Who's Really to Blame?
Page 67
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FIAVE observed in your journal time and again that khen a driver or drivers are caught working illegal hours the firm concerned are also prosecuted, the employers iplain: Yet nearly all of them condone and encourage state of affairs by employing drivers on an agreement :em.
his system is for the driver to do the job as quickly as tikes, but the firm pays what the trip warrants; thus, a r-day trip is usually completed in two or three days. The rer is home, the firm have the use of the vehicle, log ets are destroyed, new ones made out for a journey shorter distance, and everyone is happy.
tut if a driver comes unstuck, he knows that he firm put all the blame on him. You hear all these phoney rt-breaking pleas of the guv'nor; of how good he is,. I how horrible that law-breaking driver is to get his boss olved. Dear, dear, these things have been going on for rs and the driver and lorry. have, probably, done two rs' work in one.
n my opinion the Licensing Authorities and the police st know ho' it is worked; in many cases they don't want know, otherwise this could be stopped once and for ,oridon, E. TRADE UNIONIST.
Vertical Exhaust
ECENTLY there has been much comment against the poor old " commercial " emitting diesel smoke and st criticism appears to be directed against lorries and in our of the motorist; however, I have another comment affer.
lore in the West Country there are many steep hills and row streets and I have often seen coaches ascending ling hard in a low gear and the low-slung side exhaust wing all the dust and dirt from the off-side gutter over • unfortunate pedestrians and even into shbp doorways: te a menace I must admit, even though the.vehicle may be emitting any notable smoke at all. Even petrolined vehicles can be offenders -in the same eircurnices. Indeed, anyone who has stood, on an island in the centre of the road in any major town when a " local " decker is accelerating away from stop has "tasted " the same discomfort.
My suggestion as a remedy is for all diesels, anyhow, to be fitted with upright "smoke stacks" as is the rule in most parts of America today. It should not be too difficult to convert all existing vehicles if manufacturers designed the right kits and it need not be too expensive, certainly not more than some of the "smoke menace" fines I have noticed in the Press. Another asset is that many people would be surprised how much quieter a vehicle runs with the exhaust up and away into the air; which appears to me to be the logical place for it.
Ilfracombe, N. Devon. R. M. ROGERS
Spreading the Word
Y eye was recently caught by a poster publishing the results of the Royal Society of Arts essays, and my mind immediately went back to your Editorial " Wakey, Wakey! " in the issue of April 21, 1961, In it you referred to the complete lack of interest by employees in these R.S.A. and Institute of Transport examinations, but are they really to blame when the majority of them have little idea that such subjects exist?
I have now returned to the passenger transport industry, but I have been employed for two-thirds of my life in the heavy vehicle industry, yet not until last November had I seen any of these subjects advertised; then who, after all. is to blame?
Brotton, N. Yorks, ROBERT COUTT S.
Cross-country Tyres for Tippers
T last I see that a tipper manufacturer is fitting full cross-country tyres to the rear wheels of his vehicles. When will tyre-makers stop trying to kid operators that a 4 X 2 vehicle can go anywhere with semi cross-country tyres?
Chelmsford. N. Bomns.