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bird's eye view by the Hawk • Bestfoot forward
Page 51
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Successful drivers at the Bristol Tippers Group Training Association get a nice shiny certificate complete with red seals. When CM's Trevor Longcroft tried his hand at the craft recently (as recorded elsewhere in this issue) the instructors gave him a certificate that was slightly non-standard and inchided a set of 21 Main Points to Remember which have a tinge of cynicism about them. For instance: Always drive fast on rough ground; never use 1st gear; always drive with the tipping gear up; always driye with one hand on the steering wheel and one on the gearstick; don't upset the site manager (especially if he is Irish); don't look or act like a lorry driver or you will be expected to drive like one; always leave your car round a corner, then you can keep accidents a secret; always buy the teas when it is your turn; don't be taken in by exotic dancers; never leave the keys of your car on your bed (or hers).
I shudder to contemplate what les behind these examples from an excruciating list— especially that bit about dancers and beds. Trevor says it's all jealousy, really, and they gave him a pass anyway so what the hell do they want—blood?
• Cornwall calls
Ian Trelawny, who surprisingly retired as chief executive director of the Port of Felixstowe recently, is rumoured to be considering a past with the ambitiously conceived Falmouth automated container terminal. As a Cornishman who was born eight miles from the Projected FACT terminal, the job could prove attractive to a dynamic man, still in his fifties, who is generally credited with major responsibility for the success of Felixstowe.
The promoting company's private Bill to authorize the project received the Royal Assent on February 17 but the DoE, it is understood, has still to approve a scheme which many regard as a dicey business venture.
If the FACT terminal does come off it will recall to one haulier friend in Cornwall an earlier venture. There was a scheme in the 30s for a trans-Atlantic passenger terminal to be built at St Just, to help speed up the sea crossing in conjunction with the (then) Great Western Railway.
• Riding barefoot
If women with hgv licences are not exactly two a penny at least there seem to be plenty of them about, but I wonder how many of them use their licences to work for a living. Our man in the North came across an unusual case recently. Mrs Judy Broadbent, who is 21, delivers produce by truck from her 12acre farm at Beverley, Yorks, and a 20-acre farm at Willerby. Three times a week, during the season, she drives back through the night from Gateshead, usually after giving a hand with unloading 12 tons of market garden produce.
But the factors which should make mere male drivers raise their eyebrows are that Judy's driving mate on these trips is her mother and that she usually drives in her bare feet!
• Murray memories
This is the centenary year of the birth of Thomas Blackwood Murray, who founded Albion Motors; he was born at Biggar, Lanarkshire, on April 22, 1871. To cornmorate his work an exhibition is being held in the showroom of Central Garage, Biggar, from September 6 to 18, and will be opened at 3 o'clock next Monday by Lord Clydesmuir, who is chairman of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry.
The event is being sponsored by the Biggar Museum Trust and the Gladstone Court Museum in that town will be open during the period of the special display.
II TV electrics If you happen to be within reach of the Box next Sunday afternoon (September 5) you might care to switch it to BBC 1 at 2.20; I am told that the Made In Britain programme will be taking a look at electric vehicles and will include film of the Harbilt factory at Market Harborough and battery electrics in a new dairy depot.
• In reverse
British hauliers who pioneered overland freight routes to the East now have imitators from the opposite end of the route as well as at home. A correspondent in Karachi tells me that a direct overland truck service has been started from Pakistan to the Persian Gulf, Europe and the UK.
It is a joint venture floated by Pakistani and British businessmen and the first fleet of five trucks recently arrived, via Iran and Afghanistan, carrying textile machinery and drugs.