I.R.T.E. is 21 and New President Installed
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rOMMENTING on the fact that this
coming year would see the 21st birthday of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers, Mr. R. Gresham Cooke, president of the Institute, said yesterday (Thursday) that apart from coming of age being an exciting and important event it was also a time when future plans were often made. He was 'making his farewell speech as president in London at the annual general meeting of the Institute, and said he would like to expound on one or two ideas that he had formed during his two years in office.
Referring to a speech he had made last August—" The path to professional status "—Mr. Cooke said: " As I said then, the respect for the I.R.T.E. as a small body of practical experts is second to none, but is respect enough? A voice, for instance, on the Engineering Institution s Joint Council and the opportunity to exert greater influence on legislation and public opinion seems to me to depend on having a larger number of technically qualified men in your membership. The practical engineer is the salt of the earth and, as I also said, the national economy really does rely on his ability and skill; but is he good at presenting his case and getting proper recognition for the role in the national economy which he undoubtedly plays?"
Mr. Cooke said that the experts in commercial and public life—like, for instance, in company law, sales promotion, market research, publicity and so on—both individually and as corporate bodies, got their case across very effectively. How did they do it, he asked, and why should not the road engineer do it also?
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A combination of practical, commercial and academic experience assembled in a professional body with a substantial membership was certainly effective, went on Mr. Cooke. Their definition of a road transport engineer, he said,was a person whose occupation or vocation was the maintenance and care of vehicles and their rules for admission required "such technical training and practical experience as a road transport engineer as in the opinion of Council is equivalent to 10 years' experience as a road transport engineer with chief or sole responsibility during the whole Or part of such period for the .maintenance and care of a fleet comprising not fewer than 50 vehicles (for ordinary members) and 25 vehicles (for associate members).
"The drafting of your memorandum and articles 20 years ago was wise and flexible ", said Mr. Cooke. The wide definition of road transport engineer and the fact that it is the current opinion of Council to agree what is the technical training and practical experience equivalent for each grade of corporate membership offers the opportunity for you particularly during your coming of age year to broaden the outlook and the membership of the Institute. I commend to you the advantages of having primarily a larger number of qualified members to raise your. technical status, and secondly to leaven your excellent foundation of mainly practical members with more of the commercial and academic men."
After the annual general meeting Mr. E. B. H. Elsbury, the new president, made a presentation to Mr. Mackenzie Junner, founder and past president of the Institute and for many years editor of The Commercial Motor. Mr. Elsbury said that it seemed very fitting that his first duty, as the second member of the Institute to hold office of president, should be to ask the first member of the Institute to be president to accept a token of respect and affection. "Of course, Mr. Junner is and always will be unique in that second, third, fourth and fifth members of the Institute have now and will become president, but he is the only founder and past president. The inscription on this silver cigarette box exnresses our feelings:
Presented to our founder and past president by the Council and members of the Institute in recognition of your outstanding services to the Institute from 1944 until October 15, 1964. With every good wish that your help will be ayailable fol many years to come '. And I have great pleasure in presenting it,"
Mr. Elsbury said he had a great interest in the training of young men, corporate examinations, co-operation with the professional bodies and with the Ministries of Labour and Transport, and the extension of the influence of the Institute in the world of commercial and passen get vehicle engineering in the widest sense " I see the first 21 years of our life as a period of steady progress in the building of our foundation. We have a fine administrative, technical and organizational base on which to build; the large number of technicians we have always attracted, and will continue to attract and interest should, I feel. be supplemented by additional technologists. My predecessor used the word ' leaven ' and thit describes the process I have in mind? IF the president of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers, who took office yesterday, has not referred to his maritime experience it would not be difficult to make a shrewd guess at it. And it is not his rubicund appearance that is the give-away; it is that down-to-earth approach to practical problems and wide-awake manner that are precisely the characteristics traditionally associated
with seafaring men.
