ABSTRACT
The bigger firms, looking to the long term and appreciating the benefits of a reasonably contented workforce, might well have paid fair wages, but for many others, facing extinction, the proverbial peanuts may well have been the only solution. So through the twenties and thirties wages remained an outstanding problem – outstanding in the sense of remaining unsolved and outstanding through being of major significance. In London the National Board had to ask the municipal authorities to put a clause in contracts requiring the haulier to observe wages and conditions as laid down by the Metropolitan Joint Conciliation Board. Anyway, fair wages were essential, for charges should depend on wages and not vice versa. The other great problem was the rates to be charged for haulage services. The report recommended that the railway system of standard charges, plus the whole structure of exceptional and agreed rates together with standard revenue should all be consigned to the dust-bin.
