Overcoming a persecution complex
Page 53
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• So the police are stopping more trucks than ever in an effort to stop illegal operators. Hooray! I'll drink to that (not when I'm driving of course).
My two trucks have been stopped 12 times already this year. If the police gave out vouchers I would have enough for a pop-up toaster by now. The trouble is that other hauliers don't seem to be getting their fair share of these impromptu checks.
Could it be victimisation? Unlikely, since my lorries have been stopped by different police forces all over the country, and they have never been stopped for moving traffic offences.
In fact the reasons (apart from official roadside checks by the Vehicle Inspectorate) range from "just routine", which is police speak for "random", to having no illumination on the trailer number plate or even having the trailer number plate partially obscured by the bulldog clip that secures it_ Needless to say each time a lorry is stopped in a vehicle check there is a thorough inspection on tyres, tax, tachographs and so on.
I was beginning to get a persecution complex when I had to take a container to an address that appeared not to exist in the middle of a forest. I telephoned the local police and they sent out a Range Rover to help me. The two policemen were really helpful, friendly with a sense of humour and they explained why my lorries kept being stopped. "We always stop the older lorries," they said, "the ones without the big names on."
So the mystery is solved. The trouble is that if the police target older lorries,
then inevitably it will tend to be the older lorries in which faults are found. Thus their (unofficial) policy will be vindicated as statistically more faults will be found in older lorries because more older lorries are stopped.
D Stride, Southampton.