Open Up
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ANOTHER aspect of the bad public image of themselves that hauliers project (" The Commercial Motor" drew attention to it last week) is the question of bunching. The following illustrates the point very well. On the A30 into London one day this week, on a narrow stretch during the morning rush-hour, a long queue of frustrated motorists formed behind a lorry carrying market produce. That lorry was travelling slowly because it was behind a Land-Rover towing a caravan, which was behind a van towing another caravan, which was behind a heavily laden timber artic.
MI these commercial vehicles were about their perfectly legal business. They had just as much right to be using the road as did the motorists—and had paid considerably more in taxation too! Yet for want of one simple courtesy they created a bad image of road transport.
Had those commercial vehicles left adequate room between themselves for the cars to overtake one of them at a time, the situation would never have arisen. Instead, they had bunched solidly and formed an impassable block. What added fuel to this particular fire was that the timber artic. was smoking heavily. So a lot of people formed a bad impression of all the 1.1 m. goods vehicles on the road because of the thoughtlessness of four.
As the Traders Road Transport Association recently pointed out: "Open up! "