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Foil the villains

22nd November 1968
Page 25
Page 25, 22nd November 1968 — Foil the villains
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

In the third quarter of this year 14 lorries and their loads were hi-jacked in the London area, compared with two in the same period of 1967 and four in 1966. Hijackings in the first nine months of 1968 numbered 31, which was nearly double the previous year's comparable figure. On the credit siclq is the fact that nearly the whole of the proceeds of the latest hi-jackings has been recovered, and that thefts of vehicles and loads from vehicles parked in the street are still declining. But the new pattern gives no cause for complacency: far from it.

The efforts of the police and the transport industry itself have made life more difficult for the thieves, but the sharp rise in hi-jackings shows tliat if the casual criminal is being deterred, the professional gangs are not. AlreadY this year there have been over 3,500 lorry or load thefts in the Metropolitan Police district, with a total value of E1,139,000. And now we are moving into the period of the year when nights are longest and the high-value Christmas goods provide the most tempting loads.

Operators who take little or no precaution to safeguard their property and their customers' goods are living in a fool's paradise. They may also be exposing their drivers to unnecessary risk and, in the event of loss, may find their insurance company reluctant to pay out—and certainly well placed to ask for a heavy rise in premium. As a feature in this issue makes clear, there are mull; devices and systems on the market to deter the thief; at best they will foil him and at worst they will "buy a little time".

But the real answer is the systematic approach in which security devices tailored to the vehicles and traffic are matched by personnel selection and control. The most important factor is to check references of new staff, preferably as far back as five years, and to ask for a photograph of a driver for the records_ in cases where there is any doubt about his past employment.

There is no excuse for ignorance of security procedures; the police are eager to encourage crime prevention and the road goods industry has drawn up recommended practices whose details are available from RHA and TRTA.

Fair competition

It is ironical that at a time when London Transport is about to be converted from a State Board to a local authority undertaking, and is so diStressingly short of platform staff that services have to be reduced, the new powers being sought on its behalf should include the right to operate contract services outside its own area. As the PVOA has made clear in letters of protest to the GLC and the Ministry, such powers are unwarranted. The retort that competition would be "open" is a hollow one; nothing and no-one in the South East of England could hope to compete if the monopoly-based LTB went all-out to make its mark in contract work. And the temptation to use this position to under-cut private hire operations could be well-nigh irresistible.

,Devoted to the principle of fair competition, and primarily concerned with improving Londoners' own bus services, the Tory-controlled GLC might he thought a safe enough organization in whose hands to place such wide powers. But this situation may not persist for ever.

The LTB is now busy re-shaping its stage carriage services into a more sensible pattern; let it be fully committed to this task and leave private hire in the outer areas to the companies and independents whose important work it has long been.

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Locations: London

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