tike with tike
Page 29
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
In the course of my business, I do a fair amount of travelling and have noticed the increasing domination of non-British commercials throughout the range, from light to heavy transporters, on our roads today.
No doubt most people would agree that this is bad for our country generally, from the point of view of lost markets for the vehicles themselves, their separate parts and the British Steel Corporation in particular.
Why does this state of affairs exist? If, as I assume, it is our inability to supply the gopds for our own manufacturers, is there not more room for nationalisation amongst them?
There are obvious merits in remaining small, but the only way in the future to compete with domination from large groups is to meet like with like.
Another idea might be to have common repair and spares depots in the UK and abroad for all makes of British commercials.
It is also very disturbing to see our State-owned haulage units quite openly using foreign vehicles. Without going into details, I particularly refer to National Carriers (Fiat), various BRS branches (MAN, Mercedes, Deutz) and Pickfords (MAN).
One supposes these firms are responsible to central government and the taxpayer in the end, so they have only a questionable right to purchase abroad at all. Can anything be done about this laughable state of affairs and if not, why were these firms appropriated or set up by the State? Another laugh is to see organisations like British Sugar, British Home Stores and British Beef running around in anything but British vehicles.
It also appears to me that there are companies who just will not give British trucks a look-in, people like Christian Salveson, W. H. Malcolm and many, many small one man set-ups are just some that come to mind. W. J. HOUSTON, White Lion Hotel, Ambleside, Cumbria.