Problem for the haulage industry
Page 18
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MURMURINGS are already heard and doubtless there will soon be loud outbursts about the parlous state of our roads and the effect recent weather and heavy goods vehicles have inflicted on them.
There are those only too ready and waiting to latch-on to any imagining of their biased minds to take yet a further swipe at our industry, particularly during current and future debates on the modus operandi of road haulage.
When will it be generally acknowledged that over the past few decades our planners have been hopelessly wrong concerning traffic density; when will it be honestly admitted that our specifications and standards of road construction have not been up to the usage demanded?
Yet, it is always the heavy lorry (invariably referred to by the general public as the juggernaut) which is held to be at fault. That our roads will need urgent and considerable repair work over the next few years is beyond question.
The problem for the haulage industry lies in the fact that there are those who seek to impose the burden upon it through the medium of increasing road fund tax, and this despite all that is being said and done via Armitage and other informed sources in road haulage.
Having travelled extensively in Europe, I have found that with few exceptions major roads there do not appear to suffer from the depredations which we are accused of causing here. No one is entirely to blame for our problems, and certainly we shoud not be singled out.
How is it that lorries with greater weights than are presently permitted here have been using Continental roads for years without inflicting the kind of surface damage that is all too apparent here?
The work of Dr Beeching and the changing and efficient pattern of farming has brought about a need for heavy transport on many roads certainly not constructed for such traffic, but although this is one area where criticism can be directed at heavy traffic it is not truly justified, since we are performing an essential duty imposed upon us by the demands of the community.
In general, however, we are the target for road conditions that are not of our making. Somehow we have got to get the message over — we pay our whack of road charges.
In this modern age, it is high time road foundations and surfaces were designed and contructed with materials that are not so susceptible to the contraction and expansion caused in bitter weather. NIGEL BREEZE Southend-on-Sea
The industry needs transport committee
THE Transport and General Workers' Union applauds and commends the lofty ideals outlined in your editorial (CM January 2). Many New Year resolutions, particularly by politicians and editors, have a way of fading as the year progresses, like snow on a fine day.
We certainly like the new innovation that your editorial content will be objective, accurate and never misleading. It should obviate the necessity of writing to correct some of the worst excesses from time to time.
We hope you will pursue with the vigour you usually reserve for attacks on this union, the notion to establish a Transport Co-odinating • Committee, an idea that the TUC has been pursuing for more than a generation.
Perhaps we could also look forward to the day when your reporters and those other pundits who write so authoritatively in your paper would consult with the many experts in the union who have a wealth of experience unmatched by any of your contributors on all transport matters.
However, that is probably a forlorn hope because our views and opinions differ so widely from those whose acquisitive attitudes are so much admired.
LARRY SMITH TGWU Transport House London SW
We blame the oil companies
AFTER the recent bad weather spell, I feel we must put pen to paper concerning the waxing up of diesel fuel.
We are a small family concern and we run a fleet of Bedfords, which are regularly serviced by us. We have experienced our fair share of diesel waxing up, but last week while I was coming back from Lancashire and stayed the night at Watford Gap Services, I was to experience the worst weather I have ever seen.
I woke at 6.00am only to find that the trusty Bedford diesel did not burst into life; the reason was that the diesel had waxed up. I was not the only one; the lorry park was full of cripped lorries from all over Great Britain. Road haulage was almost brought to a complete standstill by the diesel waxing up, and there were not many lorries which left the service area by mid-day.
So one wonders why in this day and age is a modern diesel allowed to wax-up. I was to find the answer later on that day on the radio. The reason is that in 1977 the big oil companies toc some vital contents out of the diesel to enable them to gain 2 a gallon extra profit, but they c not realise how much inconvenience and how much money it costs the road haulie and I don't suppose they even care.
But if they had to try and ble a diesel engine at 6.00am on a freezing cold morning when yi can't even feel your fingers, th I am sure they would think twil about it. I am even more sure that all the road hauliers in thi: country would rather pay an extra 3p a gallon on diesel, rather than to find that their flE is off the road the next mornin We are faced every week by rising costs either of fuel, or ro tax, or something or other, an when after we have battled through all this and the vehiclE ready to roll, we find that we have yet another obstacle.
All I can say is that I hope thE oil companies take note soon, because in the end it is the customer who is going to havE to pay for all the inconvenienci in the long run ...
MARIO & EDMUND LINDSEY High Wycombe Sucks