Winning friends and Influencing people
Page 11
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No immediate challenge to the supremacy of road transport for the carriage of freight is foreseen by the joint winners of the Road Haulage Association 1972 essay competition (though some see faster development of new technologies than others) but they do not see this as a reason to treat the environmental issues lightly. One entrant in particular is concerned that the next generation should inherit a cleaner transport system and another is adamant that the public still needs to be made aware that the consumer is the major beneficiary in cash terms of larger lorries and longer motorways; and conversely will also pay, through prices, for restrictions placed on the size and routeing of lorries.
In this inflationary age the public may well consider the price a very reasonable one but it needs to be expressed in terms that the average man can grasp. The road freight operator has no cause to be reticent about the money which he — and collectively his industry — has had to pay to meet stiffer regulations in the past five years; no comparable industry has had to meet such bills on top of cost inflation in this period.
One large sector of the public which needs convincing of the lorry's vital role is the motorists; all road users have a common interest in pressing for more adequate roads, and it is in everyone's interest that they should live in harmony. This means that all road transport operators should be sharply aware of the bad effect created by a single heavily smoking vehicle, one dirty or decrepit lorry, or one inconsiderate (or poorly trained) driver. But there is more to it than that. If, for example, the industry swings to drawbar trailer outfits whose sheer size is likely to evoke motorists' concern, then it is up to hauliers to stress in advance how fundamentally stable and safe they are. As columnist Ralph Cropper explains in CM this week, even in the sober atmosphere of a road safety committee it is an uphill battle to remove the image of the haulier as an anti-social being.