I was posted to South London during my early days in the Police in 1961. The Metropolitan Police were restricted with quotas for each specialist duty and drivers were in short supply. In those days you couldn’t just get in to a Police car and drive it on your civilian driving licence. It was obligatory to have attended a driving course at Hendon Driving School. In those days it was acknowledged to be the best training center in Britain for Police drivers.

Driving courses were in such short supply, that you had to fight to impress senior officers to be nominated for a course. At my Police Station, the drivers had their own small room near the garage. This room was off limits to all, unless one was invited to enter, and certainly not before knocking. Inside were old and well used arm chairs, with a table spread with books and magazines to while away the time.

One of the early things that I noticed was that the drivers appeared to have a much easier life style than those of the rest of us. Us young policemen looked upon them enviously and a little in awe. Even the officers spoke them to with civility, whilst the rest of us were spoken to as if we were irrelevant. It must be remembered that in 1961, a comparatively short time after the war, military discipline was normal within the Police Service. Large numbers of ex soldiers had joined the police and were still serving at that time. I also noticed that it was not just the drivers who were posted to driving duties on a particular day that used the drivers room. I also saw that the drivers who were occasionally surplus and posted to a walking beat also appeared to use it, and in fact spent most of their shift sitting and reading, whilst the rest of us were banned from the police station. At that time we had three quarters of an hour meal break, and were not allowed back into the police station except for exceptional reasons. If for some reason we entered the police station, we had to sign a register giving the reason and time of entering the police station and when leaving, the time that you left. If we were found in the police station and had not signed the register then invariably it meant a caution or even discipline proceedings. Reports had to be written on the beat, if necessary by supporting our note books in our hand. Unless there was a police box within reasonable distance

The vehicle fleet in my police station at that time consisted of five vehicles. The first was the prestige car as far as we were concerned, and was referred to as the ‘area car’.

This was the emergency response car, and at that time was a Wolsely model 110, with a six cylinder engine that could, with coaxing, reach about 95mph. This car also patrolled the adjoining areas, and worked under the control of the Information room at Scotland Yard, and so was rarely seen at the home police station. In addition we had two Hillman Minx cars, one of which was reserved for the Chief Superintendents use. This car was perhaps driven about 50 miles per week and not to be used for any normal work other than taking the Chief Superintendent, occasionally, to Scotland Yard for a meeting or for social meetings with local dignitaries. The second Hillman was referred to as the ‘GP’ Car or general-purpose car and was used for all duties, as its name implies.
The most important vehicle in the police station fleet, was a Morris LD van that was the work-horse and carried everything from, prisoners to dead bodies. Property that had been found abandoned or lost, and was too bulky to be carried by a foot policeman, was also transported in the van. The recovery of stolen motorcycles or bicycles also took up a lot of the vans time. It was also used to tow broken down vehicles when necessary, and also carried groups of policemen to the scenes of an incidents or demonstrations. The driver posted to the van was probably the hardest worked of the drivers and was at everyone’s beck and call, and even to the other drivers. In between time it was also his duty to make the tea for the staff working in the police station, feed prisoners, and keep the coal fire alight that was the police stations only heating at that time. The explanation for his hard work, was that all police drivers were graded, and the van driver was a low grade at class 4. There was one grade lower at class 5 but this was the grade for complete novices after completing their first driving course, This first course was known as the “Standard car course” and having passed out, the newly qualified driver was then only authorized to drive the GP car and therefore limited in the amount of driving until reaching class 4.  
Class 4 drivers fought to advance to the advanced grades, of which there were few places, and to impress senior officers of their qualities, took on more and more work, that just snowballed. Class 4 was achieved after a period of driving as class 5, and then attending a one day course of instruction on driving the van. The remaining grades were class 3, which was achieved after a further three week course. Grade 3 drivers were authorised to drive all the cars at the police station, but only to drive the prestige “area car” under the supervision of a class 1 driver. Class 1s and 2s were the drivers who were authorized to drive all the vehicles in the Metropolitan Police fleet, and their difference in grade came about as a result of their final scores on the final drive whilst attending the advanced driving course that lasted four weeks. Class 3 was very much a transitional grade between 4 and the very much sought after class 1s and 2s. A class 3 driver could not remain in that grade for the rest of his service, and had to attend the advanced driving course to advance to the top grades, or upon failure of the course, to be downgraded to class 4, almost certainly never to advance again. The final vehicles of the fleet were two Velocette motorcycles, that were used as a supplement to the men posted to walking beats,  

Because the canteen was separated from the main part of the police station an alarm bell had been installed to enable the officer in charge of the police station to call men out to deal with incidents. This bell was rung in various sequences to indicate if the incident was urgent or non urgent. To support my impression that the drivers generally had a good life, I noticed that when the bell rang it was only the foot policemen, the van driver, or the riders of the two motorcycles that responded, even leaving behind freshly served up meals that they had ordered, whilst the more senior drivers remained seated even if their meals had been consumed.

I quickly decided that I wanted to join their ranks, but in the Police service at that time it was compulsory to complete the first two years as a foot policeman. It therefore came as a total surprise to me after reaching just eighteen months service, that I, together with another policeman who had joined the same day as me, were instructed to attend a motorcycle course at Hendon. Looking around I realized that our early rise to mobility was because all the other men on our shift had got at least 10 years more service than us and riding the motorcycle was even busier than being the van driver, but at least it was a start.