1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164 
LESSONS
Page 75
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Political Commentary By JANUS
ASTRANGE obtuseness seems to prevent building and engineering contractors from realizing that public criticism can be directed not only to the structures they put up but also to the services they employ. On site they are well aware of the problem. They go out of their way to show most of their activities in a favourable light and to channel public interest in the right direction. A z.ommon feature of building sites in large towns is an explanatory kiosk, with diagrams and even scale models. The provision of an observation platform is now almost taken for granted.
The contractors must stretch their imagination still farther. Where they are engaged on a large-scale undertaking, they must appreciate that the task of bringing the necessary materials to the spot presents a major public relations problem in that it involves thousands of vehicle journeys over a route through districts that may not be accustomed to such heavy traffic. The hostility of the local inhabitants is guaranteed, and every possible step should be taken to allay it.
Undoubtedly, consternation and anger were the reaction of the people of Newport, Monmouthshire, when work began on the Spencer steelworks project at Llanwern. The flood of shale-carrying tipping vehicles that poured into Newport and jostled each other over the one available bridge must have seemed like an ,invasion from another planet, or at least from another continent. So far as I am .aware, the main contractors, Sir Robert McAlpine and Sons, Ltd., did not anticipate the vigour and the volume of the complaints, which certainly drowned any belated attempts at apology or explanation.
THE Llanwern affair has spread to the national Press and to Parliament, reflecting little credit on the people concerned. The Minister of Transport, Mr. Ernest Marples, under the stimulus of a question in the House of Commons, has reported that there have been 980 accidents involving shale lorries since work started on a large scale in January, 1960. In 750 of the accidents no one was injured; but the Minister had to announce with regret that 18 people were killed and 280 injured through the remaining 230 accidents.
Mr. Marples himself referred to " this immense road transport operation," and the contractors subsequently have also thought it advisable to match the casualty figures to the scale of the mileage covered by the vehicles. The injury rate was one in about 150,000 miles and the death rate one in about 2,500,000 miles. I do not know by what standard these figures should be evaluated, but it may be worth noting that if all the fatal road accidents in 1959 were attributed to goods vehicles, the mileage per death would still be in excess of 2,500,000.
Whatever the basis of comparison, it is hardly likely that the people of Newport are satisfied. They may well regard the deaths on the Llanwern run as analogous to the human sacrifices said to be sealed up in the Great Wall of China. For the main complaint about the operation has been, not so much that the vehicles passed through Newport—this must be regarded as inevitable—but that so many of them were driven without sufficient regard to road safety.
Reports in the Press, and on radio and television, have referred time and again to cases where speed limits and the legal limitations on drivers' hours have been ignored in an endeavour to cram as many loaded trips into the working day as possible. The other side of the picture comes from hauliers. They maintain that many of the vehicles have been operating without a proper licence, some indeed with no licence at all, that the low rates have compelled drivers to work long hours in order to survive, and that inevitably the vehicles have had to be neglected.
In a letter last autumn to Mr. Harold Finch, M.P. for Bedwelty, the Minister was reassuring. There had been some difficulties, but he did not think them untoward. Spot checks on drivers' records had not revealed any material offences. Orders had been issued prohibiting the further use of sonic of the vehicles until repairs had been carried out. The reported opinion of the contractors is also that there are no substantial grounds for criticism.
IT IS difficult to discount all the reports on the other side. The contractors do not give the impression that they have investigated the problem on the spot or that they have had it firmly before them from the beginning. What is just as important from the point of view of good relations is that so many people disagree with the contractors' opinion. It is as well that the lesson of Llanwern should be learned for future reference.
There are other great public works now in process or soon to be launched. it would be a pity if the sorry story of Llanwern were to begin all over again. It would be even more regrettable if a controversy about road safety came to be attached, for example, to the building of part of a new motorway.
Contractors should give serious attention to the point. They must get used to the idea that they can give offence to the public at places many miles away from the site where their equipment is actually at work. As is so often the• case where transport is concerned, they may well begin their investigation of the problem by examining the rates
they pay. There ought to be keen competition, but uneconomic rates defeat their own object. They discourage the established haulier, with a reputation and business to lose, and leave the way clear for the man without a licence, prepared to break the law and to run his vehicle almost to the point where it falls to pieces.
AN INTERESTING experiment is being made by hauliers in the North West in preparation for the construction of new stretches of motorway in that part of the country. Through the Road Haulage Association they are forming what is in effect a pool of tipping vehicles and propose to offer it to the contractor with an assurance that his transport requirements will be met. Presumably he will be asked in exchange to pay fair and reasonable rates.
Thereis no reason for him to feel that the hauliers are ganging up against him and before he turns the proposal down out of hand he might well consider the advantages. Local operators, as distinct from strangers and the type of haulier sometimes stigmatized as a gipsy, have the best of reasons for kezping on good terms with the local community. In looking after their own public relations, they would also be protecting the good name of the contractor. He may be reasonably sure that his reputation will not suffer in their hands. Local authorities and the Ministry of Transport are also likely to look with favour on what the hauliers are planning. '