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Municipal transport problems
Page 101
Page 102
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Municipal bus management is criticized by inference in two recent reports of the Prices and Incomes Board. Are the criticisms justified? What lessons may be drawn from the searching reports of the PIB investigators?
In two special articles the municipal transport problems as illustrated by P1B reports on the Rochdale and Dundee undertakings are probed.
THE municipal bus industry has qualified for its fair share of investigation by the Prices and Incomes Board. With the possible exception of some trade unionists most people are agreed that PIB reports are objectively written by professional investigators.
Often, the worst thing that can be said of the authors is that they have no specialized knowledge of the particular industry about which they are writing—and this criticism tends to be of less significance as the PIB teams acquire the detailed knowledge of operating realities and the particular labour relations climate which is all-important in proposing solutions. The medicine prescribed by the P113 may be unpalatable but there is no denying the usefulness to management generally of reports which contain much factual detail and logical argument.
The recent Board studies of the situation at Rochdale and Dundee are admirable examples of careful analysis and considered comment. Both Corporations face critical financial problems arising from the need to induce passengers to pay higher fares for a diminished service. Rochdale last made a profit on municipal buses of £347 in the year 1964-65 since when overall net deficits have totalled £86,550. The Dundee undertaking estimates that without allowances for pay increases the 1968-69 deficit will be £39,939 and if the agreed pay increases were implemented this would rise to between £100,000 and £110,000.
A fares increase to recover the Dundee estimate deficit would need to be of the order of 7 to 8 per cent, and without an increase in fares—unless funds were taken from reserves—an extra rate of 4-0 in the pound would be required. This solution is virtually ruled out because the transport undertaking is required to pay its way by a section in the Dundee Corporation Act.
Rochdale applied two fares increases, both exceeding 11 per cent, in 1967-68 reducing the net deficit to £8,025 and estimated to yield a surplus of over £37,000 for 1968-69. This likely surplus took account of mileage reductions operative from January 1968 but made no allowance for higher earnings of employees.
The PIB stresses that for bus platform staff the productivity criterion must be met by an increase in passengers carried per vehicle, and hence per crew member. Service cuts which restore earlier ratios of passenger miles to vehicle miles are unacceptable.
"The yardstick which must be applied to reduced mileage is whether this action, and any reorganization of services which goes with it, will produce a significant rise in the rate of passenger mileage to vehicle mileage beyond any point experienced in recent years. (My italics.) At Rochdale the number of passengers per vehicle mile fell from 10.3 to 9.6 in the last four years. At Dundee passengers per vehicle mile have fallen from 9.9 in 1961 to 8.5 in 1968. With the number of passengers carried by public road transport declining nationally by 2 to 3 per cent per year it is not surprising that the Board should note that the Rochdale undertaking expected a fall in passengers carried of 6.5 per cent this year. The Rochdale analysis spelled out estimated savings of £2,800 arising from changes in working practice .and the removal of two local enhancements to pay rates of platform staff with a marginal reduction in overtime and some consequential benefits to bus crews. Alterations in working practice for single-manned buses enabling six additional buses to be operated on Sundays would have yielded £600. Relaxation of union rules which previously forbade the direct recruitment of drivers would have saved up to £1,565 in training costs, though with some offsetting loss of training grant.
Rochdale Corporation estimated a total saving of £4,515—barely 5s per week for each member of the platform staff—but it was felt that savings in mileage cuts could justifiably finance the productivity pay increases proposed. The KB investigators conceded "some justification for a part of the agreement in so far as the workers involved are making a direct contribution towards increased productivity by accepting more exacting work".
But then came the rub. The PIB held that "as a calculation of all the gains and costs cannot show a reduction in the total cost per unit of output" the basic requirement for a productivity deal has not been met.
The Rochdale mileage cuts were intended to produce a saving of £18,500 a year. The formal agreement made no mention of these cuts and the investigators could not accept the submission that consequential changes in working conditions, involving more exacting work, made a direct contribution to increased productivity.
Brief mention must be made of Rochdale's proposal to pay a 15s productivity bonus to non-craft depot staff who, it was claimed, had made a contribution to productivity by accepting a reduction of two employees in the non-craft garage labour force; and a productivity bonus proposed for depot crafts men would have involved non-craft staff in a degree of more exacting work.
On this, the PIB team held that the reduced mileage would reduce the maintenance work load for depot staff and any relaxation of craft demarcation lines would be better dealt with in the context of the craftsmen's bonus scheme.
Taking the whole agreement the PIB men argued that in return for increased costs of £40,000 a year—the Council's final intention was to pay £1 15s per week addition to both crews and non-craft depot staff—"this socalled productivity agreement would produce savings of less than £5,000 per year" requiring substantial fares increases.
Here, it is appropriate to mention a criticism by the PIB applicable both to Rochdale and Dundee and, I suspect, to most municipal transport departments. The Board refers to the undesirable consequences which sometimes follow "from close operational control of bus undertakings by council transport committees, and to the need for reinforcing
the position of the general manager by negotiating all negotiations with the staff through management channels". In the Dundee report, indeed, the criticism is sharpened for the investigators say: "We understand that the commitment to give employees two-thirds of gross labour savings was made by Corporation representatives at a meeting with representatives of the employees' union, at which no member of the management of the undertaking was present".
