the emphasis ought still to be on recruitment
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BY the time that Mr. T. H. Gibb. vice-chairman ttnd managing director, B.R.S. Federation Ltd., towards the end of the Henry Spurrier Memorial Lecture, came almost to the point of recommending a closed shop for trade associations in the road transport industry, he may have forgotten some highly significant figures which he had quoted, apparently for the first time in public, not
more than about 30 minutes previously. .
One of the latest products from the machine which has been busy manufacturing statistics within the Ministry of Transport• for the past two years or so classifies public haulage operators according to the sizes of their fleets. It discloses that exactly 12 .months ago there were 46;280 operators holding A, Contract A or B licences or a combination of these types of licence. The grand total of their vehicles was 205,600, an average of between four and five vehicles to each fleet. There were 23,130 single-vehicle Operators, and 39,130 operators, or 85 per cent of the total,. with between one and five vehicles inclusive. '
No comparison with earlier years is possible. It had become the custom of the Licensing Authorities, who were the only source for the relevant information, to give the number of licences held in each category, without identifying the number of haulierswith more than one licence or more than one type of licence, and without attempting to estimate sizes of fleet. The exception was as far distant as the year 1936 in the early days of the licensing system. The figures published 'nearly 30 years ago are not exactly comparable with those just made available but they appear to support a conclusion that the tendency towards larger _units within the road haulage industry has not been very rapid, to say the least.
A realistic appraisal of the latest information would acknowledge that many thousands of the smaller operators cannot strictly be described as hauliers. They would for the most part hold B licences with very limited conditions. They would use their vehicles for hire or reward merely to oblige a friend or neighbour or to carry out some small local service rather than as an established transport business. .
Even when these fringe operators are deducted from the total the number of hauliers seriously in business as such cannot be much below 40,000. The Road Haulage Association claims a membership of 17,500. Al least as many operators again, and probably substantially more, are not represented by any association. The likelihood is that the great majority of hauliers with fleets of six vehicles or more would belong to the R.H.A. They are just over 7,000 in number and have a total vehicle strength of 136,500, including the Transport Holding Company fleets. Of the remaining operators only one in four would be R.H.A. members.
Mr. Gibb was fully justified in saying that the road transport industry must assume a greater degree of responsibility and that this must mean accepting certain standards of internal organization and discipline as well as being prepared to " bow down before some degrees of regulation which others might well label restrictions He was surely mistaken in going on to suggest that all this could be achieved if trade associations exercised stricter control over their members.
When so many operators are still outside the associations formed to look after their interests the emphasis ought still to be on recruitment rather than on the elimination of unsatisfactory members. When the majority of persons running road haulage businesses appear to thrive in the wilderness it does not seem the right policy to swell their number. Undesirable practices would be encouraged and operators who had decided that one among them was causing them harm by his refusal to adopt reasonable standards would find that he was causing them just as much harm if they banished him. By keeping him in membership they would at .least still have the opportunity to remonstrate with him, Not A Parallel Apparently Mr. Gibb had in mind the example of certain professional of semi-professional bodies which are able to lay down and maintain standards and conditions. The parallel is not very helpful. The professional organization is usually able to stipulate, often with legal sanction and even encouragement, that nobody who is not a member may practise. At the very least, membership confers a valuable qualification.
These circumstances will never apply in road transport, with the possible exception of one or two highly specialized types of operation such as furniture removals. Membership of a national association is to some extent a recommendation, but within road transport in general it can never become so important that an operator would regard it as essential.
If there are nearly 50,000 hauliers there are more than 10 times as many traders carrying their own goods under C licence. No professional body has to face a do-it-yourself challenge on such a scale. The customers would in the main lack the necessary training and have no inclination to undergo it. Traders and manufacturers on the other hand seldom have a rooted aversion to running their own vehicles. The haulier who wishes to continue serving them must demonstrate all the time that he can do the work more efficiently and more economically than they could themselves.
The true comparison for Mr. Gibb to make was between the professional body and the Licensing Authorities. If hauliers had been able to control their own destinies unaided there would have been no need of a licensing system. If the conditions are still not sufficiently strict the remedy ought to lie in the traffic courts. Within certain limits the Licensing Authorities have power to judge whether an applicant, or even an established operator, is a fit and proper person to hold a licence. What Mr. Gibb may be implying is that that power ought to be strengthened. Another strong hint for the Geddes Committee!