COMMENT'
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IT'S MIND OVER MATTER
ommercial Motor would like to announce the immediate availability of a new HGV operator's course in advanced telepathy. The course, which becomes a legal obligation for all those in the haulage sector with immediate effect, is designed to help drivers break through the limits of the physical world into the boundless realms of mind-power. We expect the new course to be of particular interest to all those operators who feel transport legislation, described twice-over this week as containing "grey" areas, is not adequately defined in conventional physical terms. "Grey", however, sounds like a rather generous judgement.
For a start, it beggars belief that an operator acting in good faith should be fined, albeit "with some sympathy", for using a road unmarked as restricted and which does not appear on the London Borough's Transport Scheme map. Can it really be right to apply any penalty when only an exhaustive search would reveal the road's restricted status.
Then there is the understandable confusion among hauliers over whether or not skiploaders are exempt from tachograph legislation. On this score, even telepathy could let operators down because the real confusion seems to exist in the minds of those interpreting the law, with court cases resulting in contradictory rulings. At a time when British operators already waste 8% of their working time on congestion delays, you have to wonder what further percentage is being wasted on potentially unnecessary maintenance of tachograph records as well as needless appearances in court. If the authorities want specific rules to be followed, the least they can do is set those rules in stone for all to see.
If you're wondering, by the way, just when and where our advanced telepathy course will be run, too bad: if you were going to be suitable material, you'd already know...