REMEDIES OUTLINED

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 30, 6 February 1933, Page 5

REMEDIES OUTLINED

THE TRANSPORT PUZZLE

Some economic ills —such as unemployment and transport duplication— are common to almost all civilised countries, ■ and a comparison of the various remedies adopted by those countries is interesting. Becently the British.Railway Besearch Service made a survey of< what countries are doing to, solve the railway-: v. road problem. Its secretary, Mr. C. E. -B. Sherrington, outlined the result to'a meeting of the British. Institute of Transport. Attempts to cure railway and road j competition: include (1) licensing of road services,, -svith ; restrictions onthem; (2) extending railway activities to the roads, so that one form of transport aims to covet ■, both" railway and road; (3) empowering railways to charge higher rates to traders who do not do. all their transport business by rail. No 1 may ccinvote- power to prohibit road services, or to limit their fares," to fix their; running arid ■ timetables, to tax them, etc. The common idea is to so reorganise transport .that ■ waste of money, material, and machine power may be prevented, • and thai these things '.be used np to the limits of effective service. A summary of Mr. Sherrington'» paper in the '' Eailway Gazette (London) mentions that in Scandinavian countries and Austria licences have to be obtained for, all regular services with the result that most of the services tend to become irregular. la Hungary, all regular freight services, outside municipal areas, must- be licensed, and they will only be granted in such cases where existing transport undertakings will not suffer loss. Th 9 Minister of Commerce has also been, empowered to design regulations imposing the same obligations upon - tha road haulier as apply to' the Stateowned, and operated railways.. Germany took a strong line •in tha emergency decree-of a year aga which, necessitates licences being securedfor all road haulage services -which operate for profit, with routes • exceeding 31 miles in length. .Licences are'! only granted on:' condition that. the. rates charged are in accordance- with:scales fixed by the German Minister of Transport. : These scales are virtually; the same asl the ' standard ■■.less-than-wagon-load rates of the German -State Eailway and the wagon-load rates in, the three higher classes of the German railway classification. Owing.to the disorganised industrial conditions: of that country some difficulty has been found in enforcing this law. ..'ltaly; seems to have done little, but in. view, of the serious effect of road competition on the railways some aetioit. may be expected shortly. In: Yugoslavia, licences have to be obtained iat regular services and new services? are not permitted to interfere with "this activities of existing operators., ' .Insurance policies have to ba^taken" out to cover loss and damage to p'ropertyi Switzerland and other Europeaji countries have endeavoured to solve the problem by the alternative means (No.'2 above) of assisting the'raihvay; to become- the main road -' f reighC' traffic agency itself. In. Canada' very, little has been done, but-it isVnnderr stood that the recent report" of" tEe EoyaJ Commission, lhas "recommended much stricter regiilation," iivith* higher taxation of the heavier vehicles. South. Africa has enacted that ail public road freight services must be licensed ex-, cept those working t_o and'from .fail? way stations, ani,-.licencesj.are. ; nat granted if transport facilities exist, thus virtually prohibiting competition, with the Government railways. ' This has brought about a tendency for the road haulier to convert his service to an aneiliary or private owner basis, and it is clear that any licensingsystem which neglects these phases will not bring about the desired degree of correlation. ' In Victoria the railways have been; granted the power to charge higher, rates to traders who do not forward all their traffic by rail, where rail service is available—a principle whiehhas been adopted' more .recently in Norway. The reason for this policy is that traders and farmers haveLfqrm.? Ed the habit of sending their high-, class traffic by road, and the lower classes, upon which very low developmental rates are charged, by raiL.-.The New South Wales Transport Act aimed at limiting road haulage to distances of 20 miles or to the nearest Tailway station. South Australia has also passed restrictive regulation. ' Argentina has a Bill before Congress which will impose licensing on all road freight services except in. provincial and municipal areas; and. the licences will be issued only after due safeguard of existing means of transport; road transport concerns "will praetieally-be-eome common carriers, with rates and fares regulated by the National Bailway Board. In the U.S.A. road freight carriers operating on public highways are regulated and.taxed in accordance with State laws. In the majority of the States, common carriers aTe required to obtain certificates of convenience and necessity,, they must be adequately, covered against claims, and must file rates and schedules with state commissions.