Flat-rate Transport Charges Advocated
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THE Scottish Furniture Manufactvers' Association, in a communication to the Furniture Trade Post-war Reconstruction Committee and to the transport committee which is inquiring into Scot tish transport on behalf of the Scottish Council on Industry, has advocated flat-rate transport charges and ex-works prices in the case of Government contracts. The Association states that, in peace-time, the principal British market for furniture is the Smith of England, and the high costs of transport have always formed art insurmountable barrier to the marketing of Scottish furniture there.
In the post-war period all Government ,contracts should be on an ex-works basis, so that all manufac
turers throughout Britain would have an -equal opportunity to participate. There should be flat-rate transport charges by road or rail for merchandise after the war, or at least a wide extension of the principle of agreed-charge arrangements to embrace groups of manufacturers in one agreement.
On the argument that flat-rate _transport might cut both ways, the Association says that this really means that it might benefit the Nation in its operation both ways and is not a ground for opposing the proposal, although certain industries in Scotland might, as a result, have to face keener opposition in Scotland, as well as securing a better opportunity to compete in the South of England.