NATIONALIZATION AT WORK
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An Independent Expert Examines the Way the R.H.E. is Amalgamating the Acquired Undertakings and Creating a New National Organization
By C. S. DUNBAR, M.Inst.T.
NOW that the upheavals attendant upon the acquisition of private haulage undertakings have been largely overcome, the Road Haulage Executive is turning to the task of creating a unified transport system out of the many businesses which provided the country with its haulage. Former owners and companies have left a legacy which is still clearly visible. Many men who spent their lives as principals in their own self-contained undertakings found it difficult to make the change to a position where they became part of a team. Cases have been reported of resignations by those who could not fit into the new pattern. These men, however, are exceptions, although it rt ust obvtously he difficult for men who have been accustomed to being their own masters, to accept delegated positions-in -the entirely different atmosphere of a natural undertaking.
I found a notable difference, in talkine to R.H.E. officials, from conversations with railwaymen, in that there is far less tendency to fledge or to refrain from comment for fear of misinterpreting headquarters' views. This may be because in this first generation we meet hitherto independent individuals. I hope that when the subsequent generation succeeds to responsible positions—that is, the generation brought up in the nationalized undertaking—training will have been such that the new managers will be able to retain his individual outlook without running contrary to high policy.
Express Carriers Accommodate Themselves
It is not surprising that for the most part, ex-officials of express-carrying concerns have fallen into the scheme of things rather more easily than The former bulk hauliers. The R.H.E. is now having to create among those dealing with bulk loads the mentality which the leading express carriers developed in the decade before the war. The task would have been even harder had the war-time Road Haulage Organization never existed. This brought home forcibly to many hauliers the importance of conditions of carriage and enabled experiments to be made in balancing traffic and in devising suitable forms and records. There is much about the R.H.E. that is reminiscent of the R.I1.0.
Most of what I have so far written relates to the traffic staffs. In the fields of engineering, stores, staff control, welfare and accounting, the task of the Executive has been equally formidable and, in one respect, even more difficult. Because of the small size of most units before nationalization, there has had to be extensive recruitment from outside the haulage industry in these specialized spheres. All the newcomers have had the double disadvantage of having to create a coherent pattern from a great number of pieces without knowing the pieces well before starting to put the jigsaw together C6 In these sections, most progress, I suppose, has been made w:th rationalizing accounting and in concentrating the work in the groups. This is a field where uniformity can be achieved more quickly among the bulk-load groups than in those specializing in smalls. In the latter case whilst the method of final accounting must necessarily be the same, there have been great divergencies in the past in the methods of recording and invoicing.
Staff officers are struggling with a great variety of working conditions, output bonuses and the like, whilst the engineers have two major difficulties. One iS to re-allocate makes and types so as to secure for each group as nearly homogeneous a fleet as its traffic demands and the other is to find premises suitable for district workshops where major overhauls can be undertaken.
In the Leicester District I noticed that the R.H.E. has to deal with 18 different chassis makes, each represented by vehicles of various carrying capacities and body types. In such a case it is not just a matter of taking all the Austins and putting them in one group and taking all the Commers and putting them in another. Individual firms in the past had bodies built to their specific requirements and to suit he traffic they were handling, and it by no means follows that the Leylands owned by one group would be of any use to another.
In this department, the second generation of engineers will find their task markedly easier than that of the present generation, because once the existing vehicles have finished their useful life, new vehicles will .naturally he ordered to suit the traffic of the particular group. Lagging behind the other departments is the work of building up properly organized stores sections; this is understandable, having regard to the difficulties of the engineering department.
One impression I have gained, not only from visits to R.H.E. depots, but from conversations with old friends in d:fferent parts of the country, is that, outside London, the division enters hardly at all into day-to-day operations. This, I understand, is intentional. The group is the operating unit and the function of the district manager is to co-ordinate the working of neighbouring groups and eventually to eliminate waste running and uneconomic competition between groups. The ultimate success of the whole organization wilt depend mainly on the amount of autonomy retained at group and district level in relation to the remoteness of the group and district managers from the headquarters. The Leicester and Northants District of the Midland Division can be taken as a fair example of a mixed industrial and rural area. The district office is at Leicester and controls six groups. The North Leicester group has its office in the same building as the district and its main base at what was Lathams', at Groby; it has other depots at Leicester (Melton Road), Ibstock, Barrow-on-Soar, Loughborough and Syston.
The South Leicester group also has its office in the district building and its main depot is at Kinder's, of Blaby, with others at Leicester (Harrison Road), Weldon and South Wigstoue The Northampton group is built round Darby's business at Northampton, with three sub-depots in the town and other depots at Stony Stratford and Daventry.
