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I applaud the efforts of your magazine to highlight the problems in our industry as you have always done. Governments will always push around weak industries and that's what we are. When did they last do anything for us? Roads are in a mess with no parking or hygiene facilities, our pay is terrible, we breathe in more foul air than pigs, but we are still the salt of this earth and, as with salt, they cannot live without us.
The New Labour Government has done what old Labour did to our forebears back in the '40s and '50s. The RHA and Other haulage organisations seem to have failed to unite the industry to save itself.
How many times must we keep putting our heads in the sand when you read statements from ministers telling us all goods should go by rail?
Don't drivers and company bosses and unions realise our only hope is with ourselves? Companies cannot pay the right wages when we are only just m existence. Vehicles cannot be serviced properly; vehicles cannot be changed.
We are in the worst downhill spiral I have ever seen in this trade, brought about by government after government. I am amazed you think lobbying will achieve anything; it's just costing you. See what it cost the miners and steelworkers that we did not support, shame on us.
A lot of hauliers went out of business because of that. Did you care? Did you hell.
Neither did I, but it has to change—the bear must be woken. Send your drivers with their consent to the labour exchange and take yourself down there, because that might be the only place open after a time.
DJ Beaumont,
Beaumont Transport (Farnworth ), Established ,193Z future, nil!
TEST DELAYS
I would be interested to hear from any other HGV Driving Schools or test candidates if they, like us, are experiencing difficulties in obtaining shortnotice HGV driving tests.
We can anticipate our general test requirements, and through our block booking arrangements with the DSA, we can plan dents' intensive training courses leading into a driving test.
However, although we would like to claim a 100% first-time pass rate, realistically even the best driver can make a mistake on the day and need a re-test.
Phoning the DSA at this point becomes a nightmare. It is now almost impossible to obtain short-notice test appointments in less than three weeks. The client who has to wait for the test may then need extra training to keep up to test standard. More business for the school maybe, but not the way we aim to gain it and not the service we would like to provide.
The DSA has regained the Charter Mark—good for them. Of course they can keep their new promises regarding availability: they have simply extended the time they allowed themselves to provide tests.. .in other words, three weeks. In effect they have promised a worse service—and that is exactly what we are getting!
Neil R Wallace,
Director, Wallace School of Transport, Wembley, Middx.
In the budget of 9 March it was stated that a VED rebate of £1,000 was available to operators of clean and environmentally friendly HGVs. WHAT A CON! Is this similar to the 1500 concession that was allowed in last year's Budget?
After looking into the possibility of reclaiming this 21,000, I find that it is an extremely costly exercise. I operate a Scania 124 equipped with a Euro-2 engine that has passed its annual test with no problems as regards the smoke emission test. To my amazement I found this test for the smoke emission is not acceptable to reclaim the above amount—you must take more drastic and expensive measures.
In paperwork obtained by my accountant, the directives are that for a vehicle to qualify for the VED rebate it must meet a specified standard on particulate emissions.
A vehicle equipped with a Euro-1 engine would qualify if it attained the particulate emission levels as set out in Euro-3; consequently a Euro-2 engine would have to meet the standards as set out in Euro-4. This would be extremely difficult to achieve as there are no standards as yet set out for Euro-4. Some very informative standards to adhere to!
I have found that the only way to achieve these particulate emissions standards is to fit a particulate emission trap. According to my local dealer, who has looked into this device for me, Eminox is at present the only source for this piece of equipment. The cost is between £4,000 and 25,000—and that's to try to recoup the 21,000 rebate per year.
This is not only cost restrictive as it will take some five years to recover, but would the manufacturers of such products be able to guarantee that the equipment will last five or more years, so we can recover our costs? I agree that more must be done to cut down emissions into the atmosphere, but this is not the way to achieve it.
Once again the Chancellor of the Exchequer has done nothing to help the British haulage industry except to put more jobs on the line with his annual fuel duty increases and this ludicrous offer of a rebate.
Isn't it about time that he realised that Britain cannot survive without trucks, and did something to actually help the industry to help the country
prosper?
Colin Atkinson,
Cohn Atkinson Transport, Penrithr Cumbria.
EDUCATION PLEASE
HM Inspector of Constabulary's report on traffic policing naturally concentrated on the methods used by the police in efforts to reduce the level of road carnage ( CM18-24 Feb).
Since then the Home Secretary has emphasised the role which the public can and should play in crime prevention. There is a limit to what the Government and police forces can do, and by far the best policeman is the one which resides in all of us—it is called a conscience.
Even in dense urban areas, the amount of time when we are under surveillance by the law is a fraction of 1%.
believe Paul Channon, when he was Minister of Transport, first mooted the idea of setting a target for reducing road deaths by a third by a specified date. Surely, the euphoria which would accompany the achievement of such a target would not be shared by the twothirds—several thousand road users—who did not survive. Almost ALL accidents are avoidable and easily avoidable.
Up to a quarter of the DDT's advertising budget is spent on telling motorists (mostly unsuccessfully) to cut their speed. Penalties for drink/driving are almost always far greater than those for killing an innocent road user when sober. Speeding on a deserted road is condemned, yet it's potentially far more dangerous to hustle through busy streets hugging the vehicle in front, which largely goes unnoticed.
The emphasis is on legislation when it should be on education. Time spent driving in the company of a Class 1 patrolman can teach you far more about road safety than a pontificating politician ever could.
Anthony C
Salisbury, Wilts.