Eurotunnel to set TDG urged to launch Ill ads •
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If TDG wants something to do with its money it should launch an advertising campaign for the good of the industry, suggests one disgruntled driver. TDG is currently selling a number of subsidiaries to concentrate on its core business— as a result the company is cash rich, with its net borrowings and gearing effectively eliminated.
But Willi Slomer, a driver with Coventrybased RW Stewart, says he is fed up with working in an industry which has such a poor public profile.
Slomer says: "Why don't the big companies get together and make a TV commercial? It could feature a family cursing big, bad trucks and wishing them off the road, but then getting their wish and finding the supermarket shelves empty!" This would be unlikely to generate extra business, he accepts, but might help shift public opinion and take political pressure off the haulage industry, which would benefit everyone involved.
Overseas haulage industries seem far more adept at selfpromotion. In the US, for example, trucks are celebrated as part of the national heritage. Volvo spent £790,000 advertising its VN770 (road test, CM 1-7 Jan) during this year's SuperBowl—Slomer points out that no UK manufacturer or operator is likely to take a TV advert during a soccer cup final.