Smuggler at the Docks
Page 79
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Bird's Eye View by The Hawk
QNE of the highlights of the conference of the institute of Traffic Administration at Southampton, last week-end, was a tour of the docks arrangedthrough the co-operation of Mr. S. A. Finnis, chief docks manager, who welcomed the delegates to the town. Road transport operators may, however, be better acquainted with his brother, Mr. J. W. Finnis, southern area . managerof Piekfords' Tank Haulage Services.
Despite the high. degree of security in the docks, a delegate was able to smuggle a memento of the visit past the gate police. He was bitten in three places on the ankle by a flea which, he believed, leaped out of a bale of hides.
Too Secure
LIKE others who attended the conference, I looked forward .1—Ito learning the inside story of how loads and vehicles were stolen, and what could be done to thwart thieves. I was disappointed. Div. Supt. Martin, of the British Transport Commission police, who deputized for Mr. A. C.
West, chief cOnstable, was so obsessed by the efficiency of the force and by the importance of security that he forgot that his subject was security, I came away none the wiser.
Baulked
SOUTHAMPTON'S council have a wry sense of humour. Outside one of the gates to the docks is a notice reading, "Southampton—The Gateway to England," Beside it is a sign, " No Entry."
Hardy Veteran
HEAR that one of the entries to the Portsmouth round of the Lorry. Driver of the Year Competition on July 4 will be a Shell-Mex and B.P. Scammell tractor that has covered 500,000 miles, with a semi-trailer that has 750,000 miles to its credit. The outfit is still in splendid condition and is a worthy contender for the prize for the best-maintained vehicle more than five years old.
Shot !
ADRUNKEN Latvian driver who rammed a coach, killing several people, is to be shot. Whatever else one may say about the Russians and their satellites, they never do things by halves.
Flankers
THE perennial problem of the hole in the road is being solved in America by making flanking attacks on under-street services. Instead of digging a trench in a congested street. the Consolidated Edison Co., of New York, sink a shaft away from it and then tunnel to -it, in the best wooden-horse. manner. In this way, 500 ft. of gas. main has beenlaid 20 .ft. below the level of New Yorks Fifth Avenue without exacerbating the existing chaos. In future, .it will be possible to lay one pipe to accommodate all service mains.
In Britain, vested interests in hole-minding and watching are likely to resist the adoption of this sport-spoiling method of saving time..
On The Boards
THE B.B.C. and the public are indebted to the motor trade for at least two top-rate entertainers—Kenneth (' Not a Word to Bessie ") Horne and Jack (" Mind My Bike ") Warner. Both took to the boards in their spare Lime, but have since adopted entertainment as their profession.
It. was riot until met Mr. Warner last week at Car Mart's annual golf tournament that I discovered he had once been the
company's service manager. As Police-Sgt. Dixon, of Dock Green, he always triumphs, whereas any service manager -lives perpetually
in the dog-house. The change must be agreeable.
First Hand
"IF only more heads of businesses would do as I have been fortunately able to do and go and see for themselves what is happening in the various corners of ... the British Commonwealth, trading and personal relations between Commonwealth nations would be transformed," Mr. John Oldham, chairman of the company bearing his name, said after a world tour. A little nearer home, relations between operators and makers would be strengthened if managing directors of commercialvehicle manufacturers would spare the time occasionally to go Out and see how their products are used and can be improved.
Driver Ambassadors "I HAVE always held the view that the alertness of our drivers
I and the smartness of our lorries [which last year covered about 21m. miles] make them, to a great extent, ambassadors of the company wherever they go," Mr. A. T. Worboys, chairman of the London Brick Co., Ltd., told the shareholders last Week.'
That is why, on February 20, 1 urged that they should be entered for the Lorry -Driver of the Year Competition.