It has worked well in Scotland, and it is gratifying to the Scottish Carriers' Association that its work has, at last, been recognized. In all the agreements • which have been adopted, operators have realized the need for observing prices, and any complaint (and there have been few complaints) has been submitted to the secretary of the Association at 19, Waterloo Street, Glasgow, and has, in a short time, been settled.
Drivers have been issued with copies of the rates and they have found the system simple and effective. The customers, too, are not burdened with elaborate scales of rates and they are gratified to note that one area bears
some relationship to another. Independent schedules can never offer this advantage.
The system works with Scottish carriers. Why not elsewhere?