40


Issue 1 2012


///FREIGHT BREAK A right royal mess


Am I right in thinking Barbara Castle has been the only other female Minister of Transport before Greening? But you could of course argue that Elizabeth the First was the first female to be put in charge of the


country’s transport infrastructure, on the grounds that the monarch ran everything in those days – but it is not a happy precedent. During her reign, the country’s roads reached an absolute nadir and it could take several days


to travel by carriage from London to Scotland – not because of congestion but because you spend most of the time up to the axles in liquid mud. So putting a woman in charge may


not be the answer. Coughing (coffin) ship?


A major haulier has set up its own shipping


line to Gothenburg in


competition with DFDS but could the mighty P&O ferries face a challenge from an unlikely source - the nation’s smokers? The Nothing 2 Declare website (http://nothing-2-declare. blogspot.com) which concerns itself with cross-border shopping seems to have been working itself up into a lather about provision for smokers on the cross-Channel operators. Given their subject matter, I suppose


it’s a given that a good proportion of their readers are puffers of the Evil Weed and they have been making unfavourable comparisons with the facilities offered on other lines. Apparently,


to access P&O’son


deck area “you have to negotiate very heavy spring loaded doors and raised steel gantries whilst trying not to spill ones drink. This is a feat even for the fit and healthy ... how in god’s name P&O expect the ones who are not so fit and healthy to negotiate such


an obstacle course is beyond me.” Perhaps if they gave up smoking,


the door wouldn’t be such an obstacle, but no matter. The issue seems


to have generated an


extraordinary number of comments on the site including this one: “Anyone got a boat? Maybe we could start our own smoker’s cross- Channel services where the po-faced anti bigots are banned.” Helen Deeble, you have been


warned. Revolting peasants


There seems to be a definite trend in the south of England to site major container ports as far away from centres of population as possible. Of the three major gateways – Felixstowe, Thamesport and Southampton, only the latter could be said to be part of a major city. But what of the new Thames


Petticoat power


Icy winds howling through leaky dockside portakabins, feeling your teeth rattle as a jet aircraſt thunders past, endless baffling paperwork, malfunctioning customs computers, motorway services coffee...yes, it’s a great life in the freight industry. And until now, us men have largely succeeded in keeping females out of it. No longer, though, say the Freight


Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association in a joint statement. Almost without anyone noticing, the number of women holding senior positions in the sector has grown by a substantial degree and an ever increasing number of females now hold top jobs in both the regulatory and operational sides of the industry. “The image of truck operation as a man’s world is long gone and the 2.2 million workforce in the sector now includes some 25%, with growing numbers of female managers, drivers, engineers, transport office


and other staff in all disciplines,” they say. However, the sector is still looking to recruit far more women, The number of women holding


senior political and public appointments must now exceed any other equivalent sector, adds the Freight Logistics Industry Image Group, set up by the British Association of Removers, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and


Transport, the Freight


Transport Association, the Road Haulage Association, and the sector skills council Skills for Logistics. The group is chaired by Geoff Dossetter, described by the Road Haulage Association as “a former industry professional”. (He was until recently in charge of communications at the FTA and is, as far as we know, still thoroughly professional.) The Image Group’s list of


women holding top political and regulatory jobs held by women include Secretary of State for


Transport, Justine Villiers, Greening,


Minister of State for Transport, Theresa


Shadow


Secretary of State for Transport, Maria Eagle, Chair, Commons Transport Louise


Select Ellman, Secretary, Department


Committee, Permanent for


Transport, Lin Homer and Acting Senior Traffic Commissioner,– Beverley Bell. On the operational side,


amongst thousands of senior female


managers personalities include


leading Dragons’


Den’s Hilary Devey, the Chairman and CEO of Pall-Ex; Nikki King, the Managing Director of Isuzu Trucks UK; Jane Burkitt, Pepsico Supply Chain Director; Moya Greene, Chief Executive, Royal Mail Group; and Kay Phillips, CEO, GeoPost Worldwide. What was it the Duke of


Wellington said about his troops? ‘I don’t know about the enemy, but by God they frighten me...”


The Pink Pound


Katem Logistics has turned one of its trucks bright pink thanks to Katie Davison, who works in the sales department of the Palletforce member company. She wanted to raise money for Cancer Research UK aſter her aunt Angela Welsh was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. “It has been really well received


by everyone at Katem and the driver absolutely loves it, all the other drivers are jealous and want a pink truck too,” claims Katie. Katie’s colleagues donated


money to support the idea of giving one of the red, white and blue trucks its makeover and customers taking deliveries from the pink truck are also asked to make a voluntary donation at their discretion. But so determined is Katie to raise funds for the charity that she,


Gateway? Compared with the marshlands of Essex, Felixstowe is a veritable pleasuredome. While Thames Gateway’s major selling point is as a port for London but there is quite a lot of open space between the new gateway and


the built-up area. The nearest actual town to Thames gateway is Stanford le Hope – population 6,600. But with the planned opening of the new container port in late 2013, it’s a place that some of us at least can expect to be spending some time in. Stanford’s main claim to fame,


appropriately enough, is that it was the place that maritime author Joseph Conrad settled down with his new wife in 1896, aſter a life of adventure on the high seas. There are two exotically-named villages in the area – Mucking, whose


name has nothing to do with the one-time landfill site nearby but which may refer to a primitive iron- smelting process – and Fobbing, which was one of the places where the Peasant’s Revolt started in the 1380s. These days, the extent of the


locals’ rebelliousness seems to be limited to protesting outside the town hall about planned new housing developments in the area. Still, it would be as well to avoid upsetting them – just in case they have got rusty old pikestaffs hidden under their beds.


together with colleagues Cheryl Marley and father and son Dave and Daniel Worsley plunged into chilly waters accompanied by a wooden truck as part of the annual


Boxing Day Dip into the North Sea at Seaburn. To help Katie and her


colleagues reach their target visit: www.justgiving.com/katemlogistics


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