Mistake
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THE campaign against road transport continues. The latest attack came in a Lords debate (reported last week). Lord Lucas said two things which were completely unsupported by facts, one of which sparked off another national newspaper " scare " story. He said that (a) overloading of commercial vehicles was one of the greatest contributory factors to road accidents, and (b) there was hardly a commercial vehicle that was not at least 50 per cent overloaded; the majority 100 per cent overloaded.
Everyone with knowledge of road transport knows such statements to be nonsense; but the public does not and so accepts them. Both the R.H.A. and the T.R.T.A. decided, after consideration, not to write any letters correcting Lord Lucas' mis-statements. They were absolutely wrong. No opportunity must be wasted by anyone, operator or association, to reply publicly to this campaign. In fact, the National Conference of Road Transport Clearing Houses did reply in their own sphere and had a letter published in The Times. The R.H.A. issued a small Press release and subsequently wrote a letter to the national newspaper which printed the " scare " story. However, in total, the action was not enough.
This situation is at the stage where the industry should form a joint fighting committee. Even manufacturers are joining in; both York Trailers and Scammell Lorries have recently issued pro-road propaganda material, York in the form of posters which operators can use and Scammell as a bulletin to operators of its vehicles.