BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 32
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BY THE HAWK
• One of the last vehicles to leave Atkinson's factory at Oldham, before it became Seddon Atkinson in 1970, comes up on offer at Central Motor Auctions' Middlesbrough branch on Monday 14 March. The Atkinson platform lorry, with Gardner 120 engine, has 86,000km on the clock and has a Hiab crane attachment. "It is in splendid condition and, although it has many years of working life still, it is close to being a collector's item," says CMA. For further information contact Phillip Thompson on (0642) 760363.
• Rick Astley, the dimunitive, clean-scrubbed teeny idol, who sprang from obscurity to stardom in 1987, must be the unlikliest ex-lorry driver the Hawk has come across. He belongs to the ranks of great loses to the road transport industry which the Hawk from time to time recounts.
Baby-faced Astley was employed by a firm of market gardeners while still a struggling nobody. Never mind, Ricky, with the pop industry as fickle and transient as it is, it may not be too long before you return to your true vocation.
I mean, what are the Bay city Rollers doing now. . ?
• Staff at Iveco Ford dealer UBM Ford at Exeter show off the company's new uniforms. UBM Ford is one of the first outlets to take up the navy, red and white outfits.
• The highlight of the Road Haulage Association international group's jaunt to France last week was undoubtedly Freddie Plaskett's rendition of the Pegasus bridge battle — the first allied victory of D-Day and the first piece of French land to be liberated.
The director general — and former major-general — was in his element as he recounted the tale of the brave lads who won a vital expeditionary battle the night before the invasion. "Picture, if you will, the scene . ." Freddie instructured his coach-load of hauliers, listening with schoolboy attentiveness, as he brought the encounter to life. Fortunately, the 60-odd group members, who had dined extremely well at Renault's headquarters in Caen, did not have to re-enact the Normandy-beach landing, which had taken place down the road.
• The press launch of GEC National One at Limehouse Studios in the Docklands this week was proceeding very smoothly. Former Tomorrow's World presenter Raymond Baxter was running the proceedings with his usual loquacious aplomb. All the studio lights were trained on the first demonstration of the new system, which Baxter reminded us, used all-British technology. There was a silence, then a series of ever-more-desperate bleeps, but the radio system refused to work. GEC officials assured us that it had been working perfectly two minutes before the presentation. We wish them better luck on 6 April when the service is launched commercially.
• Two weeks ago, as my avid readers will remember, the Hawk was at the centre of an intriguing Turkish riddle. My correspondent, Chris Mason of Volvo Trucks' Carlisle Commercials, had received a request from a bunch of Turkish lads begging for some Volvo overalls and some Teyps. Poor old Mason was baffled, so he asked the Hawk to seek out from his informed and cultured readers what a teyp could possibly be.
M Simon of Manchester has come up with an interesting, if strange idea. A teyp, he confidently asserts, is the beautiful blonde hitch-hiker wearing tight shorts and a thin t-shirt that every British trucker carries on his way to Turkey.
Never one to encourage sexist ideas among his readers (witness my tacky calendar competition), the Hawk will put this one to the Road Haulage Association's international group for verification, but my office colleagues remain sceptical. The prize of a pair of Turkish slippers remains open for the best suggestion.
Meanwhile, M Simon wins a bucket of cold water and the Hawk's special award for wishful thinking.
• Peter Bottomley, Minister for Roads and Traffic and the subject of a campaign of vilification by some of the more dubious inhabitants of the gutter (and not so gutter) press for his audacious suggestions that police should be tougher with drunk drivers, has at last won something for his troubles, . . Not a cabinet post, not a knighthood, but the Institute of the Motor Industry's Castrol Gold medal.
It is awarded to the person who makes the greatest contribution to the advancement of road transport during the past year, and Bottomley is the first politician to win it since 1929. The citation says that Bottomley "has kept the public attention focussed on road safety as a result of strong personal commitment to the cause — in particular the success of recent drink driving campaigns."