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bird's eye view

10th April 1970, Page 50
10th April 1970
Page 50
Page 50, 10th April 1970 — bird's eye view
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by the Hawk Going Dutch

A Dutch haulier was telling me recently about some effects of the very frustrating German permit system imposed on his country's over-the-border operators. One result which can only be on the credit side is that, since each permit is for a single vehicle, maxcapacity trucks are now almost universal, and every other means has been adopted towards better productivity. Also, to cut dead permit mileage, some comapnies are keeping a permit-covered tractive unit in Germany to pick up trailers at the border, which if carefully worked can cut out a a lot of the valuable "permit" time wasted during border-crossing formalities. Some hauliers have now gone to the length of buying German firms in order to get better transport access.

Holland is still pressing for more permits and is meanwhile discussing the possibility of having permits issued per journey instead of per vehicle. This might cut the "waste" of permit validity, since the German objective is simply to have no more than 1,950 Dutch trucks on its soil at any one time.

There arc also several dodges, which I wouldn't dream of revealing, to get round the permit restrictions. I dare say you can visualize sonic of the possibilities.

• Short-changed

As well as the bilateral agreements, the Common Market countries now have the EEC international quota permits in force. These Community permits, issued by the national governments to operators on the basis of their past conduct and traffic, enable the holder to run the permitted vehicle between the home state and any other EEC country. They also allow "third country" operations with that vehicle, which bilaterals do not.

Holland, having been the Continent's road haulier for so many years, pressed hard for the sharing of EEC quotas on the basis of past road transport volumes; but France and Germany were having none of that. They argued (successfully) for shares on the basis of each nation's economic status. The result is that EEC permits in Holland today are valued like "General Goods Great Britain" A licences at their peak. People even buy haulage businesses in order to get a "permitted" vehicle, they tell me.

• Cheerio Charles

That doyen of transport journalists Charles Klapper retired at the end of March, and the fact that he has always written for rival

publishers doesn't restrain me for one moment: of all the writers in road transport in particular he is, I think, the one most universally liked and respected by his• colleagues and rivals. And Charles has, of course, always been something very much more than a scribbler. He has long been a member of council of the Institute of Transport, was a vice-president in 1962 when he delivered the Henry Spurrier lecture, a chairman of the Transport Tutorial Association, a past president of the Railway and Canal Historical Society, and founder member and past president of the Omnibus Society.

It is probably in the latter role, as a psv enthusiast, that many readers of CM will know him but he has a fascinating repertoire of stories and facts about every branch of transport. I was always fascinated to ride in a train with him: we not only got a (very accurate) estimate of the speed at any particular moment, but usually a history of the line, the service, the timetable and the rolling stock. Plus a most shrewd assessment of what was going to happen next.

To transport folk at large, he is best known as editor of Modern Transport, and though that journal is no longer published he is still very busy on consultancy work, which he tells me is going to keep him busy in retirement. Retirement? Charles? Impossible. His mind never keeps still long enough.

• Accent on family

The family business has a mystique that, like so many mystiques in this rat-race age, seems to be fast disappearing as an effective element in the life of the nation. Take-overs, amalgamations and top-heavy administrations are paradoxically having a dispersive influence on the cohesion of family life, and GPs are having their work cut out to find antidotes for strained nerves, group discontent, loss of identity and lack of community spirit. Or so it seems in periods of depression motivated by news of strikes, who-does-what disputes, demonstrations and political discord. And that is most of the time.

It was somehow reassuring to hear from colleague Paul Brockington that, over a lunch-time drink, he'd had a get-together with John Lake of Tiverton coachwork and container company on the role of the family in the industrial and political life of the country. And it is perhaps significant that they both have a West Country origin.

John inherited from his father a business that is "family" in a very viable sense and he is confident that he will hold his own against competitors with larger financial resource because he has the backing of all his staff and their families in pitting craftsmanship again& financial manipulation.

• Solidarity in Malta

And where does Paul come into the picture' In a rather surprising way. Dom Mintoff, former Prime Minister of Malta, and no opposition leader of the Malta Labour Party might well be able to answer that questior better than anyone else. Paul interviewee Dom Mintoff last October and later wrote ar, article for The Guardian on "Malta's Futurr Tied to Family Life", based on the interview And that was the start of a one-man's-wordagainst-another's controversy that has produced minor convulsions in the islands and a spate of letters and articles in at least threr Maltese newspapers. In a letter to The Sunda) Times of Malta regarding the controversy and a previous visit to Malta, Paul referreC to the cohesive force that appeared to give E welcome solidarity to family life in Malta anc Gozo, and said that this inspired a desire tc "come back and write about it".

He might well have said the same tkinE about Devonians after his visit to Tiverton he tells me. And he is convinced that Johr and his family of three children would br quite at home in Malta because they woulc respond to the way of life of the locals, not tc mention Gozitan wine at 6d. a large glass '

• The seekers

Operators who discourage enthusiasts from visiting their premises may be missing out on something. Two or three "long-serving" trailer spotters who collect BRSL serial numbers were given passes signed by the managing director, guaranteeing them access to any depot. Now, I'm told, they're proving a tremendous asset. They have a nose for locating trailers whose whereabouts are in doubt, and they now form one of the chief engineer's main trailer-tracing agencies!

III Looking back

Transfer of London Transport to the GLC has initiated a spate of reminiscence among enthusiasts, who find the history of London's public transport, a rich vein for mining. Enthused readers may therefore care to know that the Omnibus Society has just published (price 4s net) a reprinted version of its July 1933 magazine, whicL was devoted to the establishment of the London Passenger Transport Board.


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