IN YOUR OPINION
Page 87
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Lorry Driving Standards High
RlELUCTANT as I am to write this letter, I feel that Wg. Cdr. Humphrey, whilst complaining about reckless drivers of heavy transport (June 12), is really expressing his hatred of road transport in general. He seems to think, like a few others in my area, that the world has to stop while they enjoy their retirement. I condemn reckless driving, but most emphatically state that the standard of lorry drivers is very high. I wonder how many times the hand signal of a lorry driver has kept the Wg. Cdr. accident free.
His accident figures for goods vehicles does not prove anything. To be involved is one thing; to be responsible for an accident is another. The accident figures at holiday time, when most goods vehicles are off the road, are much higher. We, as an industry, operate to serve the public, something the railways have failed to do.
If Wg. Cdr. Humphrey prefers air transport, I am sure he would find sanctuary on the edge of London Airport, where hundreds of house owners would gladly trade places with him.
Shaftesbury. Dorset. E. J. DEWEY, W. Dewey and Sons Ltd.
The Cost of Using the Roads
A S a road haulage operator I cannot allow the hysterical " observations of your correspondent Wg. Cdr. E. V. Humphrey to go unchallenged. The contents of his letter from the fourth paragraph onwards are so ludicrous as to make one concerned that our intrepid airman has forgotten to turn on his oxygen or, at the very best is about to fall into an uncontrollable spin.
Road operators in this part of the country, for the past two years at least, haven't had any "sunshine ", let alone made any hay ", whilst the only " bull " concerned is that which would describe your correspondent's subject matter. Whereas, in the Services "bull "is alleged to baffle brains, let us hasten to assure the Wg. Cdr. that his shower of " bull" has baffled nobody.
Road operators are highly concerned at the conditions on the roads of 1964. The organization of the National Lorry Driver Competition, which is supported by the B.T.C., R.H.A., T.R.T.A., T.G.W.U., I.T.A. and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the numerous private safety competitions which are organized in many centres and the many operators who pay a special bonus for "safe driving give the lie to E V. Humphrey's fourth paragraph.
Nobody would attempt to deny that there is present on our roads a small minority of dangerous, reckless and careless drivers, but these types are found in all ranks on both commercial and private vehicles. For example, how many drivers of commercial vehicles are accused of driving whilst their ability is impaired by drink or drugs in proportion to similar instances amongst the rank of private car drivers?
I suppose the Wg. Cdr. pays 1.15 annually for the privilege of running his private vehicle on the roads of this country. What advantage accrues to the Welfare State from his £15, or from the presence of his vehicle on the road? It costs my company an average of £110 per year to tax each of our 12 vehicles and we pay a further £6,000 in fuel tax. Some of these vehicles deliver perishables to
destinations all over the country, traffic which for one reason or another cannot be carried by air transport! Other vehicles in our fleet deliver stone, tarmac and cement to the host of new road and building projects which the Welfare State has instigated. As yet we have not had one occasion where the customer has stated a preference for air transport! Whose vehicles pay more to the country and whose vehicles are more worthy of a place on our roads—his or mine?
I cannot join issue with him over road deaths and injuries. We are all agreed that the toll in human lives and misery must he stopped, but I must quarrel with him when he lays the blame solely on the "road industry ".
If the Wg. Cdr, and those who share his opinions would be prepared to pay the additional cost on their milk, butter, eggs, bacon, meat, fish, vegetables and every other commodity he purchases we, on our part, would be delighted to pay our men the wage which he says they so richly deserve.
He accuses us of accumulating shekels. If he is prepared to come and do my job-12 hours a day, 7 days a week— then I am prepared to swop overdrafts with him.
Clitheroe, Lancs. D. H. TIPPING.
Why No-hop Tandem Trailers?
I FAIL to understand the spate of non-reactive bogies 1 being offered on tandem axle trailers. A trailer should run 75 per cent of its time loaded, and when loaded the question of "axle hop is almost eliminated by the weight of its load. When running empty the real problem is braking and where there is one trailer axle and two tractor axles on the road the braking efficiency should be quite adequate for an empty vehicle. Spring "wind up ", which is the chief factor, can quite easily be eliminated by the addition of a stabilizer bar fitted -to the top of each axle on the slipper-type, short balance beam suspension. This method could also be adapted to the old-fashioned suspension which uses spring eyes and shackle pins for axle location.
We can understand the housewife falling for the "whiter than white" advertisement, but fail to see why the hardheaded transport man falls for this unladen-weight-consuming and costly gimmick. A far better application for these non-reactive designs would be the driven tandem suspension with single axle drive.
Our own experience is that many operators require the unladen weight of tandem axle trailers to be as low as possible in order to carry the maximum payload in the 24-ton GVW in view of the fact that a heavy tractor and tandem trailer carries a far smaller legal payload than it can quite easily handle.
Lye, Worcs. G. E. WOOLRIDGE,
Director, M. and G. Woolridge Ltd.