War and the expert driver

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Expert drivers still have no really big jobs to do in this war—at least as civilians; while although the Army is industriously training vast numbers of drivers at special schools, knowledge of electrical theory and the art of carburation does not prevent these drivers from involving Army lorries in 300 accidents a week, vide figures recently glinted in the House of Commons. We hope the women drivers for whom the A .T.S. and W.A.A.F. are appealing will do better; also that the “highly secret and exciting” jobs in the A.T.S. will suit the woman trials expert, who seems strangely absent from the Services. On the civilian side, magnificent as the work of the A.R.P. services has been, journeys of any length at speed seem confined to the A.F.S. Doubtless the expert gets his own return at such times, and on those long runs when personnel take a well-earned rest in a quieter locality, even if he or she gets no more credit than the non-specialist vehicle manipulator. Probably most competition drivers are now employed on more important jobs in the national interest. But if any of them want a driving job, the Y.M.C.A. needs voluntary drivers. Women are usually asked to help, presumably because they have more free time. We are sorry to observe that the writer of an article in “The Autocar” states that “I have not yet been able to trace a single woman competition driver amongst the many hundreds of Y.M.C.A. Women drivers.” Skilful, if not fast, driving is called for, so some of our famous women competition motorists might like to apply. Men are accepted, too, and for evening work only if unavailable at other times. We have heard of a 60-mile run from the London area, where we believe the tea-cars in question are Ford Tens, Ford V8s and Humber Snipes. So expert drivers not otherwise engaged might like to make application to their local Y.M.C.A. headquarters.