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(F) M1F TMY C.3
byThe Hawk
NHS — by courtesy of the motor industry
THE MOTOR industry contributes £12 bn a year to Britain's wealth, which is equal to the cost of the entire National Health Service. This is one of the facts that the SMMT and other organisations are to bring home to the public in a campaign to be launched in September to emphasise the industry's importance to the economy.
And not before time, some people would say.
Anthony Fraser, director of the SMMT, admits that the British motor industry has had a justifiably poor reputation and the new drive is to build on recent achievements in quality, ..echnology, efficiency and industrial relations. More than a million jobs depend on it, although if the miners' leaders have their way, they will not continue to do so.
Lorry jams save takeover
THE LORRY can, it seems, be a public benefactor in ways other than the distribution of goods. If one is to believe drivers who used their artics to blockade the port of Calais in reprisal for the specious British dock strike, they caused Dover port workers to defy the Transport and General Workers Union and hastened the collapse of the national port stoppage.
Indirectly they may have relieved tens of thousands of frustrated holiday-makers of anxiety, inconvenience and expense, saved many small overseas horticulturalists from serious losses, prevented a shortage of imported foods and, perhaps most important of all, avoided disastrous consequences to British export trade.
Intimidation of any kind is generally to be deplored but in this case I am tempted to suggest that the end justified the means. What is incredible to me is that, with the example of dog eating dog in the mining industry for the gratification of leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers, the bosses of the TGWU should at the lift of a fork truck deliberately have set their own members at each other's throats.
Drivers want a longer legal day
LORRY drivers appear to be gluttons for work — or is it just for overtime pay? Two-thirds of the members of the United Road Transport Union would like an increase in the legal limit of eight hours daily driving, with the biggest block of votes (36.38 per cent) in favour of 10 hours. Three-quarters voted for a maximum legal working day of 11 hours or more, with 12 hours favoured by 29.38 per cent.
Although the largest individual group (30.38 per cent) preferred to retain the 38-hour maximum driving week, the majority of members (65.37 per cent) opted for 50 hours or more. Three-quarters of drivers wanted a maximum legal working week of 60 hours.
"Business couldn't be better"
WITH the aid of £40 a week grant from the Government's Enterprise Allowance Scheme, an unemployed Black Country engineer started Able Van Hire and Haulage at Blackheath, Birmingham, earlier this year with four vans. In three months the fleet had grown to 17, plus three A-registered cars.
Aided by his wife, Bob Masters works seven days a week and says: "Business couldn't be better."
It seems that his venture has been well timed, for a report by two lecturers in accountancy at Exeter University, Terry Cooke and John Glynn, which the BRS Group commissioned, says that contract hire may now be the best option for those wishing to acquire commercial vehicles. This year's Budget has tended to discourage purchasing or leasing, but leaves contract hire as a fully tax-deductable trading expense.
BRS has been quick to act on that advice by investing £5m in some 130 more rental vehicles to bring the fleet to over 1,400 by the end of the year. More rental branches are being opened, too.
Peter fell down and broke his crown
ANY FIRM that is considering incorporating a crown in its logo should think again. To do so could be expensive, as Peter O'Neill, head of The King's Ferry, discovered after 15 years of innocent lese-majeste.
He operates a rapidly expanding commuter service of coaches under that style from Kent to London and has bought 20 Volvo B10Ms with luxurious Berkhof Esprite 53-seat bodies. The crown emblem on the company's vehicles was spotted by a sharp-eyed official when they were parked near Buckingham Palace.
When Peter received a highly legalistic letter quoting statutes in support of the charge that he had usurped the royal crown he had visions of the Tower of London and a date with the executioner. He wondered whether, if (shades of Charles I) he wore a pullover for the chopping party, he would be compounding his offence against the sovereign.
He was finally given a year in which to change the design on the logo on all literature and time-tables and on the expensive coach livery. A crown remains but is sufficiently different from the original to avoid affront to the sovereign.
From the bizarre to the exotic
THE MOTOR Show at the National Exhibition Centre from October 20-28 aims to tickle the visitor's fancy with a glimpse into the future. It will do so with two special displays to be seen in the crystal ball of a new hall.
One of them will, in the SMMT's words, "be a unique collection of around a dozen super-trucks, the likes of which have never been brought together anywhere previously. These will range from the nearbizarre through customised giants to exotic specialapplication one-offs".
Despite the appalling costs of exhibiting and the vast area of the NEC, there is a long queue of disappointed exhibitors who cannot be accommodated. Someone obviously has a licence to print money.
All done up in their Sunday best
PRAY for good weather on Sunday, September 2, because the Greater Manchester Transport Society will be holding its annual rally. Entries of "preserved, restored or interesting" vehicles are invited at £1 each by D. Jamieson, 12 Carlton Road, Heaton Mersey, Stockport.
Vehicles will assemble at the Museum of Transport, Boyle Street, Cheetham, Manchester, and then be driven 14 miles to Heaton Park, one of the largest municipal parks in the country. Delights there will include „preserved" bus and tram services as well as the exhibition of competing vehicles.