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Spread the word
Page 26
Page 27
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Next week Commercial Motor launches Britain's first National Truck Week.
Emma Penny explains what it's all about.
There's absolutely no doubt that trucks are the lifeblood of Britain but you'd never know that from the reaction of many members of the public who see them as dirty, smelly and nothing more than a lumbering menace.
We know it's not like that. We know there are only 460,000 trucks in Britain. compared with 25 million cars. And we know that trucks are the most efficient way of moving almost anything.
Next week Commercial Motor will be taking to Britain's roads to explain just what our industry does. We're calling it National Truck Week, and we'll include a raft of initiatives to convince the public that we're a vital and friendly -industry.
So how are we going to change their attitude? It's a pretty comprehensive approach. One of the main opportunities will come when we visit five cities throughout Britain (see panel), with three trucks for the public to see close-up, courtesy of Mercedes-Benz, Daf and Iveco. Driver Hire, a leading supplier of permanent and temporary staff, is providing a team of drivers to move our trucks round the country. If you see them on the move, give us a toot of support! At each roadshow we'll be giving out specially designed leaflets with a quiz about trucks and their importance to the UK, as well as lots of other goodies, including National Truck Week helium balloons and lollypops. We'll also be running a competition with remote controlled model trucks to see who's the best driver; the winner in each venue will go away with a remote-control truck.
Breakfast bonanza
We'll also be giving out bacon bullies to drivers at traffic hotspots in each city. Each buttie will come in a National Truck Week bag, along with one of our fact sheets on just how important our industry is to Britain. We'll be targeting local radio stations with more bacon butties and fact sheets, as well as speaking to local and national press.
One of our key messages comes from research we've commissioned from Professor Alan McKinnon of Heriot Watt University's Logistics centre. He's looked at just what would happen if Britain's trucks stopped running and it's a nightmare scenario. If you want to know just how vital your trucks are, just read the next six pages and you'll soon see how the entire country would come to a standstill. Even industry insiders might be surprised by the depth of the crisis we'd fall into without trucks.
The research is already attracting press interest: as CM went to press on Tuesday The Times was planning to run an article based on the report and we're hoping for more coverage in other papers.
And to demonstrate that we're a changing industry rather than stereotypical hairy truckers, we've recruited two well known professional drivers, Laura Weatherley and Paddy Laban, to help our cause. The Mirror is already planning to talk to Paddy Laban about how she got into driving, and we're hoping there will be a lot more press interest.
We'll keep you updated on how we get on — look out for the first report in next week's issue, and a round-up the week after. But we'd like you to spread the word too. There's plenty you can do to get involved — see the panel (left) for details—and let us know what you've done.
Anything which stands up for our industry and helps the public see us in a better light must surely be good news. Let's convince them that transport operators are the unsung heroes of the twenty-first century.