Present System is Sound
Page 45
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By Robert Barr
Chairman, Yorkshire Area, Passenger Vehicle Operator; Aseociation and Head of the Barr and Wallace Arnold Dust, Ltd.
SUFFICIENT co-ordination could achieved by the existing machinery of private enterprise with a transport board briefed by the Government to maintain a constant watch in the people's interests.
Road haulage successfully survived the test of war. The State did not then take over the ownership of transport organizations, but wisely co-ordinated road haulage, leaving all that was good and guiding it when necessary.
It is now essential that road haulage should be elastic and allow for the quick delivery of goods. If costs were increased and the dispatch of goods delayed by unwieldy officialdom, it would be one of the greatest calamities that had ever befallen the country, In my experience, it is not always the largest organizations that are the most efficient. They often lose sight of the personal service which has been so successful a part of the present system. If bottlenecks be created, they take much longer to straighten out in such concerns than in smaller units.
Under the present system, if one concern does not deliver the goods in a satisfactory manner, the customer has the right and opportunity to switch over to another. What improvement can public ownership effect over the existing passenger and goods services? These are already co-ordinated and controlled by the Government to prevent uneconomic running.
The people must be left free to choose how they travel, whether by road or rail. It would be disastrous to limit people's choice for the sake of what I think is false economy.
We must beware during these times of taking strides into the unknown. Let us not lightly discard the good, sound, common-sense methods which have proved so faithful a partner in our successes of the past.