Profits still below 5%
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MSurveys of 160 British haulage companies show average profit margins still well below 5%. Commercial Motor, May 3.
MEduardo Pena, former Spanish ambassador to Mexico, succeeds John Steele as EEC transport director-general on May 19. British transport industry leaders had hoped a Dutch civil servant would get the position. Commercial Motor, May 3. MI Britain and America are not only divided by sharing a common language, as a wit said, but apparently their removers do not agree on a common method of estimating for removals, according to the spring edition of CETI World, which arranged a contest. British companies estimate by weight, but most American companies use a cube-sheet which lists most household items and provides their cube based on average densities. In the UK cube sheets are not used, but for a phone quote an Average Dimension Guide is occasionally used. The British mover has to stand by his price and tape measure. At an estimating contest in New York, Bill Gilotti (Graebel) represented US interests and Alastair Stewart from 11,e London firm of Stewart and Harvey was there for the UK; Gilotti estimated 184 cubic feet and Stewart 187cf. "Who was right? Who knows -who could ever be certain the judges had the right figure?" reports the journal.
• The news that Perkins is going ahead with its plans to buy Gardner from Hawker Siddeley confirms one of the most persistent rumours and worst kept secrets of the engine business, says Commercial Motor, May 17. Perkins is part of Canadian-owned Massey Ferguson but firmly a British company, and it is too early to say how Gardner will fit into its empire.
• The first pre-production example of a new municipal truck chassis cab, based on the Seddon Atkinson 200-Series (the 2-11 when available) was demonstrated to 400 local authority customers, reports Commercial Motor, May 17. It is being produced and sold by Britannia Trucks of Birmingham, the latest subsidiary of the Jack Allen group.
• London's night and weekend ban for lorries over 16.5 tonnes looks more likely to remain in force following last week's local council elections. Commercial Motor, May 17.
MWhat may operators expect in heavy trucks 10 years from now? Mitsubishi has produced a "truck of the future," the MT-90X, demonstrating that radical changes in transmission and braking are predicted in an aerodynamic design with a drag coefficient of 0.38 more than comparable with current passenger cars.
Underneath, the suspension uses glass-fibre reinforced plastic tapered leaf springs and electronically controlled shock absorbers, reports the February edition of Transport News. It has single aluminium wheels fitted with low-profile steel radials to reduce rolling resistance and weight, says the New Zealand journal.
The future-truck design was produced to show operators what they may be running in 10 years' time. Its automatic transmission is based on a seven-speed manual system which controls the clutch and gearshift operations by microcomputer. "In conventional heavy truck transmissions with torque converters there is often slip which reduces acceleration and doesn't do much for fuel economy. The new system overcomes this problem by using proven manual systems operated by preprogrammed microcomputer."