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PUTTING THE TRAILER BEFORE THE TRACTOR
The Department of Transport has the same view of road hauliers as the late Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773) had on women. According to his lordship, when it comes to the fairer sex: "A man of sense only.. .humours and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters." When it comes to consulting operators about driver licensing laws, or closing Traffic Area Offices, that's the DOT to a T. The notion that experienced drivers of rigids should be granted artic licences without having to pass a test is, as one training school aptly describes it, "absolute madness". But that's exactly what the DOT is supporting by endorsing driver licensing proposals from the European Commission, All the DOT mandarins had to do was ask the industry if the EU proposal was a good idea. It patently isn't, but it took a hoo-ha in Commercial Motor to prove it. II ever there was an example of the need to consult with the industry BEFORE taking action then this was it. The same could be said of the decision to close the Cardiff and Manchester Traffic Area Offices (announced by Norris this week) BEFORE sending out the consultation document on the long-awaited proposed traffic area boundary changes. Either the DOT wants a dialogue with industry or it doesn't. And where does it leave the Traffic Commissioners? So far the DOT has shown as much inter est in their views as it has had in the views of local operators. In these politically correct times a dinosaur like the Earl of Chesterfield would long since have been hunted down and culled by avenging feminists for his offensively patronising attitude. So how come the DOT can get away with it?