Last-minute Decision to Drop L.D.O.Y. 'Snooker' Test
Page 11
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE National Organizing Committee 1 of the Lorry Driver of the year Competition, at a meeting held at Coventry on Monday, decided not to include the " Snooker" test in the eliminating rounds of the competition. Instead, they voted to reinstate the "Width Judging Test" as Test No 2. •
The recommendation to drop the test --which had already been included in the 1963 regulations now being printed—was made by the organizers of the Manchester eliminator, on the grounds that it was more of a novelty than a test of the driver's skill in connection with road safety.
The committee was informed that the Castlereagh Rural District Council proposed to hold an eliminating contest for all Northern Ireland operators in Belfast on June 1.
Other matters agreed by the committee are the inclusion of an additional ques
Centre Date Oxford 1 une 30 Southend-on-Sea June 30 Newcastle on Tyne .. May 19
Northampton .. June 23
Plymouth .. June 30 ..
Portsmouth .. ittly 6 (Pray.) Woolwich .. July 21 and 28 (Proy.) •
lion to be put to drivers on hours of duty, under section 73 of the 1960 Road Traffic Act. This will be integrated with questions asked about the Highway Code. To discourage collusion between drivers in this test, it was agreed that a penalty of d.squalification of both parties should be introduced.
It was also agreed that drivers must occupy their normal driving positions when undertaking test manceuvres; that forward control Land-Rovers of 30-cwt. and the new Scammell four-wheeled mechanical horse, he allowed to take part
t in the competition; that certain changes should be made in the method of scoring should any class fail to produce a "worst correct performance" result.
The committee has also decided to drop the weight limit in class A from .221 cwt. to 20+ cwt. unladen weight.
Further dates for eliminating rounds were announced as follows:—
Organizing Secretary H. I. Wall, Road Salm Officer, Town Hall, Oxford. E J. Barbia. 109-113 London Road. South Benllea.
Mi. 11:s.. J.x.fsEoffatt, Traffic Officer, City Engineers Department, Town Hall, Newcastle,
A E. Maynard, Arthur. Mulliner Ltd., Bridge Street, Northampton.
G. P. Truseott, 45 Mutley Plain. Plymouth.
Sgt, 11. J. Hale, Police Headquarters. P.O. BOX 1,
Parl,MOUth,
It. 1'. watte. Road Haulage Association, 62 Oafoid Strict, London. W.I.
Says "Signposts ": " Where congestion creates not efficiency but chaos in a key sector of the economy, an expansion of public ownership may be necessary to put things right. That is our case for creating an integrated and publicly owned transport system ".
This official Labour policy sees public ownership in varying degrees of severity: complete nationalization of an industry or a firm; State and private partnership; State competition with private concerns; municipal enterprise„ or co-operative ownership.
Overall, the system to be evolved must not be "sacrificed to the dictates of private profit", or the whim of speculators, or to outmoded financial techniques.
Despite what was said during the passage of the 1962 Transport Bill, the questions that can be asked about details of this policy are too numerous to mention. Where road haulage is concerned, the Labour front bench has for long been reticent almost to the point of vagueness.
A post-Beeching reappraisal has yet to come and it could well be that their final stance on transport, while upsetting to many, will be much less sinister than it now appears.
As the election approaches we may expect to see a careful filling-in of details in Labour's plans.
The truth is that all three parties have yet to declare their full and final hand on transport. a state of affairs which must be as unsettling to that industry as the Common Market dalliance was to industry as a whole.
(Political news continued on page 11)