Bird's Eye View
Page 54
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ONE thing that alwp.ys endears our American cousins to me (when they're not throwing their nuclear weight around) is their ability to call a spade a very distinct spade. There is no mistaking the message—as, for instance, when the Transportation Association of America recently issued a forthright booklet entitled: "How Bootleg Trucking Hurts You ".
"At least 5,000 and possibly as many as 30,000 trucks move illegally each day ", the reader is told. It advocates three avenues of attack: public education in the use only of licensed carriers; adequate laws; and adequate enforcernent.
" Put them out of business ", is the pamphlet's reply to hauliers who want to know what to do about the threat of unlicensed carrying. Strong stuff, this, but good!
Not AU Irish !
T HEAR that a new touch of colour is to come to a 1 well-known Yorkshire village this summer. The village in question is Thornton-le-Dale, near Pickering, regarded by many as one of the prettiest in Yorkshire. Much of the colour, according to my informant, will be appearing on a number of jaunting cars. Apparently a jaunting car service is to be operated for the benefit of visitors from May to September. The jaunting cars, made in Ireland, will, I am told, run in the Irish colours. The jarveys (drivers to the untravelled) will not however hail from the "old country" but will be local men. Perhaps. theugh, they too may be just a little " green " to start with.
Lucky visitors to Thornton-le-Dale will have the chance to go for a three-mile ride in the Ellerburn Valley, or on a 12-mile day trip across the moors.
Buses and Beards
T AM told that there has been some controversy in the
north and north-east recently regarding the wearing of beards by bus crew members. A beard, it seems, recently cost a Pakistani bus conductor his job with Bradford City Transport. This dismissal was discussed at a recent meeting of the Bradford City Council. The committee chairman, Councillor H. A. Sissling, replied to several questions on the matter, which, he said would be raised again at the next meeting of the Transport Committee. When Councillor T. Wood, a former committee chairman, inquired o2 whether rumours that membership of the Transport Committee would in future be limited to clean-shaven men were correct, Councillor Sissling made no comment. When the matter was broached with Mr. Frank Lythgoe, general manager of Middlesbrough Corporation transport, he commented, "We have several bearded drivers ". At Hull, Mr. G. H. Pulfrey, general manager of Hull Corporation Transport Department said, "In Hull the problem has never arisen and until it does I would not like to comment ". The chairman of Sheffield's Transport Committee, Alderman S. Dyson, gave the forthright view, "It should be the right of any individual to wear a beard if he chooses and we should not object ". With beards in this country increasing rapidly and with staff for public transport still, I understand, hard to find, it does seem rather strange that such a matter should arise at all.
What's in a name ?
TOHN MOON was talking to a keen motorist the other day, and during the course of the conversation he mentioned the fact that he had been over to Holland to conduct a test of the DAF 2600, the report of which appears in this issue. The motorist was most intrigued by this, and said that he did not realize that DAF made commercial vehicles at all, associating the name only with light cars. How insular can one get? DAF cars have been produced for barely five years, but the company has been in production with trailers for 34 years, and with self propelled chassis for over 25 years. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that in the whole of its 35 years' existence, the company has not lost a single hour through strike action.