BIRD'S EYE
Page 54
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
By The Hawk VIEW
A gold watch was what Harold Wood and Sons Ltd. presented to 39-year-old tanker driver Charles F. Hayes, of King's Lynn, as a mark of their appreciation for a very heroic rescue attempt for which he recently received the Royal Humane Society award (as reported in " The Commercial Motor" on April 9). Charles had tried to rescue an 18-year-old labourer who was trapped while filling a trailer with shale at the bottom of a slagheap.
In 1946, driver Hayes received a similar award from the Society for saving a man from drowning in the Thames at Purfleet.
Hero Once Again
Bargain Basement Spring sales in transport seem
highly unlikely in this era of rising costs. But last week was different.
First we read of a new rail chief having to make do on the cut-price salary of £12,500. Then the very next day Sir Alex Samuels, now hush-hush adviser to the Minister of Transport and acknowledged expert on London's traffic problems, hinted at half-fares on buses.
The occasion was the annual lunch of the London and Home Counties' division of the Traders Road Transport Association. Repeated increases in bus fares, Sir Alex protested, was no way to solve traffic congestion. They virtually compelled more people to use their cars.
If, instead, fares were halved and the trend reversed. Sir Alex insisted that it should not be beyond the wit of man and public accountability to " balance the books ". There could well be overall benefit to the national economy through the resulting easing of traffic congestion.
Sir Alex's speculations seemed sound logic. Yet as I glanced through the restaurant windows I could see London's traditional red buses gyrating ceaselessly in Piccadilly Circus. And then I, too, speculated whether the citadel of an equally traditional basis for a fares structure—evolved over the years on the soundest foundations—would ever be stormed. Had not the Leeds park-and-ride scheme folded up that very week? Old habits die hard.
In Best Tradition
Night Collections? Yet Sir Alex himself hinted
at a solution. It was ludicrous to expect profitable car parks whilst free street parking was allowed to continue. Hence the parking meter. Similarly—and very pertinent to the record attendance at this TRTA function—he urged members not to close their minds permanently to night u20 collections and deliveries. Increasing urban congestion could soon make such operation uneconomic by day. A straw in the wind from the Minister's adviser?
Mr. J. W. Newman, commercial officer of British Road Services, SW and S. Wales district, was "mentioned in dispatches" in a recent letter to Mr. C. N. Christensen, managing director of BRS Ltd. Mr. G. G. Cann, secretary of the Grimsby Fish Merchants' Association Ltd , praised his survey for the preparation of the field plan leading up to the widespread fish distribution scheme, now involving more than 120 vehicles, I hear that Mr. Newman is tipped for the plum job of SE district manager of BRS.
BRS Plum Job
Pint Whisky Mugs Sunday, May 9, sounds like
being a good day for the residents of Dunfermline, where the Scottish Northern Region heat of the LDOY is being held. They now have more than 90 entries and quite a bit of cash in the kitty, I understand, for the provision of some nice prizes for the class winners and runners up. Apart from this, the band of the Highland Division is . expected to provide the music. It was the description of the team winners' award that caught my imagination—they are to get three pint whisky tankards: At least that is the way they were described to me by the secretary of the event, Ian Sherriff, the Borough's transport officer.
Although the entry list is now closed, another list is still open. Competitors, of course, are provided with lunch; but if they want to invite guests to eat with them they can book in advance, when they will be provided With vouchers. This should save a lot of the lunch-time confusion that often exists at these popular events.
A Vacant Chair I hear that Mr. Noel
O'Reilly does not intend to stand for re-election to the 'Road Haulage Association's finance comthittee, and this is likely to cause the Association's National Council quite" a headache when it meets on Thursday, May 13. The reason is this: Mr. O'Reilly has served as the committee's chairman for the past 10 years.
But I gather that Mr. O'Reilly's other activities within the Association—and this includes his post as chairman of the new labour relations committee, and also chairman of the employers' panel of the Wages Council—will not be affected. Apart from all these activities Mr. O'Reilly is chairman of his local Conservative Party and he is a member of Carlisle City Council. And, of course, extremely active in the interests of his haulage affairs.