July/August Issue 62 - Flipbook - Page 7
region is all you need - along with
a small amount of time and input to
give. Please do contact me if you
would like to be involved.
I would also draw your attention to
the new Highways England regional
operations centre (ROC) contact
telephone numbers.
Many of you will recall several years
ago as a roadside recovery operator
you used to be able to contact your
respected ROC directly.
That was then changed to a national
number which resulted at times
in an operator in the north east
speaking with a HE operator in the
south west.
I cannot let the moment pass without
paying credit to our own – many of
you will know Sara Needham who
has been such a key part of the
AVRO team for so many years.
Indeed, many of you will not recall
AVRO without Sara – she truly lives
and breathes AVRO and I know I
could not do what I do without her
support and dedication. I know I
do not speak for myself in saying
that – as well as keeping me on
the straight and narrow Sara works
closely with colleagues in National
Council and is always first point of
contact for our members and others
when contacting AVRO.
Lane one is quite clearly closed off
by a Police vehicle with its lights on
full show, but two vehicles blatantly
disregard that. As soon as they
have passed the Police vehicle they
are back into lane one and ready to
accelerate away in the direction of
the recovery vehicle and casualty
vehicle, if it were not for the two
Police officers preventing them. It
really does show what operators
face, day in day out, and it is
certainly eye opening.
With that I will sign off for this month.
I hope both you and your families
have had a nice Easter weekend,
and may we continue to remain
Sara’s knowledge and experience positive that we are on the journey
within AVRO is second to none and back to normality.
as I have said, we simply could not
do it without her – so from me, Sara, All being well, come summer we all
– our thanks and appreciation go hope to be in a better situation - and
out to you for everything you do.
come September we can hopefully
be back together again and meet up
SLOW DOWN MOVE OVER
at the Tow Show in Telford.
This was something AVRO raised
with HE back in 2019 and we are
pleased to see a return of direct
contact numbers for regional HE
ROC’s – but it must be noted that
these numbers are for use by
roadside recovery operators only This week I had a conversation with
and not for public use.
Paul Anstee, who has been pivotal
in establishing the successful Slow
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY Down Move Over campaign and
has been second to none in raising
Within this month’s magazine you the critical subject of safety within
will see a brilliant article by Call our industry.
Assist on International Woman’s
Day which was on the 8th March For anyone who is not already a
2021. Reading the article myself supporter of SDMO I would strongly
it reminded me of the fact that encourage you to visit the SDMO
there are a lot of women within our website (www.slowdownmoveover.
industry at all levels who play such a uk).
fundamental part in all we do – and
as always it is a simple fact that we Many operators already are
could not do it without the women in stakeholders and contributors but
our lives and business.
we must all do what we can to
support such a worthy and critical
When I was able to travel freely, campaign as they are about one
one thing that was clear to me when most important thing – your safety.
visiting members and operators
is that there are more and more Paul shared with me a YouTube
women coming into the industry and clip from the SDMO YouTube
not just into those roles that would channel (https://www.youtube.com/
in days gone by be expected and watch?v=dJYqFJu0lt4) which shows
this is exactly how it should be.
one of his vehicles undertaking a
recovery on the busy A12.
As always, I am here to help where
I can – so please do not hesitate
to get in touch with me and I will
endeavour to do my best to assist.
Stay safe and stay positive.
All the best,
Graham
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