Is the R.H.O. to be Dissolved?
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LI EADQUARTERS of the Road 1 1 Haulage Association. haveadvised .Association officials in the areas to suspend 'consideration of the suggested plan for setting up a national traffic pool under R.H.A. auspices, in substitution for the M.O.W.Tz's Road Ifaulage Organization.
A letter advising this suspension, in view of further developments since the National Council meeting," was s€ lit to the areas, last week, by Mr. Roger Sewill, national director of the R.H.A., at the request of Mr. H. T. Duffield, the Association's chairman. The letter stated that consideration of the suggestions should be suspended until a further intimation was received from headquarters.
The advice to suspend consideration was sent out after R.H.A. representatives had been to an interview at the N1.O.W.T. in the early part of last week.
The news was described as a " bombshell " when announced at the inaugural meeting of the R.H.A.'s Bradford Sub-area, on the day of its receipt in Yorkshire, September 27, Mr. Harold floodwin, the chairman, said that, sooner or later, the Ministry's R.H.O. mould be dissolved. At some future date there might be nationalization of -the road-transport industry, but what was going to happen in the meantime? Was road haulage gbing to return to the prewar system, or was some alternative scheme to be substituted for the R.H.O.?
M. Harry Clark, secretary of the West Riding Area, suggested that, in view, of the intimation from R.H.A. headquarters, no useful purpose would be serVed at the moment by discussing the pool suggestions which had been circulated. Immediately he received' more information, he would notify the sub-areas at Bradford and in other parts of the West Riding Area, in order that early meetings could be called.
In the absence of details, speakers advanced various alternative theories as possible explanations of the advice to suspend consideration of the pool suggestions. One theory was that, having been given details of the suggestions, the Ministry had favoured major alterations which involved recasting the. plan.
Another was that the Government had decided to go ahead with nationalization of road haulage, but, in con
trait to this was the suggestion that the Government may intend to dissolve the R.H.O. at an early date and allow road haulage to revert to its pre-war freedom.
In the case of three sub-area meetings in the Hull Area—at Howden, Malton and Duffield—the suggestions had been discussed before notification was received that-consideration of them waa to be suspended.
Mr. Britton, Area chairman, explained how the pool plan had arisen, and he also referred to the additional proposals which were introduced. A resolution supporting the original plan was adopted by the Hull Area Committee, subject to the proviso that the pool company be restricted to essential traffics issued and paid for•by Government Departments.
Since then, however, new proposals had been introduced. Mr. Britton emphasized that he was not suggesting the R.H.O. would be dissolved if members agreed upon alternative machinery to be run by the industry, hut he believed it to be necessary to agree on such a plan in order to strengthen the case for termination of the R.H.O.