G I V E A D A M N
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U A long time ago a generation of energetic young Americans, volunteers for the US Peace Corps, travelled throughout the third world teaching, building. Part John planting and of Fitzgerald Kennedy's "New Frontier" they sported lapel badges with slogans that typified their cause. One of the most powerful messages was also the most simple. All it said was: "Give a damn". They were motivated by a simple, perhaps naive, desire to help others.
Consider then the road haulier. He's nat in business for the love of it (or he certainly shouldn't be). He is out to make money. Threatened with an attack on his livelihood does he give a damn? Apparently not. If the general response among Essex hauliers to truck theft is anything to go by it's hardly surprising that few vehicles are ever tracked down. Even when the RHA organises a meeting with the police to help counter the attack, the response is moderate. We're being polite, actually it was pathetic.
It's no good hauliers relying on the police to catch the villains. The theft of a £100,000 tractor and trailer is nothing compared to the growing level of violence in our society that the police have to deal with everyday. "Someone stole your truck? Anyone hurt? No? Well never mind, maybe it will turn up. In the meantime call your broker — that's what you've got insurance for isn't it?" Who could blame that attitude?
The proposed anti-theft rings will be cumbersome to operate, relying as they do on operators to call each other with news of stolen vehicles. But they could be made to work. Anyway what are the alternatives? Turning your yard into Colditz is no guarantee that you won't be a target. The idea of a neighbourhood watch scheme for hauliers is a sound one. If a thief thought that he would be spotted driving away from the scene of the crime by other drivers then his fear of being caught would be heightened. And that's what it is all about — deterrence.
The road haulage industry, however, can't do it all by itself. It is about time the nation's police forces stopped acting in isolation and finally set up a national co-ordinating enforcement body to fight truck theft.
The copper and the haulier have got to help each other out. If you want to keep your trucks then it's