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Course fishing
"Education and training are well established in the road transport bloodstream. A course in acronyms could be prescribed as easily as another".
T for the first time," said gie's brother Cromwell, ?re have been complaints hauliers will not turn up at meetings."
Dne RHA chairman,I said, told John Darker that the way to bring them in would
• put a stripper on."
Anyone who thinks this is a idea," said Cromwell, ould pay a visit to the ichley sub-area, where a )rmance by a belly dancer is jular item,''
Which shows how intern-lal transport broadens the d," I said, "especially sport to the Middle East." I hope for their sake that the iers' wives have also been ind a bit and are equally dminded," said Maggie. Your minds are still on the iper and her roll-on roll-off ice" said Cromwell. "The Ichley belly dancer appears where on the agenda, under heading of Physical Dis-, ition Management."
'That seems a reasonably description," I said.
It seems to me," said Mag"that it is put in merely to the suspicions of the wives," 'In addition to which," said mwell, ."the sub-area nbers get a grant from the ling board."
'From the way other hauliers ak,' I said, ''l should have Jg ht the RTITB would have n a little more chary of hail) out their money.
'Much depends on how the im is put forward,said mwell. "For one thing, the nchley sub-area secretary in'ably puts the subject down PDM. He believes in the itle use of a few initials as a of influencing the board." 'Certainly, I have heard it that the board enjoys bafg the layman in this way,'' I
"It is only poetic justice if process sometimes works in opposite direction." "The board is not the only expert in this respect," said Cromwell. "The problem these days is trying to keep pace with a growing tide of initials."
"Their use can promote a feeling of superiority,I said. "People who do not know what the letters stand for are put in their place, without even the compensation of being able to take offence."
"There may easily be more to it than that," said Cromwell. "For example, I read the other day that an organisation wellknown in transport circles had had discussions with FEFC, ESPM and WITASS. Does that suggest something to you?"
"It suggests what I have already pointed out," I said. "When you come across new acronyms, you immediately feel left outside, vainly trying to look in."
"You are right up to a point," said Cromwell. "But look at the three words more closely. Try reading them aloud, as I have done, when you are by yourself at night time. They have an eerie effect. They could easily be the names of trolls or Norns, or per haps the three weird sisters sent to plague us, with some sinister purpose not yet made plain.
-You have been reading too much Tolkien," said Maggie, unless, as I can well believe, you have some sinister purpose of your own.
"Our sisters rarely have illusions about us," said Cromwell.
"I may as well own up. What I am doing, of course, is trying out on you the prospectus for my forthcoming course on acro nyms."
It certainly breaks new academic ground," I said. "The subject may well be as useful as some others that are being promoted.
"And at least as useful as watching a belly dancer," said Maggie.
"However cynical you may try to be," said Cromwell, -there is plenty of scope for the subject and for others. Education and training are well established in the road transport bloodstream. A course in acronyms could be prescribed as easily as another."
"You must have in mind," I said, -the story the other day about an operator needing only
one qualified transport manager, who nevertheless sent five members of his staff to study for the certificate of professional competence."
"It seems to prove my point," said Cromwell.
"You still have to persuade the prospective student that there is some advantage in your proposed course," I said, "and ,preferably a commercial advantage."
"He must long ago have been disillusioned on that score without my help," said Cromwell. "For some years we have had the training board, the group training associations and a variety of other founts of knowledge. Nobody can complain of the quality of what is offered. But where has it left the road haulage industry?"
"Much better informed, I should have thought, than it was previously," I said. "Probably more expert as well," said Cromwell. "So the industry should be reaping its reward in increased prosperity and more traffic. But what has an industrial economist just said about the prospects for 1980?" "Nothing very cheerful, I must agree," I said. "He pro
phesied for hauliers a year of severe cash-flow problems and an increase in the number of bankruptcies.
"Moreover," shid Cromwell, "according to the statistics, a greater proportion of the available traffic is going in the customer's own vehicles. Evidently, he also has been boning up on PDM and kindred topics."
"And he is probably in a better position to make use of them," I said. "If he can learn how to cut down the number and the length of journeys, it may be bad news for the hauliers, but it is good news for him."
"Superficially," said Cromwell. -But it is playing into the hands of those organisations that have been promoting the same trend in the interests of, what they claim to be the environment."
"Their approval should be a welcome bonus," I said.
"Experience warns us instead," said Cromwell, "that they will only be encouraged to widen their demands."
"There is still not much that hauliers can do," I said.
"So far they have organised their training only as a reaction. to events,said Cromwell. when there are new qualifications for managers, new rules on drivers' hours, compulsion on tachographs, and so on. Future courses must be designed to .change the situation rather than respond to it."
"And how would you suggest doing that?" I asked. "I promise," said Cromwell, "that your name will be at the very top of my list of enrolled students,"