Gregor Heating and Renewable energy.We were worried that you were tarnishing the long fought image of the white van man. With your fleet of 35 clearly identifiable vehicles, we feared that they were too small to assert your position on the road and your near tree hugging business was too contentious to make a mark on normal society.
How delighted we are to have been proven wrong, and you are really just plumbers at heart. It is not the size of the van that matters, it is how you drive it that really counts.
Take this example. Posh people in Stoke Bishop don’t want to give up their cars – they want to feel better by installing solar panels to heat their swimming pools. So your driver is quite right to force this tax dodging cyclist out of the way in this quiet residential street on the way to a very important client no doubt.
Maybe the use of your horn could have been better. It was early but these tax dodgers really do need to know their place and it was probably time for Quentin to wake up and get in the 4x4 to school anyway. Transits have better horns, another good reason to consider bigger vans.
But we salute you Gregor Heating. Keep up the good work installing renewable energy for the rich tax payers of Bristol, and well done for treating a carbon free form of transport with the contempt it deserves.
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3 comments:
I wrote to Gregor and urged my Twitter followers to do so as well. I got this reply:
Thank you for your emails.
We are already aware of this information.
The engineer involved has been on annual leave for the last few days and this has now been brought to his attention.
We have started our own investigation of the matter and will advise you in due course of the outcome.
Steve Gregor
reception@stevegregor.co.uk
Daisy - kudos and thanks to you for writing to Gregor (no doubt to congratulate them also).
Sadly, I myself had no response to any of the mails I have sent them yet but I'll keep the good readers of Bristol Traffic informed.
Here is the response I got from Gregor regarding my previous e-mail about your video:
Following your original email dated 15 July 2011, we have now investigated this matter having questioned the driver of vehicle WN08 XNF who is also a keen cyclist himself.
Please see his reply below:
“After coming back from annual leave and reviewing said clip on YouTube yesterday (18.7.11), I do not think that I was driving aggressively or was speeding. Being a keen cyclist myself, I have respect for them and all other road users. I am sorry if you think my driving is unacceptable as I do not think it is and I have got a clean driving licence which has been clean for over 10 years. Driving is as much a part of my job as everything else I do. Thank you for the constructive comment.”
I hope this is an end to the matter but if you wish to meet me in person to discuss things further, then please do not hesitate to contact me.
Regards
Steve Gregor
Gregor Heating and Renewable Energy
01179 352400
I am not in your city, so I cannot take Mr. Gregor up on his invitation to discuss the matter in person. I'd encourage you to do so.
Here is my response to his message:
Thank you for your response. Obviously, it is not satisfactory to me, nor is it a good example for your other drivers. Inasmuch as you have more than 30 vans on the street, I had hoped that you would take this matter more seriously. The video clearly shows your driver crossing the center line and unnecessarily honking his horn.
I'd like to ask your "keen cyclist" how many kilometers of urban cycling he logged in the last 12 months and what kind of bike he has. Obviously, I don't believe that he rides his bike more than once a year. It would also be of interest to know if he knows which side of the center line he should be driving on.
Anyway, thank you for your response. I wish your company many miles of accident-free driving and hope that your drivers will always keep in mind how intimidating they can be to vulnerable road users of all types.
And I have one more thought on this matter, which I hope you won't mind my sharing with you. I am concerned that the unwillingness of the management of your company to review the material and form its own conclusion in this matter could be used in any future incident involving this driver or any or your drivers in court to demonstrate your company's lax attitude and liability.
If your managment is unwilling or unable to assess this material itself, I'd suggest that you show it to a representative of your insurance company and ask them for their opinion of your drivers' actions and their recommendation as to what should be done in regard to this driver and to all your drivers. Obviously, if there is an incident (God forbid), it would benefit your company to be able to demonstrate a responsible and proactive attitude in this case.
If you do get an opinion from your insurer, I'd certainly be very interested to see it. If my own impression as to the evidence in the video is mistaken, I'd be happy to be educated by an expert in order to be able to evaluate such material more accurately in the future.
Best regards,
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