RHA show really is different
Page 30
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John Durant talks to John Siloermann, RHA's national chairman, who explains flat ne show A main aim is to make a//dent in ne anti-bony lobby"
UNIQUE — that does appear, for once, to be the correct word to describe an exhibition, in this case the Road Transport Show, opening tomorrow (Saturday) at the Brighton Metropole. For it has been organised, by the Road Haulage Association, to tell the public what road haulage is all about.
Its aim is best described by RHA national chairman John Silbermann as -making a dent in the anti-lorry lobby".
He told me: -It's not a trade show; it's not selling vehicles or services, and so far as we know, and we have asked our friends on the Continent, this has not been tried in Europe before.
"It's main aim is to tell Joe Public what the lorry does."
So it is for the general public, but aims to inform in a factual way, and not evading the warts, because commercial vehicles do make noise, cause smoke and lead to wear and tear of road surfaces.
Anyone in transport should encourage friends and relatives to make an effort to get to Brighton if that's at all feasible. They shouldn't be bored: the story of transport will be told in an interesting way and drinks and refreshments will be available. More than 90 organisations have booked stands.
However, it will also, I am assured, provide a most interesting visit for anyone who has been in transport all his life. More than this, many hauliers are likely to be able to learn facts that will prove financially beneficial in their business lives, and employees and young people can learn about career prospects.
Young people contemplating a career in transport sometimes write to Commercial Motor asking for a run-down on job prospects, and the longest letter in reply can only scratch the surface. These young men and women should invest in a cheap-day return ticket to Brighton where, incidentally, they will find no anti-rail bias. Transport is a unity these days that integrates competition.
British Rail, in fact, will have a stand — and so, too, for example, will British Airways, British Waterways, and for that matter also the TGWU, IRU, and the Manpower Services Commission.
So how did this exhibition come about? -It was first mooted about 15 months ago,John Silbermann told me. "I had been chairman for a few months and I and the board of the RHA came to the joint view that this business of lying down
and taking all the criticisms of the environmentalists was getting us nowhere."
The RHA had in mind particularly here the pressure group Transport 2000 and papers such as the Sunday Times, which fastened on to the word "juggernaut." And organisations such as the Friends of the Earth and the Civic Trust, while propagating sincere views, don't understand what a world without lorries would be like, he argued. These two organ,isations, in particular, have both been invited.
While their accusations, and those of the vague anti-road lobby, have been answered by the RHA and sometimes by individual road hauliers, the industry's case — it's importance — has not been presented previously in a positive way. This is a situation that the Road Transport Show will seek to amend.
The RHA is spending "guile a biton the exhibition and if something between 25,000 and 50,000 people attend, this can start making a dent in the
anti-road lobby, by showing that the lorry is a benefit to the UK, and not a nuisance. This in turn, it is hoped, will lead Parliament to consider roads and lorries more deeply before they legislate, sometimes to the detriment of the industry.
John himself would like the event to be repeated every two years and on a larger scale. Perhaps next time the oil crisis could provide an important feature.
There is a lot of badly in-, formed talk in Britain about road transport coming to a halt in 30 years time when oil runs out, but how many people realise that economies and a re-organisation of priorities, such as using gas and not oil for heating buildings, even on current vehicle consumption levels, can lead to fuel for transport = land, including cars, sea and air — lasting for 100 years? This, incidentally, will be a point John will make at the opening.
With typical enthusiasm, he hopes the show will become established in the national calendar in a similar way to thE Daily Mail's Ideal Home Exhibi. tion.
For this first show the ther Minister of Transport when th( show was being organised William Rodgers, indicated hi: approval and the Department o Transport will be exhibiting And from the world of loca government the Greater Londoi Council will be putting its viev. point on roads and lorries. Career opportunities will tat shown by stands from thi RTITB, GTAs, and technical col leges as well as the Manpowe Services Commission.
Although, as John Silbei mann emphasises, it is by n means a trade show, there wi be a sprinkling of vehicles an trailers on view, mainly for th benefit of the public who wi surely be impressed by moden day lorry cabs. The Fode "'quiet lorry" exhibit will pr vide a glimpse into the future.
The RHA may be able to sta an information service for a fe for return loads in a year or twc time, by means of visual di plays on TV units in traff offices. This system will be d monstrated. And, of cours hauliers and drivers who St don't know, besides the publi will be able to find out, at der onstrations, what the tach graph is all about.
A review of the stands at n Road Transport Show starts t page 34.