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Hauliers forced to buy abroad
Page 52
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LAST WEEK British Road Services announced that it is being compelled to buy foreign trucks because British manufacturerers are unable to meet demand.
The BRS Midlands fleet, of over 1,100 vehicles, which until last May was 100 per cent British, is now 25 per cent ,foreign-manufactured vehicles. According to the Midlands BRS md, Mr Kenneth Cook, the proportion is increasing.
British manufacturers' inability to meet operators' demands is not the only wedge driven between the haulier and his British vehicle. A spokesman for Heavy Transport of St Austell told CM this week that the company was more influenced by pro-Volvo feedback from its drivers as regards vehicle comfort than by the delay in getting British vehicles. Over 25 per cent of the company's longdistance lorries are now Volvos — this time last year the fleet consisted of allBritish vehicles.
Mr J. Foskett, transport manager of Tate and Lyle Transport, told CM that the company's 700-vehicle fleet was now using 35 foreign vehicles, and this figure was likely to double during 1975.
The Transport Development Group could give no figures on the proportion of foreign vehicles in the Group fleet, but a spokesman commented on the greater reliability of some foreign trucks and the smaller outlay on vehicle maintenance.
The Bulwark Transport Group, a subsidiary of United Transport, was unable to give any figures on fleet strength or the proportion of foreign vehicler that the Group operated.
Perhaps the most blatant warning to British manu. facturers is the changeover that the Walls Transport fleet has made in the last yew 30 per cent of the company's supply fleet is now ol foreign manufacture. A spokesman for the company said that in his experience Scania trucks were longer running and cheaper tc maintain than any comparable British vehicle.