These three are all general haulage groups. A certain amount of concentration has already taken place and the Leicester branches of companies based in other districts have been brought into one or other of the groups Thus the former Latham depot at Groby now covers, in addition, the activities of Thody, Murphy, Edlin and Melton Transport. Because of its functional nature, the Leicester tipping group territory overlaps that of the North Leicester and South Leicester groups. The tipping group has four depots in Leicester and others at Shepshed, Loughborough. Glen• field and Stoney Stanton
Leicester Parcels Group
The Leicester parcels group is based on Carter Paterson, Belgrave Road with a sub-depot at Gwendolen Road and other depots at Gypsey Lane (ex-Platt and Le Pass), Anstey Lane (sub-den& to Gypsey Lane), Frog Island (ex-Blands), Hinckley (ex-Bee), Burbage and 13arwell (sub-depot to Hinckley) and Charter Street, Leicester (ex-P.X.). The Northants parcels group is based'on:P.X., of Rushden, with other depots at Higham Ferrers and Wellingborough (subdepot to Rushden), Northampton (Grafton Street—ex-Owen) with sub-depots at Houghton Road, Rothwell (ex-Clark), Wellingborough (ex-Direct) and Irthlingborough (exParagreen and Mitchell). All the smalls carriers in Leicestershire and Northants have been merged into one of these two groups.
As I have already said, London, or more strictly the South-Eastern Division, with some 8,500 vehicles, is an exception to the general rule of divisions being remote from operating details. The great majority of undertakings in the South-Eastern Division is naturally concentrated in the Greater London area and because collection and delivery work necessarily ranges over the whole' of the metropolis, the district boundaries are purely arbitrary and the divisional officers have to concern themselves with working details in a way that does not apply elsewhere.
The boundaries of the four districts in the South-Eastern Division run roughly east to west and north to south from London Bridge. Thus, the South-Eastern District embraces Kent and south-east London; the South-Western District takes in Sussex, Surrey and south-west London; the NorthWestern District includes Middlesex, Bucks, west Herts and north and north-west London, and the North-Eastern District, south Essex and east and north-east London. The North-Western District, which I examined in some detail, is organized into 14 groups which can be summarized as follows:—
Group Organization St. Albans, general, based on Currell, St. Albans, with Mini depees at King's Langley, Rickniansworth and Welwyn Garden City. High Wycombe, general, based on Mealing and High Wycombe, with other depots at Aston Clinton and Princes Risborough. Shoreditch, mainly local haulage, ex-Bayes and Enfield haulage. Islington, general, based on General Roadways and including a number of firms in Islington and Enfield. Tottenham, general (largely new furniture), based on Whiting, Balls Pond Road. Brentford, Mainly machinery, ex-Clifford. Slough, general, based on Johns, with other depeas at Marlow and Bracknell. City, local haulage, ex-Eva and Cartage. Hayes, mainly steelwork and indivisible loads, ex-Burgoine. Finsbury, general contracts and smalls, based on McNamara and including the London end of several provincial carriers. Muswell Hill, general and smalls, ex-Fisher Renwick and Caledonian, and including the London end of some provincial carriers. Chiswick, ex-C.D. and T. (Contracts). Perivale, general and specialized smalls, ex-N.M.U., with depots at Tulsa Hill, Edgware, Hanwell and Perivale. West London, general, built up on Southern Roadways, with depots at Acton, Hammersmith, Shepherd's Bush, Harlesden, Fulham and Chelsea.
The existence of dozens of offices in London dealing with traffic to the provinces is another obstacle to rationalization in the South-Eastern Division. So, too, is the nature of the acquired smalls undertakings. Carter Paterson, Pickfords and Sutton carried great quantities of parcels averaging less than 1 cwt. per consignment, mainly within metropolitan limits, in addition to collection and delivery for long-distance services
Collection and delivery can be more easily combined with the work of other acquired carriers than the local carriage of small parcels. Yet it is not simple to segregate staff and buildings to deal with the two types of traffic separately, nor would it be economical to do so. For the present, therefore, the Carter Paterson-Pickford-Sutton organization in London is run separately as a fifth district.
The former businesses of Allied Freights, F. H. Wilson, Bert Whiting and the London representation of Gammen and Dicker and Brevitt (Willenhall) have been brought fully into this parcels district, but some of the larger mixed-traffic undertakings, or their London branches, are still being run separately, although in close contact with the parcels organization.
This applies to McNamara. Bouts, Holdsworth and Hanson, Fisher Rem wick and P.X. I gather that Bouts and Holdsworth and Hanson are now included in the fifth district. In some cases, for geographical reasons, smalls undertakings have been allocated to general groups--e.g., Currel, of St. Albans, and Kent Carriers, of Maidstone.
The McNamara business is typical of the Executive's difficulties in rationalizing. It fell into three parts—contract work, accounting for nearly half the vehicles; a London parcels service, and mixed long-distance services handling both bulk and smalls. Because of the size of the contract section, the Finsbury group numbers about 350 vehicles. compared with the 150 or so which the Executive desires as a group average. A similar situation is to be found at 'Fillings (Newington Butts group). In Glasgow, a separate group has been formed to handle contracts and no doubt in London there will eventually have to be more groups like the Chiswick one—formerly C.D. and T. (Contracts). Here, as in everything else, the Executive is moving cautiously.
