ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a concept of the present and future competitive position of the freightliner system in relation to road haulage, compares this with the actual performance of the system, and also compares the performance of the system with that expected in the Reshaping Report. The concept of the competitive position of the freightliner necessitates an estimate of the probable tonnage that the service might carry in the 1970s and from this the division of the inland freight market. Any consideration of the impact of technological change on the competitive position of road and rail container transport can be only in very broad terms. The background for the phase of Government intervention in the allocation of demand in the freight market was set in the White Paper, Transport of Freight, and implemented in the controversial Transport Act, 1968. The chapter summarises the actual market penetration on routes served and compares this with that predicted in the Reshaping Report.
