Driving champion faces MPs
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Differing views on driving hours, tachographs and gross weights
by CM reporter CHAMPION driver Colin Burrows, of Esso, was questioned vigorously by MPs—especially about tachographs and driving hours—when he spoke at a meeting in Westminster last week.
The Commercial Motor Lorry Driver of the Year was addressing members of the transport group of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Chaired by Leslie Huckfield, MP for Nuneaton, the meeting was held in a committee room of the House of Commons.
The MPs revealed differences of opinion about the tachograph in particular. Some said that they thought it would help to eliminate the lawbreakers, but one described the EEC tachograph requirements as "just another extension of bureacracy."
Several members were concerned that commercial drivers were still allowed to drive 10 hours a day and 60 hours a week and were surprised at the apparent willingness of men to work hours so much longer than the industrial norm. Colin Burrows pointed out that he, and many others in transport, had a 40-hour basic week. He thought most responsible drivers agreed with the present legal hours limits. Instead of cutting them, the existing limits should be more strictly enforced.
This is what the champion driver told the MPs in his opening address :
The driver's job
"The lorry driver has a keen interest in his job—as shown by his desire to obtain a vehicle with the best specifications and his willingness to work long hours and start work at odd times.
"The calibre of the lorry driver has improved since the introduction of the hgv test, and will continue, as all newcomers to the industry will have had to pass the test to enter the industry; also the 'bums' which we still have in the industry, who have drifted in in the past when no special qualifications were required, will leave through old age or other reasons. I might add that these people are a small minority.
"In Britain we have this odd way of denying an interest in a subject in which, in fact, we have a keen interest. Example: ask a group of drivers if they watch `Movin' On' on TV and they will say what a load of rubbish it is—but will then discuss with each other the trucks in the programme, say ng how much they would like to drive vehicles which one sees in this series."
Drivers' hours
"Most responsible drivers would agree that the present hours limits are about right, so why not, instead of reducing hours further, concentrate new legislation on making sure that the rogue fringe operator who does not respect any laws relating to road transport is made to obey the rules? Because whatever hours limits are imposed, responsible companies like my own will comply with the law to the letter, but the rogue operator will continue to work his men and machines long hours. These are the tired drivers who go to sleep at the wheel and have accidents and run off the road. Like the drivers mentioned earlier, these bad operators are small in number but get the majority a bad name.
Tachographs and weights
"Among the reasons we drive lorries is the personal freedom it affords, ie we work on our own without supervision. Drivers also have the opportunity on occasions to visit auntie, mother or girlfriend, the sort of detour which would only warrant a mild telling off if found out, but would immediately show on a tachograph chart, so it really is a spy in the cab. We do not want to lose our freedom.
"Today we are all being exhorted to work more efficiently, so by increasing maximum gross vehicle weights of trucks, at a stroke the efficiency of road transport could be improved. We do not necessarily want bigger lorries, we would like to carry more weight within the existing dimensions. A few more inches on the maximum length would help when coupling to 40ft containers. Eighteen inches added to 49ft 2fin should make no appreciable difference to truck size.
"At present most 40ft containers tilde around 60 to 70 per cent full, because of the gross weight limit of 32 tons. By filling these containers, each truck would carry more and in consequence reduce the number of lorries required to move a given amount of freight.
"The Transport and Road Research Laboratory have found that higher axle loads would not necessarily break up the road surface more than the present one—a softer suspension can reduce the effects.
The lorry driver and politics
"A large number of lorry drivers may vote Labour, but they do not necessarily want to work for BRS. For example, some years ago a small oil company with a depot not far from my own gave up using its awn transport and contracted Pickfords. Pickfords took on all the drivers at oil company rates of pay and conditions, but, almost to a man, they transferred to my own company when the opportunity arose. Why did they change when the conditions of employment were the same? The reason—if the small company stopped trading or threw out Pickfords, these drivers would not have been made redundant, but could have remained with Pickfords only at the lower rate which all Pickford drivers receive. These rates do not compare with the major oil companies'. Also, if BRS were the only employer, and a driver got the sack, how then would he obtain a driving job? And no one employer suits everyone. I have known drivers leave Esso, even with all its advantages, and take driving jobs with other companies because their conditions of employment have suited them better.
"Even when Jack Jones gets up at the Party conference and says 'My 4 million members say this or that . ' he may mot be representing the majority of his membership. Lorry drivers are not in the TGWU for their leader to play politics at the Party conference with his block votes, but to represent their interests when dealing with their respective employers. We do our political voting on Polling Day.
Environmental lobby
"Most drivers go along with those who complain about the noise trucks make. If one drives a noisy truck, one has to listen to the row all day long, not just for a few seconds as the environmentalist does, standing on a hill with his noise meter. It is no good legislating to make engines quiet when you have some trailer suspensions so noisy that they sound as though one is dragging a load of old iron along the road.
"I think you will find those people demanding lorry routes are, in the main, people who want to ban trucks altogether, rather than help the situation, because when they find the traffic has to go somewhere, and this may be outside their own property, they do not want this either.
"What we find hard to take are statements by politicians of all parties who try to pick up votes at our expense, for instance: 'X million tons of freight should be taken off the roads and put on rail,' as it the railways have a divine right to exist and we do not. Over 665,000 people make their living directly from road transport and that is a lot of votes by anyone's standards. Also, we are not in business for our own convenience. We exist because other people, the general public, call us and ask us to move their freight. My own job exists because the motorist demands the convenience of being able to buy petrol within half a mile of his home. So next time you feel inconvenienced by a truck, do not blame the operator or the driver. It is you, the people of this country, who ask us to do the fetching and carrying."
Discussion
Members were quick to take up the problem of rogue operators, and asked how Colin Burrows thought they could be eliminated The LDoY champion thought the issuing and renewal of operators' licences should be stricter and that roadside checks and "silent checks" on driving hours should be more extensive.
One MP pointed out that if gvws were increased to enable fewer lorries to do the same work this would reduce driving jobs—a development which Cohn Burrows had deplored as a result of trying to put more traffic on rail. In any case, said the MP, the American AASHO tests had shown that road damage increased as the 4th power of the increase in axle weight, regardless of the type of suspension used.
This member was concerned that people living beside busy roads suffered most from the heavy lorry's noise—not "environmentalists with noise meters." Increases in vehicle weight, for example, would be at their expense.
It was refreshing to have a road transport point of view put to a committee "heavily overloaded with ex-railwaymen" said another MP. He thought 60 hours a week was reasonable as •a maximum— allowing flexibility to cover emergencies and delays. But he hoped it was not regarded as the normal working week.
He thought tachographs would help to stamp out some of the bad practices that the speaker — and others — had complainod of.
Replying, Colin Burrows repeated his view that the tachograph would put too much restraint on drivers who, in the main, were in transport because they liked to do their day's work in their own way. The trouble with more restrictive legislation—for example on driving hours—was that it put the responsible operator, who complied with it, at an even greater disadvantage to the rogues who flouted all the laws, old and new.