Now take the question of the branches of provincial concerns. Many were only offices for giving instructions to drivers delivering or collecting bulk loads, and most were in Bermondsey. In all such cases there is no difficulty, in closing the office and telling the drivers to call somewhere else for their instructions. But it is a different matter when the Executive starts to consider the branches of former express carriers.
Consider a concrete case---that of the former P.X. business, which I described in "The Commercial Motor " on August 5, 1949. The Leicester depot is now under the control of the manager of the Leicester parcels group, the chief depot of which is the former Pickfords-C.P. premises. At Rushden, the P.X. set-up is the basis of the Northants parcels group, whilst in London, the former deo& in Ming Street, Poplar, is still retained under the general supervision of the London Parcels District.
The trunk services between these. three points are still running as they did before nationalization and are, therefore, duplicating the ex-Carter Paterson services, which have a ci:pot at Wellingborough corresponding to P.X. at Rushden. Are these competitive services to continue or arc they to he merged? Merging will not be practicable for some time, it seems. The depat at Ming Street is hardly adequate for P.Xfs own traffic, whilst there is not sufficient room to spare at the C.P. depots at Macclesfield Road and Willow Walk.
The situation is much the same in the Midlands. Even if depot space could be made available, so that both services could use the same Premises, the vehicles would not be interchangeable. P.X. has standardized on a tractor-trailer outfit with a different coupling from• that on the C.P. articulated vehicles, so that it would still be necessary to keep he fleets separate until some fairly large transfer of vehicles was possible.
it has always been my opinion that regular operation, a characteristic of express carrying, should be the basis of the R.H.E. reorganization in the provinces, the aim being the eventual creation of general groups capable of handling both bulk and smalls. London, however, must always be an exception to some extent, even if this idea be adopted for the provinces.
Guaranteed Services
Even in the metropolitan area—as throughout the country --an approach is being made to the express carriers' principle of guaranteed regular operation. Trunk services are being established for bulk loads where the likely volume of traffic appears to justify such a course. Guaranteed nightly truhk services are run between the selected points, and are arranged at divisional level and reported to headquarters for record.
Then there are "regular services," a term used to describe the type of operation where vehicles travel two or three times a week between the same two points according to traffic needs. It is an instruction to all bulk haulage units throughout the.country that vehicles are to be loaded in the following order : (I) trunk vehicles, (2) regular service vehicles and (3) foreign-based vehicles. Only when no vehicles under these categories are available are movements to be initiated with home-based vehicles.
Some progress has been made with the establishment of both directional and functional groups, although, for reasons already explained, progress is slower in London than elsewhere. As an interim stage in development, in many distrets, a particular group has been selected to operate a traffic exchange Centre. All consignments over five tons and all surplus vehicles have to be reported to the centre, except where a trunk service is being run; foreign-based drivers also contact the centre for instructions. In the provinces, if a centre cannot clear either its surplus tonnage or surplus vehicles, it informs the district office and if the officers there cannot do anything, they contact other districts.
Care is taken, however, not to initiate the " threecornered" trips which aroused such criticism against the wartime R.H.O. In London, *apparently, the inter-district contact doesnot apply, but if foreign-based vehicles cannot be allocated loads within two hours, their drivers are referred for instructions to their home DEASe, Traffic Exchange Centres
To take the North-Western District of the South-Eastern Division as an example, a few months ago traffic exchange centres 'were working at the Si. Albans, High Wycombe, Shoreditch, Slough, Hayes, M uswell Hill and West London groups. The centre at Shoreditch was directional to the North-Western Division, Hayes to the Western Division, Muswell Hill to Scotland and West London to the South-Western Division. The others acted as clearing houses for the scattered depots in the group. In the Leicester and Northants District of the Midland Division, the South; LeicesTr group acted as the centre when I was there and the North Leicester and Northampton groups reported their surplus tonnage and/or vehicles each morning. The North Leicester group had become directional to London and the south and the South Leicester group directional to the north. There were regular trunk services from North Leicester to London and negotiations were going on for the establishment of trunk services to Liverpool and Manchester and to and from Scotland.
In every division, one of the R.H.E.'s greatest difficulties has been the varying rates charged for the same service. To deal with this problem in the South-Eastern Division until a national structure is promulgated, a "chairman" has been appointed for each direction and for each of the specialized functions of carrying new furniture, handling fish, fruit and vegetables, and negotiating contracts. When a business is acquired the rates charged to all customers of over six months' standing and normally consigning more than two tons Are recorded with the directional or functional chairman and so the necessary data are collected for ironing out anomalies.
Here it should he made clear that orders and inquiries for all weights and types of traffic normally carried by the Executive are accepted at all groups and branches and then. if necessary, passed to the appropriate unit. Attention is being given to the important question of providing the whole organization with adequate telecommunications and for longdistance work the telephone will ultimately be largely superseded by the teleprinter. The installation of the necessary instruments is well in hand, although the conversion is necessarily a task of some magnitude