bird's eye view
Page 37
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by the Hawk • On target again
Smiling Sam Gray, the 1968 Lorry Driver of the Year who hails from County Antrim, is in the limelight again. I gather he's due to appear on "the box" on Sunday on the Bob Monkhouse programme, The Golden Shot, having qualified last Sunday as a telephone contestant. It is, perhaps, a coincidence but one of the tests when Sam won his driving title was the target test—and he scored a bull's-eye. No doubt all those who know this dacent bhoy from across the water will hope that he does it again at 4.45 p.m. on Sunday (ITV).
• US champion
Although the American transport industry holds "roadeos" which approximate to our own Lorry Driver of the Year competition, the trucking industry's Driver of the Year gets selected on a quite different bajsusually a combination of experience, general expertise and some outstanding performances in the course of his job. For 1970, for example, the American Trucking Associations have named 53-year-old Frank DeLucia as their man, selected by a national panel from State nominations.
Frank has been a frequent State champion but, more to the point, he covers over 156,000 miles a year for Adley Express Co., of New Haven, Connecticut, has over 3fm miles of commercial driving to his credit with but one minor blemish, and has received numerous citations for bravery.
On two occasions he has rescued badly injured people from blazing cars at great personal risk, applying first aid and resuscitation. On one occasion, in 1958, this involved entering a flaming car which was still entangled with high tension cables, in order to extricate a woman driver.
He now faces different ordeals—the traditional round of meetings with' congressional delegations, business leaders and appearances on TV and radio. The US hauliers ensure that their top driver gets the full treatment as an ambassador and imagebuilder for the industry. His award is presented by the national secretary of state for transport (at present John Volpe).
• Pretty plea
The man who is largely responsible for the great clean-up-the-north-west campaign that has been running for about two years, Sir William Mather, has turned his attention to vehicles and roads. At last week's dinner of the North Western section of the Institute of Transport this ardent supporter of "Operation Springclean" asked for vehicles to be given as attractive an appearance as possible. He suggested that the environmental problems created by transport should be dealt with; there was no valid reason why the approaches to our ports, for instance, should not be as pleasant as such roads were in some other countries. Let's have more landscaping, he pleaded.
III Gong alley
Institute president Anthony Bull revealed at the dinner that the NW section put 144 candidates into the 1968-9 examinations, but in the matter of total membership the North West leads its Merseyside offspring by only a short head.
Chairman Charles Hodgson was in witty mood as he presided over the full house of 270. His top table included a host of transport notables as well as a couple of High Sheriffs, one Under Sheriff, a major-general, a brigadier and at least four colonels. Road transport and the army have long had close associations, so it was not surprising to observe among the company a couple of holders of the Emergency Reserve Decora
tion and at least four with the Territorial Decoration. CBEs and OBEs were plentiful and there were jocular references to those with Completely Base Experience and Only Base Experience—which are perhaps nicer ways of putting it than some of the versions we used to know.
• Star choice
The life of tech. ed. Tony Wilding and his stalwarts is made miserable by the unnecessary difficulties in compiling lists for publication—of bodybuilders and the like. I tell them it's all part of the job—it balances out the fun of swanning around with 44tonners on test up Shap in the ice and snow. for instance. They just grin bleakly.
But why do so many people offered the chance of appearing in an editorial list (useful to the reader, potentially valuable to the person listed) fail to respond to requests for information and even fail to send requested details after follow-up letters and/or phone calls? If you sometimes wonder why even a big and well-known company is missing from a published guide it's usually because even phone calls have not brought tresults.
Now the tech. men are compiling their own Rolls of Honour, endowing companies who reply early with three stars, those who reply to a first letter with two stars, those who respond to follow-ups with one star; and black marks to the rest—who are surprisingly numerous. From 400 letters they're lucky to get 150 replies.
Prompt replies indicate an on-the-ball businesslike concern—which is useful to bear in mind when readers ask for recommendations.