bird's eye view by the Hawk • Safety money
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Some employers have a "modest" wage claim coming their way which may be met with more sympathy than some. John Moore, TGWU district officer. tells me that in the near future the union will be seeking a little extra for drivers who never have a blameworthy accident. After all, such drivers are increasingly—with today's high-cost vehicles—making a positive contribution to productivity by decreasing time off the road.
What will be sought is "a little something in the wage packet", I learned from Mr Moore, who was attending the presentation of safe driving awards by Jack Bickers, London area manager of BRS Parcels Ltd, at City Road, EC1, last week.
For Mr Bickers the event was something of a sad occasion as it was the last time he'll be making the presentations; he retires early next year. However, Edwin Ellis, a Hackney branch driver who received his 39-year gold bar, has no thought of retiring. So in a year's time if all goes well, David Lafferty, RoSPA metropolitan region organizer, tells me, Mr Ellis will qualify to receive an award at the London Accident Prevention Council.
• Pull over?
They never leave poor old road transport alone for an instant, do they, these people with the bright ideas. Latest example was in Monday's copy of The Guardian, where Checkout columnist Elisabeth Dunn suggested that lorries on trunk roads should be obliged to pull in to laybys every so often and let the faster traffic past. She says that at present "most of the east-west routes across country are clogged by slow-moving lorries which pursue each other, nose to tail, along two-lane A roads at thirty miles an hour. When they reach a three-lane hill they overtake each other at five miles an hour carrying in their wake a stream of nail-biting, blasphemous motorists goaded by sheer frustration into taking the most appalling risks".
I've met plenty of those blasphemous motorists in my time, and if it's true what she says about nail-biting this would explain some of the atrocious driving one sees; but if they really allow this to lead them to take appalling risks then they have no right to be on the road or to hold a licence.
Frankly, Miss Dunn, such a load of wild generalizations cuts no ice with me. They cut no ice with the RHA or the DoE either, I'm happy to say. The Association was horrified at the suggestion that lorries should be compelled to pull off the road to allow frustrated motorists past, pointing out that the motorists would be most upset, for example, to arrive at the end of their journey to find no food at their hotel because it was in one of the lorries they had passed in a layby. It would, they rightly said, play hell with lorry schedules. And the DoE told Miss Dunn that its main aim was "to build motorways and improve existing roads to cater for heavy lorries". They apparently didn't see themselves building special lorry laybys to let the cars past.
We all get stuck behind slow-moving (and smoky) trucks from time to time, but I've usually found lorry drivers extremely reasonable at pulling well in to wave other traffic past after a slow, narrow stretch of road.
• Hardy perennial
Talking of congestion and narrow roads, this week we have that hardy perennial reminder of our situation in the world, Basic Road Statistics published in its 1971 form, to remind us that Britain's roads are the most crowded in the world. We have 62.6 motor vehicles for every mile of road compared with 55.5 in Germany, 56.1 in Italy and 57.3 in Holland. It never fails to surprise me that the USA comes so far down the list, with only 28.6 (it is so big), along with countries like France (28) and Japan (24).
It will not cheer you up to know that British road traffic has doubled since 1958 and that there are now less than 34yd of trunk and principal roads for each vehicle; the day will perhaps come when we all go out and try and use our share, and we shan't fit. There are now 11.5m cars in use, 78,000 buses and coaches, 1,621,000 goods vehicles, 25,000 taxis and (surprise to me) 1,142,000 motorbikes.
The book (available from the British Road Federation, 26 Manchester Square, London WIN 5RF, price 50p post free) also has the usual interesting facts about transport. For example, that road freight ton-mileage rose from 44 thousand million in 1968 to 44.5 thousand million in 1969—but rail freight ton-mileage rose from 14.7 thousand million to 15.1 In 1969, some 91 per cent of all passenger mileage was by road—but public transport's share dropped in the 10 years to 1969 from 44.1 thousand million passenger miles to 35.7, while private transport's equivalent figure rose from 82.1 to 184.0. There's the challenge to the bus in a nutshell.
Road mileage, vehicle licensing, taxation, bus fare revenues—all this and a host of other statistics makes this a fascinating reference book.
• Transport phoenix
Oil and water don't mix; and if the latest moves of Thurrock urban district council are any guide neither do cleansing and transport. Earlier this year, this small Essex authority appeared before the Metropolitan LA and was criticized for its lack of vehicle maintenance facilities. The cleansing inspector who was at that time also responsible for transport said in evidence that he had been asking for improved facilities for more than five years but, alas, in vain. Whether it was the LA's criticism or the fact that the cleansing inspector's voice had finally travelled through the corridors of power in Thurrock I do not know but in CM on August 24 the urban district council advertised a new post of transport manager with a top salary of £3180 per annum and fringe benefits like housing, removal expenses and a car allowance. I followed this up, and this week the council's personnel officer told me that they were more than satisfied with the number of applications received.
What a pity it takes so long for local authorities to realize the value of a qualified transport manager.