To understand a lot of the waffle we need to go back in history, 150 years back to be helpful. Every village and town had a selection of trades and professions, some are still in business, farmers, butchers, bakers, shopkeepers, blacksmiths, shoemakers, publicans and carriers. It is the last two that are very important. The Carrier had an agreement with a Publican that he would be there on a certain day, the same carrier would let the other traders know that he was going to the Publicans address on that day, so they would take their eggs, milk, wool, pigs, sheep, sausages, bacon, bread, buckets, tools, fire grates, boots and shoes to the carrier, he would take them to the pub, at that pub was another carrier who was going to the next town to another pub, they would exchange their goods and return home with flour, leather, clothing, animal feed, glass bottles etc.
This worked well and these carriers had set up a network so the farmers wool could be in Bradford within a week. The railways came, the carriers still visited the pubs, but they would go off and collect stuff from the railway station, the pubs became a distribution centre, the businessmen met and sold their wares to a bigger market. There were several wars that interrupted the villagers lives. The canals were opening up, barges were covering huge distances but the express carrier could beat them.
Then came the great war, thousands of mothers lost their husbands, sons and were forced to carry on as before, many soldiers had learned to drive and repair vehicles, the wartime vehicles were sold off to the general public who used them. More carriers appeared, more routes were opened up and business grew.
“In the short time at our disposal this evening, we thought it would be convenient if we concentrated attention upon the problems of the free road hauliers—that section of the road haulage industry which is not yet nationalised. It is a branch of the industry to which far too little attention has been paid so far. It is not a small branch. The lorries in the hands of the free road hauliers are two or three times the number of those in the hands of the Road Haulage Executive. It is, therefore, no minor or insignificant section of our economy which we discuss in the few hours before 10 o’clock.”
Long-distance road haulage was taken over by the 1947 Act, but there were certain exceptions to the take-over. There was, for example, the short-distance haulier. Such a man may operate his lorries within a narrow radius of 25 miles. If he is unfortunate enough to live on the coast, he has only half of that circle in which to carry on his trade. (That is the A & B licence)
For any journey or traffic beyond that radius he has to apply for a permit, (C Licence) not to an independent tribunal but to his principal competitor, the British Transport Commission. That was the legislation which was inflicted upon us by the Socialist majority in the last Parliament. In addition, there are certain traffics, notably the carriage of livestock, household removals, the bulk carriage of liquids and a few others of that character, which were not included in the take-over, but the Government have to some extent encroached upon them because some of the firms which they took over, like Pickford’s, had branches engaged upon these traffics.
By 1951 the Transport Executive realised how much money they were losing, so they cherry picked the best work and offered vehicles and depots to these free hauliers, keeping the profitable ones off the 1955 list. This also meant that the good BRS managers left taking good drivers, work, wagons and warehouses with them, it didnt take long for the house of cards to collapse. It began like the bully taking over your little gang. The bully ended up with a lot of ineffective gang members. BRS ended up with weak management, lazy drivers and poor paying work.