At Rochdale the PIB men felt that 10 minutes allowed for the depot to city centre journey—starting point for services— should be cut to the 5min allowed for the return journey; that 15min allowance for signing on and off was adequate against the 25min allowed—"such a reduction would make available up to 500 more productive platform hours every week"; that route changes might point the way to increased revenue and cost and manpower savings; most important of all, the transition to oneman operation should be speeded up.
It was found that eight out of Rochdale's fleet of 127 buses were currently operated by one man; that 22 existing vehicles could be converted and that eight new one-man buses were on order. If the management were right in thinking that 22 buses could be converted to single manning within a year, by existing garage staff, 38 vehicles (30 per cent of the total) could be driver-operated and with a normal replacement of eight buses per year full transition to single manning could be effected in 12 years—with such substantial savings that a higher replacement rate producing a shorter transition period might be justified. If both sides agreed to this idea a lOs acceptance bonus was immediately justified.
Some detailed Rochdale criticisms referred to depot organization. It was felt the position and alignment of washing machines could be improved; that the siting of soap washing bays hampered operations because bays were closed at one end and vehicles wasted time reversing out; that times allowed for sweeping out and cleaning buses were excessive and that more use should be made of mechanical washing. A reorganization of these operations in conjunction with a sound incentive bonus scheme would yield significant savings.
The PIB's criticisms of the Dundee undertaking were more pungent. The agreement reviewed called for an increase in basic pay of LI per week retrospective to December 14, 1967; to an additional payment of lOs per week bonus for acceptance of one-man operation and to the payment of a further 3s 6d weekly bonus arising from acceptance of new operating schedules and the introduction of high-capacity vehicles. The Board's report notes the model agreement submitted by the Federation of Municipal Transport Employers for the replacement of the NJIC award of if increase in basic rates by a two-part agreement for a lOs increase in basic pay from December 14, 1967, plus a lOs weekly acceptance bonus to be paid from June 13, 1967 for one-man operation as recommended in Report No. 50. "We should not wish to prejudice an agree
ment on these lines and wehave taken account of this in our considerations."
After noting that Dundee's platform staff shortage of 4 per cent compared well with a national shortage of about 18 per cent and that average earnings of Dundee crew members compared reasonably well with those of platform staff eniployed by undertakings in large industrial towns, the PIB's critical barrage is mounted.
The award of lOs bonus for accepting a modest introduction of one-man operated buses—I0 single-deckers on stage carriage services out of a total fleet of 231—is condemned out of hand because "the wording of the agreement related to this leaves open the opportunity for further bargaining on the kind of bus to be used as single manning is extended, and in particular could affect the use of double-deck buses for this purpose". It is clear, says the PIB team, "the Union have avoided any commitment to the acceptance of double-deck single manning".
The productivity bonus of 3s 6d was reviewed in the light of estimates that Dundee's revised proposals in relation to frequencies and duty schedules would have offset the average annual decline in passengers carried per vehicle mile for perhaps one year; hence no significant rise in productivity in these terms would result from the proposed changes.
The "work content" of the proposed new crew schedules was examined for evidence of more exacting work and it was considered that this was on average 1.4 per cent less than that of existing duty schedules; and the proposed use of 10 two-man operated high capacity double-deckers was not felt to be a "major change in working practice" because 20 vehicles of this type were first brought into operation in January 1965 and no less than 45 of this type were in operation before the local agreement was ratified.
The commitment to distribute among the employees concerned two-thirds of the gross labour savings arising from the proposed operational changes was also dissected, being broken down as separate awards of lOs for acceptance of one-man operation and 3s 6d for the rest.
Viewing the Dundee proposals in the round the PIB men said the agreed payments would in total represent an increase in earnings of about 11 per cent. The proposed NJIC addition to basic rates would itself produce increased earnings of about 7+ per cent. With no return in improved productivity or increased effort this "showed an inadequate awareness of the need to consider consumer benefit, whether it be in terms of fares or rates falling on Dundee householders".
In a valuable analysis of traffic operation productivity the Board criticized the excessive Dundee fleet strength of 231 vehicles when the highest peak demand utilized only 180; the retention of obsolescent vehicles because the union refused to sanction interchange of buses between routes was slammed; for this required older type buses to be retained in service to cover entire route demands, making economic use of spare vehicles impossible; and there was the devastating comment that more minor accident damage was caused to vehicles in the Dundee depots than in actual traffic operation] The most potent criticism referred to crew scheduling where union restrictions limited maximum working time on any duty to eight hours and unduly restricted the number of spreadovers. This resulted in considerably less than six hours per daily duty of platform crews expressed in terms of" wheelturning", and a very large amount on nonproductive "stand-by" time was included and paid for.
Next week the views of Rochdale and Dundee management will be published.