Owners to meet and bury the hatchet?
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A meeting of managers of freight offices run by the member organisations of the BAOD is to be held in Coventry on January 28 by the NWODA.
Now BAOD has scheduled a meeting of its executive for the same time and place and has invited NWODA representatives to attend.
BAOD spokesman Dave Leachman told CM that no reply had yet been received but he hoped that the North Western men would attend.
North Western Owner Drivers Association split from the BAOD in October after a row over the running of the Association with former BAOD officers who have now resigned.
"We are looking for a working relationship with the North Western men," said Mr Leachman, "and these talks will be aimed at getting them back to the fold."
The meeting of freight office managers is aimed at coming to reciprocal arrangements over the exchanges of freight between the Associations.
Owner-drivers are using the period of the drivers' strike to complete their regrouping and to continue their organisation following their disastrous Coventry conference in November.
The invitation to the North Western association to attend the discussions — which are at a preliminary stage only — is part of the plans for the Association to expand.
Already it has announced plans to offer services to drivers based in the Bristol and Glasgow areas before starting a new association in the area.
Mr Leachman told CM that he had already received enquiries from drivers following the announcement of the plans to move into the West (CM, January 12).