Leeds Operator Opens Social Club for Haulage Workers
Page 19
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
DANGERS of certain types of café and licensed house and the need for providing. good alternatives. for longdistance haulage drivers were stressed in speeches at the opening in Leeds, on Saturday last, of a social club which the employees of Archbold and Co., Ltd., the Leeds haulage contractor, have established in Jack Lane, Hunslet, with the help of the company. In addition to facilities for billiards, and other games, and for physical culture, the club has a refreshment bar—but no• alcoholic drinks are served. The opening .ceremany was performed by the North-Eastern Transport Commis-. sioner, Major F. S. Eastwood, under the chairmanship of Mr. J. F. Archbold, the club's president.
In introducing the Commissioner, Mr. Archbold said the opening of the club meant something more than amenities for his 'company's staff, because any haulage driver whose• journey, brought him into Leeds was invited to make use of it, provided that he first obtained from the company's offices a ticket which gave him membership rights for that particular date. This, he hoped, was the beginning of a movement whereby ' reciprocal _arrangements of this kind would be made in the haulage industry in most towns.
Major Eastwood, echoing the hope voiced by Mr. Archbold, said that -there was a great need for such amenities whereby, after a long day at the wheel, a driver could obtain recreation,
rest and refreshment in a healthy environment. Expressing satisfaction at the progress made in the work of approving and listing transport cafés and similar places of the right type, he said the Road Transport Catering and Accommodation Committee had practically finished its task of preparing a directory of such establishments, and it was hoped this would be complete by April 9.
As to the future, the Commissioner said that he looked to the time when there would be available for road transport drivers a chain of cafés or hostels, with good bedrooms and baths, right through the countryside. Perhaps they would be provided through private enterprise after the,
war, by far-seeing people who were pre-. pared to put money into the organiza
tion of such a chain. There was also a need for vehicle parks Where drivers could leave their loads under guard, and thus be saved the worry as to whether the goods were safe from thieves.
Mr. W. M. Jones, of the Transport and General Workers' Union,who is chairman of the Yorkshire Area Road Haulage Wages Board and president of Leeds Trades Council, stressed the necessity of good. cleln hostels which would counteract the undesirable influence of bad types of licensed house and café. Sonic drivers were frequenting licensed houses to an extent which was good neither for themselves nor for the industry.