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Think before you speak
Page 9
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Barry Proctor has a radical plan: before pontificating about the ills caused by all those nasty lorries, our masters at Westminster should do a little homework...
It's always nice to be wanted. Now while I'm not suggesting that the public write all us hauliers a letter of thanks or proffer a garland of flowers the next time they see one of our trucks, it would still be heart-warming to feel that our achievements are recognised. We are undoubtedly one of the most efficient industries in the country. We stock the shelves of the supermarkets. We make sure industry can operate. We make sure the filling stations have enough fuel As has been said countless times before, if you've got it, a truck brought it. But do the public or politicians recognise this? We all know the answer to that one.
It's not just the lack of recognition that smarts; it's the wholesale disregard, bordering on contempt. in which the road transport industry is held by politicians and public alike.
Take reports such as the recent offering from the Department or the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (CM21 July) suggesting that the transport of food causes all manner of social ills, from pollution to congestion and climate change to road accidents. If a truck brought it, a truck caused it, seems to be the mantra of politicians. Quite why the industry (and lest we forget this is solely the food transport sector) should be the cause of £9bn worth of social costs a year is something that continues to baffle and perplex. The report goes on to say that half of that £9bn is caused by congestion. It may be head-smackingly obvious to you and I that the 100,000 trucks engaged in food transport do a damned sight less clogging of the roads than the UK's 25 million cars, but ft's a measure of the scorn in which we are held in Westminster that no politician sees fjt to say so. Maybe— and here's a novel suggestion —our elected rulers should try spending a week getting to know the transport industry before they pass judgement on it.
"The 100,000 trucks involved in food transport do a damned sight less clogging than the UK's 25 million cars"
Barry Proctor owns Barry Proctor Services, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.