T I HRTEEN is clearly not an unlucky number for Volvo.
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The "transport specialists" from that number of European countries who comprise the 'Truck of the Year jury have just given their 1986 award to Volvo for its "EL family'''.
Which FL family? Well, a combination of the FL6 and FL7 ranges, it seems, which presumably could be dubbed the FL 13 family by the unsuperstitious.
Dal might take a inure conventional view of traditionally unlucky numbers following its third placing in the 1986 Truck of the Year competition, behind Scania's 92-Series models, with 13 votes.
All seven manufacturers which figure
in the competition may be a little • bewildered by the basis on which the Truck of the Year jury makes its coMparisons. I low, for example, can the A ' I 'i 361 II ) "group" of 38-tonners be directly compared with two distinctive new Volvo ranges, including an 11tonne-GVW model and an unspecified Isuzu which came in seventh with a solitary vote?
Perhaps a more accurately descriptive title for the award would be International Truck Manufacturer of the Year.
DRIVERS who are tuned in can benefit greatly from travel news bulletins, broadcast by national and local radio stations and a good way to let them know the wavelength is to erect signs at the roadside.
I low many listen? A test was carried out in 1983 on major traffic routes in Berkshire and Kent. The RAC got together with the BBC and the IBA and the investigation was monitored by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory, which has just published the results. Three thousand and five hundred successful interviews were achieved.
Seventeen per cent of the drivers said they acted on the information in the signs (frequencies in Id lz and VHF). Less than half were able to find the correct station, however. Overall, the signs led to an increase of five per cent in the proportion of drivers listening in. Although 68 per cent did not respond to the signs, 90 per cent thought they were a good idea. So do I.
Eighty-six per cent of the vehicles approached had a radio, but about one third were neither marked in kHz nor had the facility to receive VI IF.
FROM Dartmoor to a Sussex beauty spot, Jim Shippam, managing director of Shippams the
Chichester meat paste manufacturer, has been presented with a painting of Boshani harbour, by Mark Skipwith, his counterpart in Lowtield I)istribution, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the two companies working together. Very civilised gesture, that.
Industry should support local artists — in this case Peter Brain — where it can.
Shippams got models of a Lowfield vehicle. However, Lowtield hosted the celebration lunch. And I hope they had at least one local dish, like Tipsy Sussex Parson.
HUSBAND and wife team Mike and Leigh Buckingham, trading . as Buckingham 'Transport, from I !ayes, Middlesex, have been allocated the first Rentco Rentcard to be issued.
'I approached various rental companies with a view to hiring trailers for UK and Continental work,'" says Mike. "With the exception of Rentco, none was keen to deal with me as an owner-driver. Some insisted on guarantees and others refused to provide documentation to take trailers overseas."
Let's give credit or a plug where it's due. This Rentcard should be a boon to many smaller operators, at whom it is aimed and Rentco has 3,500 trailers available from 24 UK outlets.
TWELVE draymen from Hertfordshire-based brewery Benskins have poured a total of 300 years of service into the company, distributing to more than 400 pubs in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Since I approve of this sort of service, which has earned them 25-year long-service awards, I'll give their names: Fred Shirley, Charlie Brinkley, John Murray, Wally Cole, Bob Reynolds, George Charnock, John Martindale, Bob Ward, Gerry Smyth, David Hart, Stan Keene, Albert Spooner . . . Sounds like a modern Widdecombe Fair.
THE heading on a GLC press release reads "Softly, softly call to truckers" and continues: "Screech, grind, roar, thump. Many of these offensive noises need never occur and Dave Wetzel wants something done about it. As chair of the Greater London Council's transport conmiittee, he is • calling on the G9vernment to make quiet driver training a compulsory part of the HGV and PSV licence qualifications."
This looks a fair idea at first sight; this is the sort of din that makes life unpleasant for the unfortunates living by the capital's through routes. I asked technical editor Bill BLock for his opinion. "These questions are more matter of education than including th in a vehicle test," he said.
Already, firms that train employee: drive in such a way as to lessen the environmental impact of their vehicle stand a better chance of obtaining exemption from the GLC night-time and weekend lorry ban starting on January 31. A national requirement applicable to every bus and lorry driv would have a far greater effect, says t GLC.
"The training would ensure drivers know to change gear at low speed, lo and unload quietly and not to rev the engines unnecessarily or drive on thei brakes," says the GLC. And the bene would work both ways as drivers wh thrash their lorries create higher costs their companies.
Dave Wetzel says: "An awareness c the environment should be an overall condition of passing the heavy goods vehicle and public service vehicle driv tests, as an awareness of safety is now Many firms already train their drivers cause the least possible offence becausl saves them money. But if it were included in the licence requirements w could be sure that all lorry and bus drivers are aware of the techniques."
• by the Hawk