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IT'S A PAIN IN THE NECK
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May I comment on two items, a "Sound Off" article by Richard Turner and the suspension of a driver by Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell, both of whIch appeared in CM14-20 March, Both Ms Bell and Mr Turner may have participated in roadside checks on the ME on the night of 22 November 2001. but I cannot conceive that either of them has so much as sat in a truck, let alone driven one on the road for any real length of time.
Mr Turner appears to advocate an Orwellian system of paying for road use with his support for a surveillancebased mileage tax worthy of any totalitarian state, seemingly because the Germans favour it.
The maxim should be, keep things simple. What is so wrong with foreign vehicles paying for a permit to run in this country, as opposed to having "Big Brother" monitoring every road movement every individual makes, every moment of every day, be it in a bus, truck or car? So much for liberty.
It is widely acknowledged that Mr Turner deplores the exodus of experienced drivers from the industry and the dearth of new recruits. I would respectfully advise him that driving a truck is no longer an attractive occupation—it is, in fact, a pain in the neck. Quite apart from low status, poor wages and uncivilised hours of work trying t avoid road congestioi the driver suffers perpetual persecutia from every quarter. Should he have the misfortune to be involved in an accider even when not at faull he is deemed to be guilty in the eyes of thl public merely for bein there at all. Should, sadly, a fatality occur. they want him hung, drawn and quartered.
European bureaucratic meddhm such as the Working Time Directive and compulsc re-training aside, innovations like satellite tracking, surveillance cameras, digital tachos, speed limiters etc all serve to ''robotise" the drive This brings me back to Ms Bell and her often demonstrated obsession with speed restriction.
As I recall, the speed limitE and its accompanying reductil in speed were foisted on the industry using the spurious argument that reduced lution would ensue. As the , with the most congested ids in Europe, had a superior 'ety record while running at mph, safety was not cited as eason for lowering speeds. So why has TC Bell been so 'don driver Robert Scott? niddle-aged renegade.