)00R Sir I lumphrey Appleby, inainiarin hero (U' Ves, ,.11inistcr
Page 27
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
and , Prime AliptiNter would never survive II a dent to his ego.
reader tells us he rang the
part of Transport switchboard, ing to speak to the secretary of Alan Icy, the Permanent Secretary who command of the Derp at the ;inning of the month. 'Mr Alan Bailey? Sorry, I don't think have anyone of that name,'' the 7rAtor replied.
'Bur he is the Permanent Secretary. u know, the one who has replaced Peter Lazarus," our reader tried iantly. 'Well, no one would tell us," she wered, explaining her earlier ()ranee. \nd, having transferred the caller to Bailey number, he was rewarded :h nothing more than a ringing — and inswered — tone.
FALKING of phones, I have had cause to criticise Leyland's .fliciency iii answering calls on its itchboard, but must give credit where s due.
k colleague tried earlier this month — cr the holiday was quite definitely c:r — to call several manufacturers' itchboards. While Leyland answered almost tantly, it was importers offices — tably Mercedes-Benz, MAN-VW and co — which let their bells ring to the int where our man was ready to mdon it all as a bad job. How do y treat customers?
WHI f LE the volume o road
traffic in the United Kin m gdo Teased by -almost four per cent in
1984, deaths in road acCidentS rose by slightly less. three per cent, and serious injuries by di tee-atTht: Deportment of Transport comments: "Ibis still represents five jumbo jet
loads of people and seriously injured every week in the UK."
1986 is European Road Safety Year and everyone iii transport ought to do their bit to lower these depressing figures. But first, in round terms what is the position? 01 the 12 member states in the European Economic' t:onimunity. nine have recorded a decrease in the number of casualties since 1970.
But the picture looks worse when the figures are personalised. As Lord Caithness, Parliamentary UnderSecretary of State for Transport, said when openingthe new Westminster Road Safety Centre, there are over 55,000 road deaths a year in hirope, which is like wiping mit a town the population of Chelmsford (and there are I.5m injured). A key feature at the Westminster centre (at 20 Rochester Row, SW I) is two car simulators designed to provide visitors with off-the-road "experience"
of' belling the wheel.
I have been sent a large list of events in the pipeline for this year — mainly local, and this is where, alter all, you have to attack the problem. I also note that competitors for the Bus Driver of the Year and for the Lorry Driver of the Year hope to make links with other Common Market countries.
One idea at least I have never heard of before: that's one from Wiltshire, where they hope to run courses for people planning to take their cars abroad on holiday. Is anyone on the Continent doing likewise? The I )'I is is planning to re-issue its multi-lingual leaflets for visitors to the UK.
0 NI _Y last month Michael Pickering the chairman of the Institute of Advanced Motorists made some strong safety points, calling for: harsher penalties for serious offences; remedial training for offenders who need expert guidance; and oil-the-road training for motorcyclists.
The new motorcycle tests regulations brought in two years ago are halfhearted and achieve nothing, he complained. While Britain has one of the best car driving tests in the world, he said, for motorcycles it is -a farce; the examiner merely watches a candidate ride around thc block.
And I very much like his point about separating the rogue driver from the errant driver. "The rogue deserves the full sanction of the law, while the ordinary driver, who makes an error of
judgment, or who has been momentarily neglectful, needs -a much softer approach."
WITH an eye on the day when the diesel pumps run dry, Perkins Engines is researching alternatives to diesel fuel.
Apparently, its New Zealand arm can run diesel engines on sheep. Well, not exactly sheep but tallow, the surplus fat from sheep carcasses. This can he pressed into a fuel that is more comhustible than diesel. Naturally enough, Perkins is carrying out "field trials" with 40 diesel-engine(' trucks and buses. Not to be outdone, Perkins of Malawi is running Massey-Ferguson tractors on sugar-derived ethanol (they're running sweetly), while Perkins in Canada have been working on wheat-powered engines. But wait, there's more. A French newspaper has reported that a haulier in Iceland is running his fleet on cod liver oil. I bet the trucks keep going and his deliveries arc regular.
1 T being winter. I flew south, CO Niger, to watch the Paris-Dakar rally. Intercontinental hauliers used to Euro-hassles would recognise the catalogue of non-appearing desert overtly permits, missing-visa-occasioned detentions, miduless and endless tbrmfilling, officials to whom the word "Mananais an expression of panic (and to whom ''please'' is spelt as ti.0: or CM tee-shirts), to which myself and my Oar-supplied executive jet were subjected. The director of the Algerian internal air service restored my faith in humanity after a mid-Sahara
breakdown, but I still think I'd rather battle French customs . . .
by the Hawk