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Sixty Plus
Page 41
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MHIS issue, the 3,109th, marks the 60th anniversary of The Commercial Motor, issue number one having been published on March 16, 1905. It did not by any means coincide with the arrival of the first commercial vehicle: there were some 3,000, ranging from 5-cwt. vans to 6-ton trucks, in service by that date. The Commercial Motor was, however, the first of today's road transport journals to appear (the only one already on the scene in those uncongested days has now ceased separate publication), and it has always led the field. Today this journal's anclited circulation is more than 27 per cent higher than that of any other newspaper or magazine catering for road transport operators.
Whilst we are proud of this leading role, we are also conscious of the responsibilities it entails. " This journal is a missionary ", wrote the late Edmund Dangerfield in the first leading article. Certainly, it has since achieved a fine record of pioneering; the Institute of Road Transport Engineers, for instance, was a product of this pioneering spirit. Over the years we have vociferously pressed the claims of operators, and the latest trail-blazing effort was our highly-successful Fleet Management Conference last year. Representatives from among more than 500 delegates said their piece—and it brought definite results. We are now going to run the Fleet Management Conference every year. This year it is at Dunblane, in Scotland, on November 17.
We have been temporarily unpopular with associations and manufacturers on many occasions for what we have said. That is because we stand for operators—and we always shall.
Blowing our own trumpet? Of course we are. But don't worry; it will be " back to business" next week.