He is, in fact, a qualified marine engineer, so it is not surprising that his career at the outset was in the merchant navy. Then, after a valuable spell in the family contractor's business and later running his own concern, he spent the last war as an engineer officer in the Royal Navy.
No doubt the transport experience gained in the family firm stood him in good stead when he was involved in the Rhine crossings: but he probably prefers to recall his work with mobile• cranes those (to British eyes) newfangled monsters brought over by the American forces and used so extensively in the recovery of small craft in the course of the Normandy landings and the subsequent Rhine crossings. He did not say so, but it is apparent that in the active, adventurous life in air-sea rescue, combined operations and craft salvage which demanded gifts of resource and improvization, he was in his element.
However, all that is 20 years ago. With no job awaiting him when he came home, he had to make a fresh start. What turned up was an appointment as mechanical engineer with the Gas Light and Coke Company. But it does not appear that he ever did that particular work. What happened was that he came to .Brentford Hig.h Street, where his offices are today, to manage Gas Light and Cake's major repair shop.
After the industry was nationalized the former Gas Light and Coke Company's maintenance and transport organizations were combined under the North Thames Gas Board and Mr. Elsbury became deputy transport manager. He still holds that position today, in which he is responsible for technical affairs and, to a degree, the practical operating of a substantial transport concern.
Next year the Institute will he 21 years old. From its inception many well-known names have been associated with it and recently members have been proud to have Roger Gresham Cooke and Sir William Black as presidents. Now E. B. H. Elsbury is to preside. Of course, he is no stranger to the Institute's Council and until two years ago he took a very active part as national chairman; also for a long time he has seen gratifying extensions to the organization. There are affiliations as far away as Australia and in the United States. .
There is no doubt that Elsbury's period of office will be a critical and challenging one. There are grave deficiencies in the road haulage industry which, though its leaders do
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not proclaim them in loud, enthusiastic voices, are tacitly and widely acknowledged. Passenger road transport is subject to stringent regulations which go a very long way to ensuring the roadworthiness of p.s.v. and the consequent safety of passengers and pedestrians alike. But every responsible person on the freight side must be perturbed at the recent and continuing revelations resulting from roadside checks of goods vehicles.
Mr. Elsbury is profoundly concerned about future teehnical training. In his own organization there is always the maximum quota of apprentices and many of his senior staff served their time within the organization. But this example does not give a very accurate picture of the industry as a whole. Why go to all the trouble of training youngsters, employers may ask, when, having qualified, they leave to give Some other firm the benefits?
Mr. Elsbury believes that the Industrial training Act will go some way to remedying this state of affairs, and the Institute expects to be much concerned in the near future. The Act covers the whole of industry, of course, not only road transport, but so far as road haulage is concerned the advice and co-operation of the Institute is, and will increasingly be, an important part of its raison dare. Technical education, therefore, will be one of the new president's major preoccupations. As he told me: " With a broad and well-organized system of technical education on a national basis there should be a steady and increased flow of trained technicians and engineers. This will, in the long run, remove all force from the familiar argument—or excuse— for not bringing along promising youngsters to technical qualification, namely: what's the use—they'll only leave as for another firm '.
"The important thing is to raise the general level of technical education in this industry so as to bring it in line with the stern requirements of the second half of this highly competitive twentieth century."
It is known that the Institute of Road Transport Engineers has serious ambitions about a Royal Charter. Undoubtedly it would prove to be one of the most important milestones in the Institute's history if such an active, qualified member like Mr. Elsbury would go far to persuade the authorities concerned with such matters about the Institute's merits and prestige.
That Mr.. Elsbury is active—not only in the industrial sense—is beyond any doubt. He is a freeman of the City of London, a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Farriers and a member of the City Livery Club. Also, he is a keen golfer and gardener, and has an ambition to travel more. As it is, he flies as often as he can to Majorca, where he has interests—not transport! "And if they would only halve the fares I would go a good deal more often ". he declares. H.C.