INSULTING • I was disgusted to read the letter from
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Mr A G Harris in this week's (September 7) CM. It once more brings home to me the fact that drivers are so often their own worst enemies.
The reference to increased hours allowing journeys to be achieved more rapidly, giving satisfaction to workers and management alike, seems to me to be the sentiments expressed by posters in Communist China not the logical deliberations of a British working man!
Furthermore, I find the suggestion that Mr Vick should leave the industry arrogant and insulting; if people like Mr Vick, and myself, and the thousands of other old hands who have worked half a lifetime to see a responsible attitude develop (or at least begin to do
so) in our industry, were to leave, then surely we would leave the field wide open for all the cowboys and chancers who have already got us such a bad name in the eyes of the general public.
Surely it must occur to people such as Mr Harris that the operators who are now getting the maximum mileage out of their drivers in eight hours will not allow them to take things easier under the new regulations — on the contrary they will just have to go further still at the same speeds, inevitably increasing the possibilities of fatigue-induced accidents.
Incidentally, how many people have told your readers how shattered they feel after driving all the way back from some holiday venue but it is a safe bet that very few of them have driven for even eight hours. I can only hope that all responsible drivers will do all they can through the union, and by lobbying their MPs to get the new hours regulations scotched in the interests of commonsense and safety, and in conclusion, may I add that I have not been driving for a mere 10 years like Mr Harris, but for over 40.
Eugene George Corke London W13