IE GOVERNMENT is cornItted to heavier lorries, and will announcing
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a decision in Parment shortly, said Transport cretary David Howell, guest eaker during the FMC lunch ssion. That no firm decision s yet been taken is due to the mocratic system on which this untry survives.
"People and their representaes in Parliament have to be nvinced. The fact of the matter that many people — not a lutic, unrepresentative fringe — ye been intensely worried out the impact of lorries on quality of people's lives and ir environment," Mr Howell id. "Too many peoples' lives made a misery by lorries."
He explained that the Govern ment is now taking further measures to strengthen and extend its "comprehensive package of lorry measures."
Plans for more by-passes and financial assistance for 60 lorryblighted areas were announced at the Tory Party conference to improve environmental needs, he explained.
"Allowing lorries to run with fuller payloads will also help the environment because we shall need fewer long journeys to move the same amount of freight.
"Understandably, though wrongly, many people think heavier lorries must make matters worse; or they confuse size with weight when the Government has no intention of introducing bigger lorries," he said.
The industry itself can also help promote the heavier lorry in a better light. "The public's interests and their own will be better served if hauliers create a constructive role for themselves in these areas, rather than merely go on the defensive, and regard every move by central or local Government as unwelcome interference of no practical benefit," stressed Mr Howell.
The timing of lorry deliveries in residential areas was a problem that should be looked at under this category.
Mr Howell then spoke of the ideal vehicle, for the future, a topic being covered in the FMC later that day. Such a vehicle would mean attention to noise, safety, fumes, spray, vibration, damage to roads, fuel efficiency and operating characteristics, he said.
"I know it is tempting to see the wider social and environmental requirements as extra burdens or obstacles to be overcome. But they are also an opportunity — and a challenge — to match our foreign competitors in bringing to market the ideal vehicle of the future that can. meet both operating requirements and social needs, cost effectively," said Mr Howell.
This could only be to the longterm commercial advantage of the nation, he added.
The Department of Transport is also helping in the advancement of vehicle technology. "I am confident that, together, everyone involved in this vital industry can — and must — work together to make it both more efficient and more acceptable to the public at large," Mr Howell stressed.
"I promise that the Government will certainly do its part," he said to an audience still impatient for the decision on heavier lorries.