Driver Mr Michael Ward climbs into the cab.

Apart from the period from 1948 to 1953 when the road transport industry was nationalised, road hauliers have been noted for their individual private enterprise. They still exercise that admirable quality - but they (and the section which remains in public ownership) are currently facing twin sets of problems.

These stem from Britain's membership of the European Economic Community and the additional increases in running costs which that membership threatens to increase further.

Any consideration of the road hauliers in North-East Lancashire has to be linked with the presence of North-Western area of the Road Haulage Association, which speaks for around 1,900 members with an estimated total ownership of around 12,000 vehicles. They play a tremendous part in Lancashire and sections of Yorkshire and Cheshire in not only keeping the transport wheels revolving, but keeping the industrial goods and food moving from production points or ports to factories, and eventually marketing outlets at warehouses and retail premises.

For five post-war years the road haulage industry was something of a political shuttlecock, and now the situation is that the nation-owned British Road Services runs about a quarter of the country's total transport "fleet". The rest is more or less divided down the middle between thousands of owner-drivers and many old-established family-type concerns owning anything from five to 50 vehicles.

It is to be expected that the transport industry should be “rapidly moving.” But some aspects of that movement, which are concerned more with legislation and social change than with lorries and wagons, have presented haulage operators with more than a fair share of headaches in the past decade or so. On the one hand the spread of the motorway system has been a challenge to the industry. On the other hand, national and now European legislation dealing with working conditions, plus mounting costs for vehicles, fuel and wages, has made a necessary complicated job even more difficult for the hauliers.

Taking the motorway angle first, this has brought a revolution in operating possibilities. As recently as 10 to 15 years ago a working day’s journey (allowing for loading and so on), would be restricted to almost the distance from Burnley to Birmingham, with the return journey taking a second day. The motorways and other road improvements just about halved that time-factor or (put another way) doubled the vehicle man-hour capability.

But those gains are severely threatened by EEC legislation, British taxation and higher fuel costs. The EEC legislation calls for a reduction in the drivers’ working day from 10 to eight hours, and restricts distance covered to 281 miles a day. When many motorway miles can be done at speeds in the 60 mph region, that can mean less than four hours’ driving a day - which raises the problem of double-manning for long journeys. That is not a popular idea with the fleet owners owing to the cost factor, and it is difficult to assess the drivers’ reaction, because they are an individualist section of the working population.

The new EEC regulations were to have been in operation in Britain this month, but have been deferred until July. The operators' case is easily understood and British Governments have doubtless realised the additional strain which such extra costs would put on the campaign to reduce inflation. As a counter to these increased costs there has been pressure from operators for permitted loads to be increased - from the present British maximum of 32 tons to the EEC’s 38 tons (without increasing the maximum vehicle wheelbase). But that has (up to now) been refused on the grounds of conservation of amenities and preservation of roads which weren’t designed for the “juggernaut” age.

Operators have had to face higher charges for diesel fuel of 6.5p a gallon, and practically all heavy transport vehicles are diesel-engine powered. There have also been increased costs for vehicle spare parts (tyres cost more than £100 each), for maintenance - to successively higher standards. A new tractor unit (that is the wheelbase, cab, and engine often termed the “prime mover”) costs around £15,000, plus anything around £3,500 for a trailer -more for some sophisticated types. Altogether, after tax, it costs around £20,000 to put a unit on the road.

In the April budget, hauliers faced another increase in the road fund tax (up by a third), taking the annual tax on a single vehicle to between £250 and £600, according to size. For a firm such as Burnley’s Fearing’s Transport Ltd., for instance, that entails finding upwards of £10,000 a year in road taxes alone. Add the recent industry award of £6 a week (meeting the social contract), and the problems arising from the general decline in the volume of trade due to the recession, and it all adds up to higher costs.

There is a limit to the ability to contain such increases by efficient management and operation. So that higher costs must, at some stage, be passed on to customers, who in turn inevitably pass it on to the general public.

One section of the industry, especially the larger firms, face competition from what are often termed “cowboy operators”, who endeavour to manoeuvre around some regulations. But another EEC regulation is expected to tighten up all road haulage operations. That concerns the introduction of the tachograph (or tachometer). This, the road equivalent of the aeroplane’s ‘black box’, records speeds, distances and times worked - and brought fierce opposition from a section of drivers when it was first mooted in Britain.

The responsible trade unions leaders want to improve working conditions and rewards, and point to the men’s responsibilities in handling £20,000 vehicles with valuable loads; and their aspirations for new jobs in the industry to counter the earlier decline due to more efficient vehicle operation. At the moment neither operators nor employees can fully assess all the implications of the proposed changes - needing a crystal ball to guess whether the net result will help or hinder the road haulage industry. But it is in both their interests to see it thrive, not least because of the integral part it plays in the campaign for national prosperity.