LDoY '73 gets going
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New regulations; new tests; new centre; new trophies
• This week the local secretaries of the Lorry Driver of the Year Competition will have received their copies of regulations and entry forms for the 1973 event. Last weekend Atlas Express Ltd collected the parcels from the LDoY offices in London for points as widely apart as Aberdeen and the Channel Islands and Maidstone and Londonderry.
Already a number of centres have opened their entry lists and York centre reports that, despite earlier forebodings over the increased entry fee, they have already received more entries at this stage than they had in the 1972 event.
Since the regulations were issued the Ayrshire event has been cancelled, and before the Hampshire round can get off the ground a new secretary will have to be found.
The three contests in Northern Ireland and the Manchester event, which were cancelled last year, will take place in 1973, and there is a new centre at Guernsey in the Channel Islands.
The general format for the tests is similar to that of previous years; the road route will carry a maximum of 200 penalty points and cover a distance of not less than 10 miles. The Highway Code and legal responsibilities section will have 20 questions, each carrying a maximum of 15 penalties. There will be a surprise question carrying 10 penalty points and two questions from paragraphs 34 and 35 of the Highway Code carrying 20 penalties.
Last year the surprise question covered such subjects as date of renewal of driving licence, or vehicle testing certificate or the vehicle's tyre pressures. Questions 34 and 35 deal with distance judgment. The manoeuvring tests which are reproduced here have been designed to simulate conditions which drivers encounter each day and are based on last year's Final's tests.
Drivers qualifying for the Final at Braincote on September 9 will be competing for two new trophies. The Coventry Evening Telegraph and the National Benz°le Trophy, which have been second and third awards since the competition started, have been withdrawn and are replaced by trophies from The Transport and General Workers' Union and the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company.
Drivers wishing to take part in the competition have to be sponsored by their employers and can only enter at one centre. The entry fee is £4 and the event has once again been recognized as a grant-earning exercise by the Road Transport Industry Training Board.
Employers or drivers who require further details should complete the attached coupon and send it to the secretary of the centre where they wish to enter.