topic
Page 60
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Riding out the calm
by Janus
FOR longer than one cares to remember road transport operators have pleaded that their industry should be kept clear of politics. Over a period which began some time before the General Election their wish seems to have been realized. The Conservative Party programme contained some promises, but it is unlikely that these played any part in the campaign. The party conferences have left road transport almost completely alone.
A satisfactory trend can be taken too far. Operators would not wish to be entirely forgotten. Their representatives have been at pains to tell the new Minister of Transport about their complaints, which include those he has promised to remedy in any case.
Not a great deal is required of him. Lists of suggestions that have been published are numerically impressive but hardly add up to a revolution. Operators will have to get used to the idea that for the moment they are not greatly threatened. They have grown accustomed to a vague atmosphere of persecution, and it is not easy to shake off the habit.
IN at least one dangerous political area they may be lucky. The dominant issue for some time to come will be the Government's incomes policy. There are wage demands that often seem extravagant to everyone except the people who make them. There are disputes which develop into
strikes, sometimes on a large scale. .
Hauliers have grounds for hoping that they will keep clear of trouble. From next week, the minimum wage to which a driver is entitled—with the exception of what are sometimes called juveniles—is £16 10s. Most drivers will be paid considerably more. The importance lies in the figure of £16 10s. It is the same as the trade union aim for all workers in every trade and industry.
Naturally, the road transport unions cannot admit that they are completely satisfied. Even before the new wage scale takes effect they have set their sights at a basic £20. For some time to come, however, they can have no very powerful sense of grievance.
IN almost the same breath as they are forecasting a further demand the unions cannot forbear boasting of the extent of their latest achievement. They put it at 40 per cent, a rise of £5 Is 6d on the former minimum rate of £11 8s 6d. A Road Haulage Wages Council award of this magnitude is likely to stand for some considerable time.
It should remove for ever the justification for the often-repeated argument that men were expected to do a full week's work for what was hardly a living wage. Few if any drivers were being paid the bare minimum and the employer was in any case required to supplement it with an extra £2. But the basic figure was still widely used as a means of gaining sympathy.
Legitimate or otherwise, the grievance no longer exists. The next stage must be the avoidance of a succession of unreasonable claims to revise wage agreements which already assure payment at a level substantially higher than the new statutory minimum. The evidence so far is that this reaction is not taking place on a large scale. The unions are adhering to a policy of concentrating on the plight of the lowest paid.
0 N implementation of the Transport Act 1968 operators and the Government have no deep difference of opinion. Quantity licensing will not be put into effect and the same stillborn fate is apparently reserved for transport managers' licensing. The further reduction in the limits on drivers' hours and the compulsory fitting of tachographs both remain in abeyance.
Not a great deal is left on which to argue with the Minister. On some of the issues there is no clear agreement within the industry. On at least one of these, Mr G. Turvey, secretary of the Freight Transport Association, has lifted the lid for a brief moment. There should be no support, he has said, for the views expressed in some quarters that all companies who had ever been in a licensing court should be called forward automatically merely to ensure that they "knew what it is all about".
He gave as an example a case in which 22 companies were called up for inquiry on the same day. As the example was recent it can be assumed that all the applicants were C-licence holders wishing to obtain operators' licences. It may seem natural that the Licensing Authority, whose previous experience of them may have been limited to accepting the fee and posting the documents, would wish to find out a little more. From his point of view the easiest method would be to invite the operators to see him at the time when they were asking for the licence.
If they thought the licence worth having, they would be pleased to attend. If they failed to turn up, he could draw his own conclusions. To the Licensing Authority the procedure may have seemed an ingenious method of separating the sheep from the goats. The FTA clearly thinks otherwise, but it is probable that many hauliers would agree with the Licensing Authority.
THEY have not given up hope of stricter control over the operator of vehicles that do not exceed 30cwt unladen. They now admit the absurdity of imposing the full licensing treatment on the man with one or two vans. They still maintain that if he has a fleet of any size—a dividing line of 10 vehicles has been suggested—he ought to be subject to an inquiry into the facilities available for looking after the vehicles.
Whatever its merits, the time for introducing this restriction has long passed. It is hard to imagine the Minister promoting and Parliament agreeing to a proposal that they refused to accept when they were discussing the Transport Bill.
HERE is more likelihood of success for another complaint, chiefly from hauliers. It has been alleged for some time that the newcomer who applies for an operator's licence is being given too easy a passage through the traffic court. He is not questioned closely enough, it is said, about the substantive reality of whatever claims he • makes of available facilities, arrangements for keeping records and so on.
Above all, the complaint continues, Licensing Authorities are neglecting their right td probe into a new applicant's financial resources. If the task were carried out properly, many more aspirants would be turned down. There would be nothing to their discredit in the decision. The Licensing Authority would in fact be doing them a good turn by preventing them from embarking on a venture for which, unknown to themselves, they were not adequately equipped.
SOME progress may be made along this line. There would be no sustained opposition even from trade and industry. Whether greater use by Licensing Authorities of their power would make much difference is another matter.
Politically, the complaints and controversies are marginal. Even when one adds to the scale the storm that seems inevitable about the activities of the Road Transport Industry Training Board, the total effect would be scarcely a ripple on the surface of Parliament. Operators ought to find comfort in this. They will not have long to wait in comparative calm. New issues such as the Common Market are bound to bring new disturbances. In the meantime a respite is welcome.