BIRD'S-EYE VIEW
Page 48
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THOSE of us at the Freight Transport Association's annual dinner were interested to listen to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Kenneth Newman's criticism of pay incentive schemes for lorry drivers as undermining road safety. It all sounded very plausible, and it was good to hear someone of stature from outside the industry talk about a point of specific interest to lorry operators.
There my praise must end. What is the source of Sir Kenneth's comments? Is there concrete evidence at Scotland Yard to support this view? It would, after all, be rather irresponsible for him to comment in public with no evidence.
Naturally, these questions were asked by CM after the dinner. If there is information on the subject, many in the industry would find it useful. Unfortunately, the Yard insists on saying nothing further. That is a pity, because secrecy on such a matter helps no one, least of all the police
themselves.
CARE for thc disabled is one of the responsibilities that the Transport and Road Research
Laboratory has taken on. The Crowthorne test track is to be open to handicapped people from June 13-15 to enable them to find out whether they might be able to drive a suitably modified vehicle.
Leading manufacturers are to lend vehicles for the occasion. Apart from the test cars there will be static exhibits, including minibuses. There will be no charge for entrance or for the use of the laboratory's facilities.
COVENTRY is going overboard for the centenary of the motor vehicle, with events lasting up to the middle of October. The city centre will be closed on Sunday, June 2, for a display of more than 300 vehicles from the Victorian era onwards.
The commercial vehicle industry, however, is sadly neglected. In a sixmonth programme the only event affecting it appears to be the Midland Vehicle Preservation Society's rally starting at Coombe Abbey and ending at the city centre, which promises "the mighty lorries, trucks, buses and cars of yesteryear." 1 might have expressed it differently.
Even Motor Panels, which has produced some of the world's best lorry cabs and is to represent Britain in Expo 86 in Vancouver; Canada, next year, is confining its Shakespeare run on
September 15 to veteran cars, albeit the finest.
What intrigues me most is the "C and A Miss Motoring Godiva 1985" on September 7. I hope the weather improves because goose pimples on a white horse are so unsightly.
IN urging that Parliament should be bypassed, Ralph Cropper, one of the most articulate Road Haulage Association members, who needs no microphone to make himself heard, is not engaging in subversive politics. He is speaking as chairman of Movement for London.
He wants a single-carriageway tunnel to be built under the Thames from Victoria Embankment, east of Westminster Bridge, to Millbank, west of Lambeth Bridge. Traffic on the northern bank of the river would be diverted from Parliament Square, around which more than 40,000 vehicles a day at present surge.
Apart from speeding traffic, the scheme would greatly improve the environment for people who work in and around the Palace of Westminster and for visitors whose money Britain needs so badly.
crT got there by truck' was a frequent Iboast of Canadian truckers. But it isn't any more, our correspondent Bill Crampton tells me. Not since one of them contaminated 156 miles of Trans Canada Highway when oil, 42 per cent pure polychlorinated/biphenyl (PCB),
leaked from a transformer on a flatdeck, splashing the road and spraying other vehicles.
For 22 hours some 4,000 vehicles picked up and spread the poison before the road was closed. It remained so for four days and the whole country was in uproar.
Two tractors had picked up transformers in Montreal, for delivery to Canada's only legal PCB dump site, 2,351 miles to the west. (Some wastes have been exported to England, Scotland and the USA.) Five transformers in Montreal had been awaiting transport to Alberta. Four had been drained by a disposal team but one did not have a drain plug. And it is forbidden to haul transformers containing PCB treated oil.
iWAS slightly puzzled by Lord Montagu's request when he was thanking the Wincanton Group for the £100,000 that it has covenanted to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu for the imaginative presentation of the commercial-vehicle section. The new exhibit includes a street scene with a milk float.
Lord Montagu appealed for milk bottles to add realism to the display. Has nobody told him that the Wincanton Group is a subsidiary of Unigate, which has more milk bottles than Leeds United supporters have had fights?
by the Hawk