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Motor Does someone In the Industry deserve a pat on the back, or a dressing down? Drop us a line at Commercial Afetor,12, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5A5 or fax us on 020 8652 8971. Alternatively you can e-mail hrian.weatherley*rhl.co.uk.
CM STICKERS
i am writing to you to congratulate you all on the latest campaign to promote the right image of trucks.
I read with interest the letter from Annamarie Davies about the possibility of you producing a smaller sticker (CM12-18 Sept).
I am physically disabled and soon I shall be taking the CPC exam. I have a new electric four-wheeler scooter which I get around on easily from place to place and would be more than happy to spread the word.
!fully support the industry but, alas, the sticker is just to big to apply to my buggy. There isn't a flat enough surface as all the panels are curved (I have given my sticker to a lorry driver friend of mine to stick on his MAN rigid).
Please produce a smaller one; in the meantime if you have any others (like the little round ones for Truckfest) please send me a few. Rob Watson,
Peter-borough, Cambs.
Thanks for your support Mr Watson; I'll see what I can do—Ed.
ROTA ROW: 1
With reference to the Freight Transport Association working on police recovery prices ( CM
12-18 Sept); in my opinion overcharging results from police taking local recovery garages off contracts and getting police nominated recovery operators from miles away to do local jobs.
A competent engineer, vehicle inspector or anybody with any sense would know that many of the specifications on these schemes are not feasible. So the operator of the brokendown or damaged vehicle has to pay for recovery to and from a police-nominated recovery operator, which is miles away, incurring excessive costs.
Many nominated police recovery operators are covering too great an area to give a sensibly priced recovery. Name and address supplied.
ROTA ROW: 2
With reference to the Freight Transport Association saying it is going to help to re-write the ACPO Best Practice Guide (CM 12-18 Sept); why doesn't the FTA speak to the recovery operatorsP ACK) would not know the difference between the back and front of a recovery vehicle.
When the association of insurance companies met with ACP° the rates that were agreed by these two parties meant that two men on a night turnout would be earning less than 23 per hour—way below the minimum rate.
The high cost of commercial recovery is partly due to ACK), which insists on high-priced recovery vehicles costing thousands of pounds plus plastic shovels. These machines are built for motorway recovery but not for rural areas.
In this area there are some very steep hills, and after a shower of rain or a light frost, we have seen these magnificent machines trying to move tankers and attics uphill: they just stand with wheels spinning.
They even attempt to try winching uphill, with no result; then it is a matter for a local operator whose vehicles are not good enough for the police to attend but are fully tested with lifting gear, chains, double drive axles and low rewing engines... job completed in half an hour.
This is why in East Yorkshire and North Yorkshire there is a shortage of heavy recovery vehicles in rural areas through ACPO's restrictive ideas of recovery vehicles.
It's time we went back to the days when a recovery operator was judged on his skills, and not his chrome stacks and plastic shovels.
Name and address supplied.
ENOUOH LAWS
As if we did not have enough motoring laws already, the government seems obsessed with drivers using mobile phones. It even plans to ban their use when vehicles are stationary in traffic, giving a new definition to the adjective 'mobile'.
When driving I choose never to use a radio and even try to keep conversation with passengers to a minimum. Personally, I have no use for a mobile phone, either in the vehicle or anywhere else.
But I do appreciate that there are drivers who need to communicate. As in any walk of life, it is not what you do that is dangerous but how you do it. A short, simple message can be sent or received with negligible effect on concentration. Anthony G
Saltsbury.
FIGHT BACK!
After reading Sound Off from Perfect (CM8-14 Aug) and the comments from other hauliers and owner-drivers, the ma complaint seems to be the increasing cost of fuel; the recently proposed increas Operator's Licences; and f international hauliers ther€ the ever increasing risk fro asylum seekers.
To top it all off, there ar Messrs Blair and Brown tr, to annihilate the transport industry, to let the likes of Betz do all our national woi for peanuts no doubt.
And we now have to ac1 unofficial, unpaid immigrati officers for this govemmer along with all the unnecess red tape that goes with the road haulage industry.
Yet with all this meanirq individuals, small fleet own and even medium sized owners, all they do is moat groan among themselves.' are not willing to stand together, as with the fuel blockades and the transpo strike in the 1970s.
Sc might I suggest that all stop complaining when y sit in transport cafes or in I pub on a night out. Organis yourselves and stand up fc your rights.
But then again, this is w we pay organisations liked RHA, FTA, T&G and URTU I represent us at all levels w the haulage industry.
The latest aggravation i fines being imposed on hat by the RDCs. How many of have actually worked out tl going rate for demurrage? many of you actually charg offending firms—and if the don't pay take them to cou I'm sure they don't wanl bad publicity. It would only I one or two cases to be woi then the rest would fall into So come on all you lads anc lasses and all haulage companies, stand together once and show all these pe what we are made of and ti we are willing to fight for wl we want. RJL, Bromyard.
1 10-16 October 2002 Commercial