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ROAD TRANSPORT IS A SCAPEGOAT
Page 3
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Have you ever noticed how the road transport industry gets the blame for other people's fights? The environment secretary has been talking to supermarkets about reducing food miles. That's a good thing, and most parties involved have been working on this for some time. Supermarkets know it's a big issue with consumers and in road transport it's a thing we like called efficiency. After all, no one takes their trucks round the long way for fun.
The one problem with the food miles debate and it is a complex debate is its public face. What people see is a truck, but in fact most food miles pollution is caused by planes planes that pay no fuel tax and individually cause as much damage to the ozone layer in a year as a small city. Food miles are clocked up on behalf of consumers demanding out-of-season, imported food; by supermarkets who want to be able to offer everything, always, in identical packaging; by farmers who want to be able to sell their produce throughout the world and not just in a local economy. But say "food miles" and the public thinks of trucks. THE 1:4111171Cat .3" SEDDON,: n:
"Food miles are caused by many factors but what people see is a truck"
The road transport industry sees itself as a service, as a background facilitator. Yet trucks are often in the forefront of people's minds when they shouldn't be. Trucks don't contribute significantly to pollution or congestion but if the road transport industry doesn't educate the public about that, we may as well take the blame for the lot.
• Stop. If you were struck down right now, what do you have on you that could tell paramedics what they would need to know? Our emergency services are wonderful, but every time they need to investigate something about you -your blood type, your allergies, your medical status it wastes time. And time won't be on your side.
Sign up for the Commercial Motor! Pall-Ex health cards inside. It costs nothing, the cards take no effort or space to carry and it will give a wealth of information that can help save your life. The question is not why should you bother, but how have we ever sent drivers out on the road without them?