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A servant who's really civ
Page 9
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Barry Proctor had the shock of his life when a senior civil servat at the DfT rang him to sort out tiproblems with Reduced Pollutio Certificates. It was a sensible, constructive conversation — eno to make any haulier jittery..
In the normal course of events there is more satisfaction to be had beating your head against a wall than trying to ge government employees or departments to understand vv you are trying to tell them. The brick wall option offers an added advantage in that you know the outcome (headac profound sense of pointlessness) before you start. WherE communication with bureaucracy tends to involve starting out with a glimmer of hope but invariably results in a headache and a profound sense of pointlessness.
But not always. In my last column I described the rigrr that hampers any attempt to gain a Reduced Pollution Certificate. It seems that someone from the Department fc Transport was reading Commercial Motor because a few days later I received an e-mail from Richard Jones, head ( division for licensing, roadworthiness and insurance at thE He apologised for the pal aver I was forced to go through promised the department would look at ways of improvinc its systems so other operators would not have to endure tl same death by a thousand paper-cuts. Richard, sensible chap. even asked if I had any ideas for smoothing the sys Without further ado I picked up the phone and spent the r hour chatting with him and venting my spleen over other C administered nightmares (speed limits and so on and so f Whether anything comes of our conversation remains to be seen, but you have to applaud the man for taking thE time to sort out the problem and to talk to people in the rea world. Governments, like supertankers, take a little while tc stop or turn, but at least it's a start. Wouldn't it be wonderfu if other government departments took the trouble to listen • the industry's woes. So much aggravation could be solvec relatively simply and quickly with no cost to anyone.
If something is bothering you don't just sit there— corn bitch, whine and grouse by all means, but direct it to the ric department or your MP or nothing will ever change.
Barry Proctor owns Barry Proctor Services, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.