Road-Sea Links Must Improve
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" IT is vitally important that we should
I do all we can to improve the link ,between road and sea transport. At the moment the situation is pretty deplorable and it seems likely to become worse. It sometimes appears as if every possible obstacle is being placed between the two forms of transport. The approach roads to the docks are congested and cry out for improvement, and within the docks themselves there are frequerit vexatious delays that sometimes seem incomprehensible to the transport operator." The chairman of the Metropolitan and South Eastern area of the Road Haulage Association, Mr. P. H. R. Turner, said this at the area's annual dinner in London on Monday.
"These same problems are not unique to the docks. We are meeting them all over the country and our Association has recently launched a campaign by means of which it is hoped to enlist the active support of all traders and industrialists," he continued.
As operators everyone appreciated to the full the imPortance of the R.H.A. "Turn that Lorry Round" campaign and at the same time did not allow themselves to forget what their drivers had to put up with. It was sometimes little short of a miracle that they were able to carry out their assignments in crowded streets, bulging with traffic• and perhaps with lines of parked cars occupying all the kerb space.
Almost Unbelievable
"When all these difficulties are taken into account," said Mr. Turner, "it seems to me almost unbelievable that the Government should be proposing, in their new Road Traffic Bill, what is likely to be almost a persecution of our drivers —whether or not this is the Government's intention. As you know, -clause three of the Bill provides for automatic disqualification for any three licence endorsements over a period of three years for a miscellaneous list of offences."