TO P C
Page 52
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Motley is the wear
'For daring to defend monster lorries, Mr Chapman must have been prepared to act the clown dressed in motley not unaptly symbolised by the "road haulier's badge.",
IN SPITE of the strong national and international advantages of an increase in maximum vehicle weights, the topic is in continual danger of lapsing from serious debate into buffoonery. The refusal to give it any more than entertainment value is particularly pointed in some sections of the media.
A parliamentary reporter can describe a contribution to a discussion in the House of Commons in these words: To show that the forces of streamlined modernity can still finesse a trick in the middle of an oil crisis, we had Mr Sidney Chapman wearing his road haulier's badge and speaking up for the environmental merits of monster lorries (something technical about having an extra axle) but all in all the sort of thing that goes down like the revisionist view of Judas Iscariot, statesman and realist."
Admittedly, the quotation is taken from a column of lighthearted commentary. What makes it stand out is its almost surrealist quality, the absence of any meaning to the ordinary reader except that it must be good for a laugh.
What operators with some knowledge of the subject are to make of the report can hardly be agreeable to them. For daring to defend monster lorries, they may infer, Mr Chapman must have been prepared to act the clown dressed in motley — not unaptly symbolised by the -road haulier's badge.Anything he says must be hilarious, and a technical reference to an extra axle brings down the House.
Only somebody who was there at the time can judge the accuracy of the reaction of Parliament. The opinion of the journalist is clear. Any defender of the heavy lorry — let alone the heavier lorry — is a natural butt, almost asking to be chivvied round the stage for the amusement of the audience. It may be that there are too many other matters — nuclear warfare, terrorists, inflation, the fuel shortage — in face of which the press.. as well as the public feels helpless. They have to be taken seriously. It is comic relief to have something more familiar such as the juggernaut, to support any campaign to curb its activities and to deride any attempt at its defence.
The contempt easily extends to people in the industry. Whatever they say or do is liable to be considered ludicrous, and their interests can safely be ignored. In spite of the warning given by last winter's strike, this attitude of mind persists.
It is only charitable to suppose, for example, that it promoted the alliance between the Gwent County Council and the police in an attempt to stop drivers using their vehicles to reach their overnight lodgings in Usk. The same vehicles were allowed access to otherwise restricted roads in the town when it was a case of delivering or picking up a load.
Usk has a population not much greater than a fair-sized comprehensive school. It is well supplied with hotels and garages and must appreciate the opportunities for trade that its situation brings. Nevertheless, the authorities had no wish to make things easy for the drivers of the vehicles on which those opportunities depend.
The Usk magistrates found that the authorities and the police were wrong in believing that the law supported their prejudice. The experimental traffic regulation order on which they relied did not bar access by vehicles to premises providing accommodation. The county council did not have the consent of the Secretary of State for Wales, who alone has power to make such a prohibition. The charge made aginst ICI driver Michael Smith, who had been stopped by the police on the route to his lodgings, was dismissed.
The Freight Transport Association played a major part in ensuring this commonsense decision. The charge was pressed in spite of the association's advice, and the FTA briefed counsel for ICI,
On a national scale, the success may seem small. For operators and users it is a reminder that their rehabilita
tion in popular esteem may ultimately come from a multiplicity of local activities in which the associations are continually involved. The principle that the driver should be given at least as much consideration as his load is worth establishing, even in the small community of Usk.
That the local authority, and especially the police apparently did not accept the principle ought to give cause for concern, and not only to the driver who may feel that almost every man's hand is against him. Whether they have learned a lesson may be judged from their future actions.
They can, of course, try to get the decision reversed. If this does not seem feasible, there is the possibility of widening the scope of the order and seeking the agreement of the Secretary of State for the extra prohibition. Any attempt on these lines would bring strong opposition arid unfavourable publicity.
On balance, the authorities would be wise to leave the situation as it is. Where the scale is small, the industry can attract sympathy and support for a reasonable case.
The task is harder at national level. A recent renewed effort, in which again the ETA was prominent, to arouse favourable interest in weight increases — the subject with which Mr Sidney Chapman was dealing — attracted some attention; but support was fragile, and likely at any time to dissolve into ridicule.
Reporters seem to enjoy talking about bigger lorries in order to provoke the comic reaction that heavier is not the same as bigger; and any reference to more or fewer axles, as Mr Chapman found, is taken no more seriously than the slogan chanted on George Orwell's Animal Farm, which might just as well have said. -Eight wheels bad, 10 wheels good.