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CM profile of Donald Mac Cuisl
Page 71
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First Scottish IoTA chairman for 30 years
FROM HIS BOYHOOD days when he bounced and bruised his way to school on the back of a dirty and ill-maintained tipper lorry, transport has been in the blood of Donald MacCuish.
Now, 25 years later, 41year-old Mr McCuish has been installed as national chairman of the institute of Traffic Administration, a post he will hold for the next year. He is not at all the dour Highlander of the folklore; he is canny but also an amiable person who has a habit of winning debates through smiling persuasion.
At his desk at the Inverness hq of the Highlands and Islands Development Board where he is head of transport services, Mr MacCuish. Minst TA, FCIT, FIMH, FInstPet, gave me some hint of his vast experience in all fields of transport, an experience which surely makes him a worthy loTA chairman.
"I must confess that while all my life I have been involved with transport, in these early school days I developed a hatred of it," he says. "I suffered many bruises, cuts and soakings on the back of those trucks travelling to school at Arrochar, Argyll, Then when I went to the Hermitage Academny in Helensburgh it involved a daily 40-mile round trip by bus."
On leaving school it was a quirk of fate that led to Mr MacCuish pursuing a life in the transport industry. The employment officer told him that out oi 400 job cards heaped on his desk, one was for Mr MacCuish. He selected the top card and landed a post as clerk with British Road Services in Glasgow. This was in 1954 and apart from a short spell in the Army for National Service, Mr MacCuish worked his way through all departments in BRS.
His big break came in 1964 when he was appointed assistant to the Scottish manager of British Road Ferry Services based at Ardrossan, where he was in charge of Irish and Continental operations., While with BRS Mr MacCuish was associated with organising the first ever Freightliner load between Scotland. and England, and in his new post he organised the first ever Freightliner load for export: appropriately enough it was a consignment of whisky from Edinburgh to Paris. In 1968 Mr MacCuish joined the HIDB first as its freight transport officer. In 1973 he became head of the transport services branch dealing with both passengers and freight.
There can he few modes of transport that Mr MacCuish is not at home with — from the paddle steamer Waverley, which ran on the Clyde when he was a young man, right up to representing the HIDB on the British Helicopter Advisory Board.
The Board advises the Scottish Secretary on all transport matters in its area — which he emphatically declares is 50 miles longer than England.
He is involved with numerous transport bodies — Caledonian MacBrayne Shipping Services advisory committees; the Freight Transport Association; the Road Haulage Association; and the North of Scotland Transport Association, to name but a few.
There will be several crucial subjects to be settled during his term of office at loTA, one of the biggest being the tachograph controversy.
-The Transport Bill is going through this month and I will be going through that with a fine tooth comb:' he told me. "I can see both advantages and disadvantages in the system.''
There is also the question of the eight-hour driving regula-.
tion due to come into for January 1981. This has se implications for areas with roads like the Highlands, ar MacCuish can see the corning when journeys \.i■ used to take nine or 10 Iwill be spread over two because of this regulation. will continue pushing relaxation of the regulation says.
'Among Mr MacCu proudest achievements successfully pushing for a into the remote West Higl community of Applecross, gesting and helping forn North of Scotland tippin• operative. NOSTA, and a ing at the birth of the succ, Postbus schemes.
At present he is push inc Freightliner terminal in I ness. A traffic consultan been appointed to cond market feasibility study. smaller but equally imp( scale he has arranged a we party comprising HIDB Highland Regional Counc .verness District Counci NOSTA on overnight pa and ancillary facilities for mercial vehicles in Inverne Mr MacCuish is onl second Scot to be chairman, and the first Sc 30 years. He practises wt preaches — he holds a tificate of Professional petence in Road Transpi coincidence is that his bir is on March 14, and on th. in 1980 Commercial I celebrates its 75th annivei
Donald MacCuish complete transport mar aims to make the 1980 conference and exhibiti Edinburgh somethinc remember. Plans are well for an impressive show of
port strength — at a time the industry will be very m the nation's spotlight.
• by CM correspon