ROAD AND RAIL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 281, 27 November 1936, Page 12

ROAD AND RAIL

NO COMPETITIVE CARRIERS’ POSITION ! GENERAL MANAGER'S SURVEY. The policy o£ the Railway Depart ■ -nent in relation to competition by pri ' ■■■ate road motor services is covered fui.. by the General Manager of Rail I ways, Mr. G. H. Mackley, in a statement which has been handed lo the Commission of Inquiry into the taxicab and town carrying business, which is now in* Wellington considering the evidence collected in the last : lew weeks. “In their conception of a i properly co-ordinated system of trans- , port, the town carriers generally have taken the view—very properly so, in Imy opinion—that road services should act as feeders and be complementary to and not competitive with the railways,” says Mr. Mackley. "In its advocacy of a national scheme ol co-ordination in which the railways would undertake all long-distance haulage of goods traffic, while city and town carriers would act as feeders to the railway, the Wellington General Carriers’ Union of Employers has enunciated a proposal which, if given effect to, would go a long way towards rationalising the transport industry, and would undoubtedly eliminate much, if not all, of the uneconomic competition and wasteful duplication which is unfortunately so prominent today,” continues Mr. Mackley. “In its submissions to the various transport licensing authorities the Department has consistently urged that longdistance haulage (where the railway is available) should be performed by the railways. BROAD VIEW TAKEN. “As a result of failure in past years to define the economic sphere of eacn of the component parts of the transport machine, and to evolve a plan based upon a right conception of the • t, ,notir>r>c nf mad and mil transport

functions of road and rail transport respectively, little in the way of coordination of these services has been capable of achievement. The Kailway Department in the past has taken, and it will continue to take, a broad view of its rights and responsibilities as the national transport system, and would gladly collaborate in the promotion of any scheme aimed at the coordination on economic lines of road and rail. Owing to the competition of which we and all local carriers complain, the Department has been unable to do much in this direction. Several schemes, however, have been adopted, but these have largely been for the purposes of self-preservation. “Competition with the railways is chiefly aimed at and attracts the more remunerative lines of railway traffic, and the continued expansion of tna business of the road services at tie ,'xpense of rail-borne traffic brought’ about conditions which progressed to: a point where the financial stability ct the railway service was threatened and’ necessitated the Department taking ail, available measures lo meet the new | conditions created. This brought about an extension of the railway parcels and goods collection and de* | livery system under which the collec(ion and delivery are generally per-, formed by feeder carriers under! agreement with the Department, the, introduction of the house-to-house removals scheme, and the institution of truck rates and other competitive -ates. REPLY TO CRITICISM. “Exception to the Department under taking services and providing facilities such as those just referred to has been taken by more than one witness appearing before your Commission. The Department was forced to meet its competitors on their own ground. In certain -of the evidence tendered it was made to appear that, by extending the scope of its activities in various directions, the railways, as a State Department, had taken an unfair advantage of private firms and individuals. Those making the statements, however, have apparently overlooked the important element of competition. I think it will be conceded that the action o. this Department in instituting subsidiary services such as household removals, parcels and goods collection and delivery, and in fixing truck rates, all ot which activities were introduced or enlarged with a view to meeting the onset of competition on common ground, was fully warranted and was to a large extent in the interests of the non-competitive town and country “Business firms and private individuals today favour the organisation that involves them in the least trouble, and while competitive road services were securing a footing they made every effort to pander to this human failing. In providing the additional facilities of which specific mention has been made, the Department has merely attempted to attain the objective of providing the class of service required in order to ward off further competition. In view of this I cannot see that there are any circumstances whicn would justify our ceasing to follow the course which experience has shown to be essential to the economic wenbeing of the railwavs.”

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