Facts About the Transport Problem
Page 69
Page 70
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A PAPER entitled "Some Facts .1-1 About the Transport Problem' was presented at the Commercial Motor Users Association Conference on Wednesday, by Mr. C. Is M. Gosselin,
M M.Inst.T.
In his opening remarks Mr. Gosselin stated that we appeared at the moment to have a surfeit of transport. Public opinion, realizing how vital it is that the community should be served, had become concerned lest the transport organizations should become weakened through excessive competition, and the object of his paper was to suggest that we should apply ourselves to raising the respective transport agencies to the fullest state
of efficiency, This involves the consideration of whether the regulations
under which they operate permit the freest possible opportunity to function.
The author then dealt with the matter of safety, giving details of road casualties. The figures suggest that the need of the moment is the better regulation of pedestrians and cyclists than of other road users. The great peril which these two classes present to other users is the rapidity with which they can change their direction of motion.
In the construction of roads we were still far behind other countries in the matter of banking at bends. It is not uncommon to find road surfaces sloping in the wrong direction. It-is dangerous to give the user of a road the impression that he is travelling on a well
made wide road, only to find at intervals that it becomes little better than an unclassified type.
The permanent way of the road user has been culpably neglected, and the money raised with the object of improvement has been dissipated in other directions. it is sheer mockery for members of both Houses of Parliament to cry out against road accidents when they themselves are preventing the money from being used for its proper purpose.
Road transport suffers from individuality. The private user feels his case is not that of the commercial user; the puhlic-service vehicle operator and the goods-vehicle operator imagine their interests are not identical; the ancillary user regards his interests as something peculiar to himself, as does, often, the manufacturer. As a matter . of fact, all these branches have a common interest in the development of all movement by road. This is far greater than any sectional interest, and if the industry is to be really efficient, the machinery must be found to weld the individual parts into a whole. If this welding be hindered by individual interests, they should be swept aside. The British Road Federation was created to enable the industry to speak with one voice, and to that extent deserves the whole-hearted support of all motorists, the general public and of Parliament.
Bias Towards Railways.
It has been stated by one whose profession demands a close study of legislation that that recently applied to road transport has consistently favoured the railways. Thus, by the De-rating Act of 1928, railway property was de-rated, not so that of road
transport undertakings. The assessment, of railway permanent ways has been progressively reduced, and the losses of yield recouped by the motor
fuel tax. Under de-rating, railways were granted a direct subsidy of 10 per cent. on some traffic, some of which is regularly carried by road transport. The railways have the right to object to all road-transport services except ancillary, and in passenger services with regard to the charges made. Road-transport operators have no locus to object in any way to the manner in which railways are operated, nor to cuts in their rates. The railways contract out of their liability to passengers when granting reduced fares, This is forbidden to road operators. The railways are not subject to sumptuary taxation, whereas road transport pays at least 25 per cent, more taxation than is due to the State for services received.
The most severe regulation on road operators is that which states that a licence is not transferable. This is equivalent to depriving all roadtransport businesses of the element of goodwill. In the case of concerns run by private individuals this is a specially cruel hardship. The fact that licences are not transferable, with the further condition that a licence can only be safely enjoyed for two years, virtually deprives the industry of the power of borrowing money for business development—there is so little seturity to Offer. The companies which can afford to speculate to-day in road transport are the railways.
The regulation relating to the limitation of driving hours is accepted in principle throughout the industry, hut in its present form is proving a real hardship to all concerned, as, like so many other regulations, it provides little elasticity for varying circumstances. On the one hand it permits an operator to drive continuously for 11 hours per day with only a break of half an hour. On the other hand it makes no allowance whatever for many classes of operation in which the actual driving period does not occupy more than 50 per cent. of the working time.
The author then dealt with the excessive taxation.
The discussion was opened by Mr. Reynolds, who stated that the nontransferability of licences had imposed considerable hardship on operators and was definitely unfair. On the subject of co-ordination the speaker said that the period of free competition for road transport had practically passed, but before true co-ordination could be • achieved a careful review of railways' capital must be undertaken.
Mr. F. Smith said that, in his opinion, it was clear that the industry was heading towards a railway monopoly: and it must not be forgotten that the railways regard road transport purely as a competitor to he eliminated. The only solution to the problem, he said, was the formation of a Transport Board, representative "of all forms of transport.
Several speakers dealt with the question of accidents, and a more complete. analysis giving more detailed .informa-• tidal was called for..
Col. R. E. Crompton, C.B., .R.E., M.Inst.T., was present, and in a short speech recalled the earliest days of mechanical road transport.