Safety in numbers
Page 19
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There is nothing intrinsically unusual about the decision by nine Hull hauliers to band together into a federation that will interwork its vehicles and operate to an agreed rates schedule. Yorkshire itself has had several similar groups for some years, and there are others as far apart as Scotland and the West Country. Most have proved invaluable in stabilizing the local road transport industry; a few have been a sham in which operators have spoken with one voice around the table and with a very different one when quoting for traffic behind colleagues' backs.
But the Hull move is symptomatic of a particular combination of circumstances which may—and we hope will—cause similar groupings at an unprecedented pace and help to bolster private haulage. Fast-rising costs and patchy traffic have put the financial squeeze on hauliers who, having waited long and patiently, were offered nothing by the PIB to replace the long-established RHA rates recom mendations. At the same time, the many threats implicit in the Transport Bill, and the competition for trunk traffic represented by the NFC/BR tie-up, promise far tougher trading conditions ahead.
These factors, together with the stricter regulation of the industry implicit in such imminent measures as testing and plating, point very strongly to the survival of the fittest—and in most cases this means the biggest. Common sense dictates that local haulage rivalry should be thrown overboard in face of the common threat; togetherness also promises greater efficiency and useful commercial benefits.
Writing in this month's Road Way, Mr. Edgar Williams, a prominent RHA member well known for his businesslike approach to haulage operation, forecasts that the disappearance of RHA blanket increases will prove a blessing in disguise if hauliers will only stand together in refusing to accept uneconomic rates and can back up their "asking figure" with accurate costings. These people—often "cooperative units and other voluntary groups"—will, he says, become the price leaders of the industry, not only in ton-mile rates but in enforcing demurrage.
This is precisely the position of the new Hull federation, whose chairman speaks of alleviating the present distressing financial situation of hauliers by offering better joint service in return for more realistic rates "coupled with demurrage charges".
There is another aspect, too. The haulage industry is still full of first-generation operators, some of them working beyond normal retirement age. For them, the bitter prospects of 1968-70 will prove the last straw; and in many cases, even where there is a son in the family, succession to the boss's chair holds little appeal. Where such a business is a good going concern it may slip into the nationnlind net; if it is in need of capital to provide new vehicles, facilities and personnel to meet harsher legislation, then it will probably fold up. But groups provide a means of keeping each member firm up to standard, and the ability to absorb haulage businesses whose owners retire, with minimum disruption of customers' traffic.
Last but not least, the group system may provide the opening for capable and intelligent driving staff to graduate to more senior positions, instead of having to leave the industry of accept less rewarding jobs when their days as front-rank drivers are over. This is an aspect of training which we hope the RTITB and the industry will study; promotion from within is good policy, and "driver training" need not be synonymous with "driving training".