Sacred cow
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your comment on the 1 recent Budget was commendably prompt, but to me rather muted. Perhaps you plan further comment in a subsequent issue.
The transport industry seems to have taken a double bashing on the anvil (or is it sacred cow?) of a reduction in income tax. The extra duty on fuel must reflect higher charges or further reductions in already marginal margins—or both.
Margaret (now Lady) Thatcher complained that there was no reward for success and no penalty for failure; the implication being that she would put things right. There can surely be no more visible evidence of failure than comparing Roads to Prosperity of 7989—note the link—with the wholesale cancellations since.
Well—you voted for 'ern! GD Mason, Managing director, GDM Transport Engineering. Kings Lynn, Norfolk.
No justice
Is there any justice in the transport legal system? 1 think not. Commercial Motor
23-9 November reported the case of a driver being caught red handed with a wire to interfere with his tachograph, for which he was fined, with costs, £340 for what is a very serious offence.
On the 21 August 1995 one of our drivers was fined a total of £550 for a first axle overload and a gross overload of the tractor unit.
The total weight of the outfit was 36 tonnes—two tonnes less than the maximum legal weight.
We made an error of judgement while loading the vehicle by putting the pallets too far forward on the trailer. He had not set out to break the law in any way, it was a genuine error hence the question "Ts there any justice?"
For the same offence the company was fined a total of £1,972-1 did not see any fine or mention of the firm employing the driver caught fiddling with his tacho. One driver deliberately sets out to break the law and gets a punitive fine, our driver sets out with honesty and good intention and gets harshly treated.
Lastly, we who work in the industry all know the tricks that the cowboy element of our profession gets up to with tachos and speed limiters, and the law seems powerless to stop it. Eventually the honest professional haulier will slowly but surely be forced out of business.
David W Hardiman, CB Morgan (Shaftesbur.YJ