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Truck driver Lucy Radley explains why Armistice Day means so much to the transport industry in the UK.
Page 17
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I write this on Remembrance Sunday. There have been Radleys in the RAF since its first incarnation as the RFC, and I have a cousin serving in Afghanistan. My father served, and I was brought up on airbases with a healthy understanding of what it means to lay down your fife for your country. My husband is also ex-Army, so it will come as no surprise that the observation of silence both today and on Armistice Day itself is a big deal in our household.
This morning, after we'd sat together and paid our respects, my six-year-old daughter asked me: "Why do we have wars?"
The best I could come up with was to tell her that it's always best to sort out our disagreements by talking to each other, but sometimes that doesn't work out, so the brave men and women in our forces fight to protect our freedom.
So what has all this got to do with transport? Well, a huge number of drivers gained their HGV licences in the military, so the act of remembrance means a great deal to them, especially those who saw active service. Some are still on reserve lists and could get caked away to fight again. There are drivers out in Iraq and Afghanistan at the moment, some military and some civilian, all giving this industry a direct connection to those conflicts.
Indirectly, we live and operate in a global market, with the vast majority of hauliers connected in some way to the import/export business. The lives laid down in the First and Second World Wars led to the establishment of the EU and the lowering of trade barriers. Like it or not, the world would have turned out very differently were it not for them.
Much as I moan and groan about drivers and their attitudes, it fills me with pride when at the 11th hour of the -11th day of the 11th month, trucks up and down the country pull over and stop to give thanks to the men and women without whom we wouldn't be able to express our petty gripes freely in journals such as CM. We may not agree with military action, but we are at least free to say so without fear.