OPPORTUNITY NOT TAKEN
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It takes effort to understand the mind of a road haulier. Talk to a haulier or a driver in a cafe (if you can find one) and you will find they speak with one voice regarding the problems of the industry. Are they willing to do anything about it? No, of course they are not. Attending a meeting or a demonstration would mean losing a day's work, irrespective of the fact that the job or contract may barely be paying because of the vehicle operator's extortionate running costs. Busy fools, etc.
Due to the efforts of a few hundred of us over the past five years, demonstrating up and down the country and the unprecedented coverage given, the industry was handed on a plate the best opportunity it has ever had to address the problems of its poor image and penal taxation etc. To date this opportunity has largely not been taken. One could reasonably assume that the industry is happy with its lot.
UK road haulage, due to the profile it has recently had, should be up there with the major general election issues; but so far I have barely heard a whisper. Have the RE-IA and ETA left the country now that the general election has got into full swing Maybe there was something in what I wrote in Commercial Motor recently (Sound Off 1-7 Feb 2001).
Duncan Maclean, Abingdon, Oxfordshire.