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Don Grimster • Smiles come, I suggest, in three wrappings: cynical, patronizing and contented. Don Grimster's smile which, incidentally, is never very far away, is wrapped in contentment because he is a man who leads an uncomplicated life and tackles only those jobs within his capabilities.
At 48 Don Grimster is the youngest ever chairman of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers' council, but before reaching this elevated position he served as chairman of its general purposes committee for two years, and was on the membership committee for two years: he has also served on the technical, policy, education and finance committees, and for a further two years he was honorary secretary, so that in the 10 years he has been a council member he has served for most of them as an officer of the Institute. The first eight years were no doubt spent preparing for what was to follow.
His progress in the industry has followed a similar pattern. He was apprenticed to Hovis Ltd and rejoined the company as a mechanic following war-time service in the Royal Air Force. Later, he joined Chivers Hartley Ltd and for the past nine years he has been transport manager of Texaco, where he controls the operation and maintenance of 500 commercial vehicles and 400 cars.
Preparation is all-important to Don Grimster and he lays great store by education and training in the industry. He feels there would be some merit in making facilities available to final year day school students to prepare for a career in transport engineering. He sees the IRTE as being the body most able to offer assistance to day schools in this respect in the same way as they do to colleges of further education at the moment.
Not surprisingly, Don is incensed at the adverse publicity that the transport industry has been receiving in recent months. "But," he pointed out, "those of us who are running fleets are much too busy to get to the mass media and the popular Press and really tell the story."
He is surprised at those who consider enforcement under the 1968 Transport Act as being something new. "Perhaps Section 178 of the old Act was not enforced as much as is Section 69 of the present Act," he said, "but it nevertheless existed."
On the environmental question he had this to say: Most operators, large and small, are responsible people who are suffering today from the bad planning of others."
Don Grimster is a family man and an avid disciple of do-it-yourself. "What I do, I like to be able to do well," he said. "Thanks heavens I don't play golf!" That seems a pity — his temperament is just right: purposeful, methodical, and relaxed. I.S.