Editorial Dangerous game
Page 4
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NEXT WEEKEND could see a deterioration in the public image of road transport.
While the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is, as a body, mounting an imaginative and costly campaign to improve road transport's image, many of the SMMT's constituent members are to be involved in what could be a counterproductive activity.
The thought of tractive units being involved in a Grand Prix is enough to raise hairs on the nape of the neck. It is sure to bring out the anti-lorry lobbies and produce dramatic photographs in the news media.
We need no more than a minor incident to have our Fleet Street colleagues reaching for their dictionaries in order to find more dramatic adjectives. Hopefully, there will be no such incident.
Nevertheless, we believe that not enough thought has gone into this Grand Prix concept. While it works on the Continent, mainland Europeans do not see road transport in the same way as does the British public.
So what will next weekend do for the industry? It will make money for the promoters and it will pull in the public — provided the weather is kind. It will not do the public image of the industry a lot of good.
We believe that the entrants are doing the industry a dis-service. Last week's World Driving Championship in Finland may not have hit the headlines here — it was a spectacle but not a dramatic one. The CM Lorry Driver of the Year competition was not spectacular but was responsible and has !audible objectives. We hope that the Grand Prix sponsors and supporters will next year
think twice about again putting the industry
before the public in this way. .11fiv