Prestige of the lorry driver
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Janus comments
RENEWED AirTEMFT'S to help drivers who have to find parking, food and accommodation away from home provide at least one example of the way in which road operators and the unions can work together nationally when they put their minds to it. Negotiations in most other directions have been blocked and it is particularly important at the present time that as much progress as possible should be made along whatever lines remain open.
Not for a long time has there been so much in the news about commercial vehicle drivers, Hardly a day goes by without reports from somewhere or other in the country that there will be a strike unless local operators agree to new wages and conditions. As a variation the threat is sometimes directed against the Government and particularly the provision in the Transport Act which will make the fitting of tachographs compulsory.
The militants are no longer to be numbered in scores or even hundreds. According to the reports it is seldom less, than one thousand drivers who are prepared to leave the steering wheel until their demands are met.
Whatever the cause of this unusual volume of unrest little has been done so far to find a national solution. At the end of its recent report on productivity agreements in the road haulage industry the Prices and Incomes Board leaves the situation very much as it found it. The unions have underlined the Board's ineffectiveness by refusing to discuss the subject at another meeting of the National Negotiating Committee and the Department of Employment and Productivity has so far been unable to offer any new suggestions.
Door ajar
The Catering and Accommodation Joint Committee which recently met again is not concerned with wages but its work is at least keeping the door ajar between the two sides. It is made up of representatives of the same bodies who are now finding difficulty in maintaining a dialogue on other topics: that is to say the road transport unions and the Road Haulage Association. Also represented on the committee is the Freight Transport Association as successor to the Traders Road Transport Association.
The main work of the committee has been the production of a drivers' guide on where to eat and where to sleep. The unions have undertaken practically all the work of checking on the establishments whose names are published.
For various reasons the booklet has not been as comprehensive as it might. Many drivers have preferred to find the accommodation that suits their individual tastes rather than be told where to stop overnight. Landladies whose premises might well be included often have satisfied regular clients and no room to spare. There appears to be a rapid turnover so that a good deal of the information becomes out of date soon after it is in print.
Some of these circumstances are changing. In the pioneer days drivers were prepared to put up with conditions somewhat worse than indifferent. The vehicle cabs were bare, uncomfortable, shabby and cold and the cafes and dormitories where they fed and slept overnight seemed to be made to a similar pattern. The inference was that drivers were used to living rough and even preferred It.
Far more exacting standards are now taken for granted. Vehicle manufacturers have gone to great lengths to make the cabs attractive if only from a sensible realization that preferences shown by drivers will often play Kline part in the choice of a vehicle by an operator.
Drivers have improved their own status. In spite of recent complaints the charts show that their standard of living has gone up more rapidly than that of most other workers. The last Road Haulage Wages Order eliminated the last handful of drivers who were receiving no more than the admittedly unsatisfactory previous minimum rates of pay. Much of the recent agitation has been directed towards bringing up the wages of many drivers still further.
The reputation of the lorry driver has always been high. His initiative and skill are likely to be valued even more now that the vehicle he drives has to undergo an exacting test—in which he may have the opportunity to play an active part if small adjustments are needed at the testing station. He must be more on his guard than ever against defects which may develop while the vehicle is on the road and against unwitting overloading by an over-enthusiastic customer.
Status symbol
The heavy goods _vehicle driving test should end the situation, in which the standard of drivers can easily be diluted by the engagement of staff without checking their capabilities. As time goes on possession of the licence will become more and more a status symbol. Events seem to be shaping so as to increase the lorry driver's prestige.
The moment is propitious for a new evaluation of the facilities available to him on the road. There may be many changes in his geographical requirements. Some of the new productivity agreements if properly observed may mean that his regular routine is changed to the extent that he is at a different stage of his journey when the time comes for rest or refreshment. If this means that cafes and motels have to be provided it would be an advantage for the associations and unions through their joint committee to have some say in what is done. Individual enterprise will still be needed to fill the gap but it would be easier to persuade the entrepreneurs in advance to observe the desirable standards than to complain subsequently that the standards are unsatisfactory.
Drivers' hours
The situation could recur within the next year or so when the Minister of Transport decides to bring into force the reduction in drivers' hours, In spite of what the Prices and Incomes Board appear to be advising, operators in competition with each other are unlikely to change their schedules to match the reduction until the new law actually takes effect. The joint committee could help by making an estimate of what is likely to happen and suggesting locations where there should be a need for new facilities for drivers.
This would be a most useful service. One of the difficulties which has kept standards down in the past has been the sudden demand for services at a place where they have not previously existed. It takes time to do the work properly and the consequence has been the hasty erection of makeshift premises that inevitably become permanent because the urgent need and the capital to build anew are lacking.
Parking is perhaps an even more serious problem than food and accommodation because it 'affects more operators. With the steady increase in congestion, especially in towns, and the growing pressure on space the demand must be made more vociferously than ever for parking lots reserved for commercial vehicles.
Outside the towns there are special difficulties. The joint committee has drawn attention to one of them. New regulations governing the conveyance of petroleum and other inflammable liquids make it more than ever necessary to have special arrangements for leaving the vehicles during the driver's mealtimes and while he is sleeping.
Lorry drivers are discouraged by heavy fees from parking their vehicles overnight on motorway service areas. This was not much of a disability when only a few comparatively short stretches of motorway had been built. With the growing system it more frequently becomes a convenience for a driver to stop for the night and his work is not made easier if he has to leave the motorway some time before his period of driving finishes in order to find accommodation elsewhere.
With special-type vehicles travelling at low speeds the requirement to stop arises after a much shorter distance has been covered. The absence of parking places is a considerable discouragement to the drivers from taking the vehicles on the special highways which are most suited to them.
There is certainly ample scope for the joint committee to protect the interests of the many drivers compelled by their calling to take their meals and often spend their nights away from home.