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No resisting the lure of the road
Page 32
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MUCH OF WHAT Gary Curtis says about driver standards is true (CM 6 April).
I recall applying for a job at a firm that had a standing ad in our local paper: Drivers wanted for A-licence journey work". The company was a wellknown (but long since closed-down) bulk haulier that specialised in coal, coke, chemicals, pig iron and soon.
Although I had driven up to a Ford D800, many other drivers were going out on their first day at work in a Leyland Ergo Comet, fully loaded at 16 tons, having driven nothing bigger than an Austin A35 or Morris Minor! In those days of relatively full employment in the late '60s, most people saw transport as the pits—especially at that level.
Drivers were treated like dirt, even experienced ones who preferred driving tippers to rope and sheet work. Only the restrictions of the A and B licensing system kept many firms in business.
The perceived 'respectability' of the new LGV licences from 1970 never happened, the only difference being that you could sign on the dole as a qualified person rather than just as an unskilled labourer, which was how society saw the driver then (and quite possibly even now).
The new 0-licence scheme did more damage to transport than anything I know, other than today's fuel costs, red tape and foreign competition.A combination of all these factors has created a climate of low haulage rates, which in many cases means firms running at a loss before going bust or being put off the road byTCs.
Why anybody would want to work in this job, let alone try to run a business in road transport,! do not know. But even though I'm now retired,I yearn to be back in it. It's the lure of the road —once tried, you can't resist it.
BS Hayes Rodlarie Transport Leeds