Different approach
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Like most of the people 1 know in this business. I've always reckoned that that haulage was a pretty well-organised industry We've got some of the sharpest businessmen in the country and we do essential work, as even the green brigade have to agree.
So why is it that we seem to have no idea how to put our point of view in a way that gets results?
The reason for me writing to Commercial Motor about this is that I happened to get chatting with a motor bike dispatch rider while we were waiting for parcels at the same office block (I'm a selfemployed Transit driver).
Having swapped stories about the sort of grief we all get trying to operate in London (or any other city centre) nowadays, I happened to mention the raw deal that truck operators get compared with the rest of Europe.
I told him about the story in CM about the haulier who tried to copy the French by setting up a blockade at Dover and how he dropped the idea for lack of support.
The dispatch rider told me that years back, when the Government was bringing in the crash helmet law, there were demos around the country with thousands of bikers on the streets. He says they got support from MPs, interviews on TV, radio and the papers and even lobbied Parliament.
So while a bunch of bikers made such a fuss about their hobby we can't get on the streets to save our jobs. As a van driver it doesn't affect me too much, but I've got to say the biker wasn't too impressed.
Peter Blake Riggin Hilt Kent.