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Mahe Does someone in the industry deserve a pat on the back or a dressing dorm? Drop us a line at Commercial MOW, Room H203, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS or fax us on 020 8652 8969. Alternatively you can e-mail Miles.Brignall®rbi.co.uk.
CABIN FEVER
1 share the concerns of Jim Taylor on overcrowded ferry cabins (Letters, CM13-19 April). As well as the problems of trying to get a goodnight's sleep when up to four drivers are forced to share a cabin, there are issues of security and safety.
I am sure that most drivers are trustworthy, decent souls but there may just be the odd one or two who are not, and of course it may be too late after the event.
As a manager, when I travel I choose to stay in a decent hotel and I am treated wet. On occasions, I become a 'driver' and generally take a North Sea crossing to Rotterdam or Zeebrugge and book a `floating hotel room' (I really don't see a difference between a hotel room and a cabin). On these occasions I find I am treated differently—not just from a hotel visitor but also differently from other 'non-commercial' ferry travellers.
When I do travel, I am generally carrying money, credit cards and a laptop PC. And even when sole-use cabins have been requested and agreed as part of the travel arrangements. I have been included in a dual-use cabin. Strong protests to the commercial check-in clerk or the ferry purser have usually resulted in the problem being fixed, but I have generally been seen as a pest.
After writing to the ferry company with my concerns and complaints, I was assured that the system of commercial bookings would be changed to ensure that sole-use cabin arrangements would be honoured. If this was not possible, I would be told so at the time of booking and it would be my choice whether to travel.
I can't say this new system has worked 100% for me—I have still been treated with indifference at the Dutch port—but at least now there is some recognition that I will demand equal treatment with other ferry travellers even though I am "junta driver".
My suggestion is that transport managers take a more sympathetic view to the idea of sole-use cabin occupancy and treat drivers the way that they would expect to be treated themselves.
Until there is demand from fare-paying commercial passengers, ferry operators are unlikely to change their systems and design of onboard accommodation. Dave Roscoe, DaveRoscoePeaton.com.
VETERAN VIEW
I have been in the transport industry as a Class1 driver for 37 years, 25 of those travelling throughout Europe, the former Eastern Bloc, the Middle East, India and Africa.
I'm now working in the UK but fear that many family firms are going to the wall, mainly because they are frightened to put up their rates.
There is not enough profit to make transport a viable proposition, especially with the high cost of VED and diesel—no wonder companies complain of not being able to find enough good drivers.
They cannot afford to pay good drivers what they're worth and so the good drivers stay away.
would rather work on the Continent, but the wages offered are ridiculous. The company I work for loads 30 Frenchmen a day out of the warehouse because it's cheaper than sending its own vehicles. When I started in this industry there was proper training for drivers. Where is the training now? The new drivers only learn to drive; not to load, stow, strap, tie down, strip a tilt and so on.
The company I work for owns old vehicles, but they are well maintained. I don't mind because learn good money— .2600 basic for five days' work. I have a few nights out (extra for this) but I do work long hours sometimes.
The UK industry is in decline and will continue to be so because it has no backbone and no guts. Everyone is afraid of everyone else. Don't slag off the French just because they stick together. Don't hold silly drive-rounds of the M25 because it shows you've got money to waste on fuel.
Stop work, park everything up (and that means the big boys too) then let's see if the Government takes notice. Then as takes as grip our spokesmen can demand exactly what we want. But this is only a dream—it will never happen. Bob White, Charlton, London.
GOOD SHOW!
The organisers can rightly be proud of this year's CV Show. The exhibitors showed that they had faith in the show by committing heavily to it and the visitors proved they were right to do so.
Asa specialist supplier, I was concerned that both quality and quantity of my kind of customer wouldn't be there, but believed we had to invest to give the show a proper chance. The high quality and quantity of customers proved I couldn't have been more wrong.
But those at SMMT should not forget that, had they not gone against the wishes of most CV members in the late seventies and signed a contract for 10 years of combined car and CV shows, we would not have lost the opportunity of having similar successful events in the past 20 years.
Looking forward, we now have the opportunity to compete with the best shows in Europe and perhaps the organisers can now identify more factionalist sector shows (budget diluters) that can be incorporated such that exhibitors can concentrate on making the CV show even more successful next time.
Mark Carrington, King Trailers, Market Harborough, Leics.
RAW DEAL
On the subject of truckers inadvertently carrying illegal immigrants, the UK government continues to hold legitimate operators responsible for border controls, It may be the present government's policy of passing the buck on to business but it appears to me that it is an infringement of civil liberties and as such may be illegal under the Single Market Act.
if drivers are found guilty of breaking the law they should be dealt with by the existing legal procedures. It is an affront to persons providing a public service to the economic health of the EU who are transporting goods from member states arid thus keeping people employed. It is also morally indefensible.
Truckers are now faced with great danger from ethnic minority groups who are desperate, and who are in many cases being exploited. In France, Italy and Spain violence has broken out with loss of life, and guns and knives have been used. I fear that it is only a matter of time before a trucker is murdered. Alan Page,
I-10h Wycombe, Bucks.