'The goods vehicle, he might say, is king of the road.
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REMARKS that a leading spokesman for an important industry may be tempted to make must often remain unsaid for sound reasons. Other people besides me may have found this reflection entering their minds after reading reports of a useful exercise carried out recently by Mr. K. C. Turner, president of the Traders Road Transport
Association.
Evidently the C-licence holders who Mr. Turner represents had decided mainly from Press reports that there was a widespread misunderstanding, not only of the part played by the C licence in the country's economy, but also of the general standard of goods vehicles, particularly the heavy lorry. As possibly an early step in the long-term process of educating the public, the T.R.T.A. decided to call members of the Press together and put to them the road transport industry's side of the case.
The Press reaction was varied, although generally favourable. Some newspapers stressed the main purpose of the discussion, which was to help restore the "deteriorating image" of the lorry driver and the transport concern. Others seized on points incidental to the main subject. such as the ambiguous attitude of the Labour Party towards the C-licence holder or the problem of excessive smoke from new lorries.
On the whole the results probably matched the intention. Mr. Turner provided a good foundation upon which the Press representatives could build their own stories. He admitted to sharing public concern about a minority of defective lorries. Their numbers would be reduced, he hoped, and the offenders punished, as a result of efforts by transport associations and the Ministry of Transport, The misdeeds of the few should not be allowed to obscure the fact that the vast majority of the fleets of trade and industry are "a credit to those who use them ".
It would be largely impracticable; said Mr. Turner. to force traffic off the roads and on to the railways. The effect on transport efficiency-would be serious and the compulsory transfer would make a negligible contribution towards solving the problem of road congestion and accidents. The motorist may feel otherwise when he finds himself behind a heavy lorry in a traffic jam. More often than not the inadequate road system is the real culprit. The real need is for "a bigger road programme and a dynamic policy to implement the Buchanan report ". Roads and commercial vehicles are separate issues which are too often confused and clouded by the irritated and frustrated motorist.
A Necessary Part
Excellently said. And there is an additional warning in the fact that Mr. Turner found it expedient to put his case so gently. Other road users, he pleaded, should 'learn to live with the goods vehicle rather than work against it ". Goods vehicles must be accepted as "a necessary part of the landscape ". As examples of other necessary eyesores Mr. Turner quoted pylons, television aerials and chimneys. He gave the impression also of accepting part of the responsibility for dealing with the guilty minority of operators even though they were not entirely numbered among the members of his association.
There are pitfalls in the humble approach. The overweening motorist might be encouraged to feel that it is an act of condescension on his part to allow goods vehicles on the road at all. If it comes to the point, pylons and aerials can be placed out of sight and the obnoxious chimney tamed by a change of fuel. It would merely be treating lorries in the same way to insist that where possible their burden should be transferred to rail. Road operators might find themselves exposed to fresh, unfair criticism if they appeared to make promises to discipline their unlawful minority.
An operator who finds that the motorists' pretensions irritate him just as much as he does them might be inclined to issue a statement on very different lines from that of Mr. Turner. The goods vehicle, he might say, is king of the road, and is acknowledged as such by all the experts from the Minister of Transport down. It is for the goods vehicle that motorways have been built and are projected. The motorist who uses these wonderful highways should look upon it as a privilege and should remember the lorry in his prayers.
Essential Traffic
Our truculent and imaginary operator would agree with Mr. Turner that there should be a dynamic policy to implement the Buchanan Report. His interpretation would scarcely be the same. He would recall that when the report was published the first reaction" of the T.R.T.A. was to welcome the distinction drawn between essential and optional or non-essential traffic. It was "heartening to have such an authoritative pronouncement ", said the T.R.T.A., which must cause satisfaction to those distributing goods, especially to shops in busy centres.
The instinct of the T.R.T.A. was sound. The distinction runs all through the report. it can easily be taken possibly further than Professor Buchanan intended. The carriage of goods is almost by definition essential. No one carries an inanimate object from one place to another merely for the fun of it. Only the commercial vehicle operator can put forward this argument. A large proportion of other road use is purely for pleasure, sometimes for the sheer pleasure of motoring or cycling with no definite end in view. It would be possible to enlarge this argument into an indictment of the motorist every bit as strong as the attacks on the lorry user.
Undoubtedly Mr. Turner was wise not to turn the discussion in this direction. Although he did not put it in so many words, he must see as his aim the identification of the interests of all road users. What they have in common is far more significant than the things which may divide them. They have the same interest in better roads, improved vehicles and a more equitable system of taxation. They all wish to reduce road accidents. If they pursue these objects together they have better hope of success than a piecemeal approach which the politicians may feel they can safely ignore.