bird's eye view by the Hawk • No ad lib
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Merging two associated trade associations can be an expensive business. I gather that the legal and other formalities in marrying NAFWR with BAOFR — the educational institute will also be embodied in British Association of Removers Ltd — may amount to some £1500. Hugh Wilson, the multi-hatted general secretary, has had a busy time of late.
I gather that the title, British Removers Association, was favoured for a time but those responsible feared that it would inspire sick jokes on the lines of BRA — for a good uplift!
The furniture removers' trade association has been in Victoria Street premises for ages. The need to seek new premises urgently is exercising Hugh Wilson and his committeemen. He told the recent annual conference of NAFWR that from paying a purely nominal rent of some £1300 a year they could look forward to paying perhaps four times as much for equal floor space. Inflation hits a small trade association very hard.
• BAR bills
There was some speculation at Windsor as to the effect on small new entrants of the new £21 annual subscription for fleets of 0-4 vehicles. Pickfords, the largest member, has its subscription nearly doubled, I gather, and will now have to pay the maximum fee of £300. What if the RHA decide to recruit small removers at a smaller fee?
BAR Ltd do not appear to be frightened of the prospect. They reckon — probably rightly—that their expertise and membership services are worth the new entrance fee. All the same, it will make some new entrants to the profession of removers think a bit before signing on.
• Unity house?
From the point of view of the DoE it would make sense for all the industry's pressure groups to be housed in a single building. Just imagine the fraternity if RHA, FTA, BAR and a few more road transport professional and trade protection bodies met in the lift every day. The mind boggles. Perhaps fortunately, office leases do not all expire simultaneously.
One trend noticeable in commerce at the moment is to hold annual or other conferences overseas. John Tarsey suggested at Windsor that the 1973 annual conference of BAR Ltd should be held—hopefully still under the Union Jack—at Gibraltar. When president Gilbert Over asked for an indication of members' feelings, 27 voted for the idea and 26 against it. There were many abstentions but it was noticeable that some speakers spoke strongly against the project on the grounds that the annual conference, at least, should be held within the UK. "How many small members could contemplate a four-day trip to Gibraltar?" asked one critic. H m.
• Hear this !
British employers' resistance to radios in truck cabs is crumbling fast, it seems. Some operators view the situation with mixed feelings, wishing to give drivers decent amenities but wondering how much time may be wasted, for example, in lay-bys' listening to the racing results. There could be a double-edged effect on productivity — at least while so many diesel trucks are so noisy: drivers keeping the speed down in order to hear a particular programme may have longer journey times, but on motorways this could be just the effect required to protect vehicles against over-driving.
Long American experience of these things suggests that cab radios are a feature that can be fraught with dangers, to judge from an article by Jim Bald in a recent issue of Fleet Owner. He tells of a case where, when an operator fitted cab radios as standard, there were delays costing S 10 an hour when drivers insisted on having defective radios repaired or replaced before
These sample pages from An Assemblage of 19th Century Horses and Carriages, just published, can't convey the freshness of colour and delicacy of line but they do show the unusual choice of subjects for the 71 colour sketches in this Sin. x 7in. book. The vehicles range from State coaches to fire engines. An accompanying commentary on Victorian transport provides a salutary reminder that Royal Mail coaches averaged 11 mph point to point in 1830, anti at a fare of 1s Bd a mile the hired postchaise could better this. The sketches, by the late William Francis Freelove, were recently discovered in a relative's attic and have now been published for the first time, price £1.95 net, by Perpetua Press, Downing Street, Famham, Surrey.
they would take vehicles out.
Letting drivers provide their own sets is no answer, it seems. To get electricity and save batteries they splice into the wiring system and when drivers change, says Mr Bald: "There goes another splice.Habits which lead to shorts, burnt-out wiring and fire hazards. Aerials fixed to windows cause problems, too, as do portable radios not properly secured in the cab. Mr Bald asks manufacturers to design a holder, at no extra cost, which will prevent radios from falling. "Sure would hate to have a driver wreck a brand new tractor just because the radio fell", he says.
He adds: "Driver morale gets low when a driver hooks up his negative-ground radio to a positive-ground truck. Oops! There goes his $35 radio 'on the lousy-maintained equipment from a cheap carrier who doesn't give a damn about his drivers' ".
• Surrey juggernaut
Good news and bad news for road users at Sunbury Cross. According to a recent edition of a local paper, traffic snarl-ups at Sunbury Cross roundabout are going to get worse. Apparently, the construction of M3 is reducing traffic on the roundabout to a single lane, and a police spokesman is reported to have said: "It's going to be quite a mess up there for quite a while."
But take heart you Surrey commuters, because the report goes on to say that vehicle size restrictions have been enforced and lorries above the following dimensions are banned: length I20ft, width 24ft, height 15ft.
Well, that should surely help to ease the traffic.
• Chicago style
The senior editor of the US Fleet Owner has been publicly citing Chicago, the biggest transport centre in the US, and the State of Illinois, as being in a state of "trucking malignancy" caused by ranks of do-nothing officials and politicians.
Apparently there has been a complete breakdown of enforcement in the state; the enforcement officers, said to be political appointees, earn £992 a month and are provided with $300 uniforms which, he alleges, are not worn and in return are required to make two arrests per week.
Once the quota of arrests has been made (or even if it hasn't, it seems) the enforcement officers have other jobs to occupy their time. One is reputed to run a full-time barber's shop!
• Surprise, surprise!
Did you know that dipping headlights are not required on a four-wheeled pedal cycle not propelled by mechanical power?
(The Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1971 9(1) (c))