"Artie" Driver Succeeds
Page 57
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
WHEREAS the drivers of several articulated outfits jack-knifed their vehicles hopelessly during the manceuvring tests at the Southend round of the Lorry Driver of the Year competition last Sunday, R. W. Wright piloted his SeddonTaskers low-loader slowly but surely and emerged with the fewest penalties of any contestant.
As last year, the sun came out for this event, and nobody minded much that a few slips cropped up in the organization to protract slightly the time required to put nearly 90 vehicles through. Only a few drivers disgraced themselves on the road section, and the police sergeant in charge of the constables who took the Highway Code questionnaire told The Commercial Motor representative that the standard was better than last year in this ection of the competition.
Nine drivers lost no points on the questionnaire and a further 28, including Wright, dropped fewer than 10 marks. Three of those who were unpenalized went on to win their classes: they were L. E. H. Payne (Scammell, Shell-Mex and B.P., Ltd.). L. W. Smith (Leyland, ShellMex and B.P., Ltd.) and 1K Kemp (Scammcli, Essex Carriers, Ltd.).
Faultless•performances in the first test, involving driving through gaps judged by the drivers as the narrowest through which they could take their vehicles, were
made by seven drivers, four of whom recorded first places. in their classes— Payne and Smith again, and R. Brushett (Bedford, Tower Transport Co., Ltd.) and C. Bone (Thames, Essex Carriers, Ltd.).
The second teit, parking at the kerb into a "hole" If times as long as the vehicle proved almost as effective as the first in sorting the sheep from the goats. Six drivers lost fewer than 20 marks in this endeavour, all of them with vehicles in the shortest four categories, as might be expected. Best effort was that of I. Huxtable (Bedford, Hall and Co-, Ltd.) with 10 points lost.
In the three classes for articulated vehicles, D. Watson (Leyland, Essex Carriers, Ltd.) parked his vehicle with the smallest loss of 25 points, whilst the aforementioned Smith and T. Smith (Bedford, Express Dairies, Ltd.) each lost 27. marks. Apart from a small number of egregious efforts, including one by a contestant. whose vehicle was struck by . a lamp. standard, the third test proved the least difficult.
This entailed driving forward and turning right, and then reversing into a "garage.' Seventeen competitors accomplished this without losing more than nine points,. and Wright and E. Butler (Bedford, Hall and Co., Ltd.) each dropped only one mark. In the class for the longest rigid vehicles, only two drivers, F. M. Ward (A.E.C., Shell-Mex and B.P., Ltd.) and W. Addison (Albion, Messrs. Draper's Transport) lost fewer than 10 points, with a penalty of three in each instance, whilst Wright was the only " artic " driver to do likewise, redeeming only an average performance in the second test.
There were no entries from British Road Services. A proper programme compensated for the lack of a lucid com mentary. Some difficulty, arose in the parking test with vehicles carrying tailboard loads, and the barriers had to be spaced appropriately wider.