BAOD rescued — but new threat looming
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AS NEWS arrived of an attempt to rescue the British Association of Owner-Drivers following the resignation of three of its officers a new split threatened to break up the I2-month old organisation.
Bradford Owner-Drivers' Association secretary Gerry Smith told CM this week that some members of the old executive committee of the BAOD want to hold an extraordinary general meeting to elect new officers.
The meeting — at Coventry Eurocrest Hotel on Sunday December 10 at 12 noon — will have to decide on rules for the election of new officers.
But Mr Smith added that the executive members were now determined that the BAOD would not die following the snap resignations of chairman George Kelly, vice-chairman Harry Boland and secretary Mike Wells.
"We are pressing ahead with our plans," said Mr Smith. "As far as we are concerned we must carry on and we must not fail. We will continue talking to the Road Haulage Associa tion and we will press ahead with the formation of a limited company ."
Mr Smith claimed that news of the breakup of the BAOD had not deterred new members from joining the five-week-old South Yorkshire Owner Drivers' Association and he emphasised: "The BAOD is not dead."
Meanwhile in the South of England, a decision is expeeted this week from the southern owner-drivers' associations on whether to go ahead with a plan for a breakaway organisation to handle the affairs of associations in the South.
The new organisation would take in an area which includes Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk.
Details of the formation of the new organisation are still, to be decided but drivers from Southern Counties, Sussex, Surrey, Thames Valley and Chilterns owner-drivers associations will meet at the beginning of next month for exploratory talks.
Sources within the organisation say that the idea for the southern rebellion came after the BAOD first annual conference disintegrated into a shouting match in Coventry on November 12.
Feelings among the southern drivers that there is a lack of unity among their northern counterparts have also had a part to play.
It is likely that the new association will try to affiliate with the RHA as soon as possible but it is known that the RHA line will be to suspend all negotiations until the future of the BAOD is clear.
Former secretary Mike Wells ceases all association with BAOD from November 30.