Little Support for Flat Rate
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WHEN, in the House of Commons V1' last week, Mr. Hector Hughes moved that transport charges for essential commodities should be based on Weight alone, with no variation according to distance, he stated that he had received letters of support for his motion from chambers of commerce. trades Councils, merchants' and Workers' associations and many other bodies.
He said that the basis of charging at present Was unjust and antiquated. Upkeep of the railway permanent way should be debited to the State, to relieve the transport system of its greatest burden and enable it to average charges. Mr. J. Grimond supported this suggestion.
Speakers on both sides of the House pointed to the detrimental results to the railways that a flat-rate system would cause, and the motion lacked wide support. When the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Gurney Braithwaite. summed up the debate, he stated that the average earning per ton of railway traffic in 1950 was 33s. "Charges may range between a few shillings and £10 or more," he said.
If a large amount of the shorterdistance traffic were transferred to the road, obviously the average charge for the remainder would have to rise and this would surely be a recurring process until an impossible . position was reached." Rates could be adjusted to reduce geographical disadvantages by reducing the charge per mile as distance increased. The question whether this principle should be applied more extensively would be one of the major issues of the B.T.C.'s draft charges scheme.
"I am informed that the draft scheme is in an advanced stage of preparation, bat the levy rate and charges to be made by the Railway Executive and the Road Haulage Executive have still to be determined," Mr. Braithwaite stated.