Double Win for Express Carrier : Code Tests Keen
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0 drivers were entered by Dundee
'['WO Deliveries, Ltd., for the Dundee-Perth eliminating round of the Scottish Commercial Vehicle Driver of the Year competition last Sunday at Errol aerodrome, and one, Thomas Shields, in a Morris pantechnicon, won his class and made the highest score of the day.
The other, James Petrie, in an Austin, also won his class and shared seccind place in the day's honours with J. Robertson (Morris, Scottish Co-operative Wholesale. Society, Ltd.), who was a last-minute substitute for another driver whose vehicle had broken down in the south on the previous day.
Petrie was the only one of the 25 competitors to score full marks on the Highway Code questionnaire. Drivers had to answer 10 questions in as many minutes. The question which penalized half the drivers dealt with the time allowed to produce one's driving licence at a police station if checked on the road without it. Many contestants thought that the answer was 24 hours.
One driver, asked to supply the missing words in the sentence from the Code, wrote: "Alcohol, even in quite small amounts, makes you more safe on the roads."
Petrie was the first man to go through the tests, and set the pace on the 101mile road section. There were five check points and he dropped only one mark. W. McLaughlin (Foden, S.C.W.S., Ltd.) obtained full marks on the road section, and his colleague, J. McNaughton, in an Albion, dropped only half a mark.
The manceuvring tests proved difficult and the marker drums and pylons came in for some rough treatment. Petrie, as the leader, was probably at a disadvantage and lost six points, and the following contestants benefited from his mistakes. None went through with a clean sheet, but Shields incurred the loss of only one point, and this performance was the main plank of his success,
The event was -organized by the Scottish Division of the Traders' Road Transport Association.
In the Glasgow heat of the competi tion, it was mainly the Highway Code questionnaire which affected the final placings of the contestants, as the driving skill displayed in the manoeuvring tests was high and keen results were returned.
R. Bell, of Whatlings, Ltd., was commended for his handling of a low loader 83 ft. long, and it was recommended that he should take part in the Linlithgow final on September 28. Drivers of articulated vehicles of normal length were applauded.
Performances in the road section were uniformly good. The manceuvr' ing tests were held at the transport centre of Keir and Cawder, 'Ltd., Bishopbriggs.