COMMENT
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It's a long long road
Last Sunday we had a visitor to the Commercial Motor Truckfest stand. Nothing unusual about that, except that Darren Leigh, son of the founder of Widnes-based Ray Leigh Transport, was in no mood to exchange pleasantries. This wasn't a social call—in fact he was livid. The reason? A "missed opportunity".
According to Leigh, operators attending Europe's premier trucking event had failed to capitalise on a highly visible platform to demonstrate against high fuel prices. Every truck at Peterborough, he insisted, should have been displaying "Fair Play on Fuel" stickers: his wagon had more than half a dozen.
He also reckoned that CM wasn't punching its weight (that wasn't quite how he put it). Ironically, that very morning we'd been on Talk Radio telling the Great British Public how hauliers like Leigh are suffering from the highest diesel prices in Europe.
But the nagging thought remains that, as unpalatable as Leigh's message might have been, the industry could, and should have done more at Truckfest. After all, it's one of the few transport events that gets widespread media coverage. Could all of us there, the competitors, the exhibitors, the RHA, the organisers and CM, have done more to drive the message home?
To be honest, we probably could. And as the industry approaches its second meeting with the Government, Leigh has every right to point out that we still have a long, long way to go before we can daim to have won the PR battle.
A long way...for all of us.