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Bird's Eye View
Page 58
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THE first shock of British commercial vehicles being freely 'sold within the Common Market, should Britain join, will be terrific. Those were the words of Enrico Minola, Fiat's commercial director, whom I met in London last week. Fiat's current production of cars and commercial vehicles from Turin is roughly 3,200 a day (about 5 per cent are commercials). There has been an expansion of nearly a third in the last three or four years.
I thought I detected a tiny flint of resignation (for want of a better word) when he agreed that the main impact would be in the 4-5 ton range. He thought Fiat would continue selling well in the heavier ranges. The Italian manufacturers—with typical Continental thinking—accept that a very large degree of overloading will take place (up to 50 per cent of the recommended capacity) said Mr. Minola, and this is reflected in the construction of their vehicles in the lower weight ranges. "Your vehicles are very competitive in price," he told me.
Humanitarian
nNE cannot help but admire this warm-hearted man
(he started his career as a tester with Fiat's English subsidiary in the I920s). Apart from being near the top of his profession, he is an enthusiastic member of the social and economic committee of the E.E.C. "The Treaty of Rome was drafted by diplomats, not economists," he remarked. "It is economics that count." He has his own business at his finger-tips, but his great interest is obviously Europe—he is dedicated to the Common Market, and thinks Britain's entry is essential even if it will cause his company's empire some heartaches.
My own impression is that whatever impact he does feel, Enrico Minola will give as good as he gets!
Exide Diversified
SPEAKING at the 28th annual Exide Motor Show Press Luncheon held in London last week, Mr. A. W. Browne, chairman of Chloride Batteries Ltd., revealed that his company's Exide and Dagenite automotive batteries were by no means their only interest. He said that batteries for all motor-industry applications represented 45 per cent of the total Group turnover last year, batteries of types not connected with the motor industry accounted for 35 per cent, whilst the remaining 20 per cent was contributed by Chloride companies making products other than batteries, including barrier creams and toilet fittings! Obviously there is more to a name these days than meets the eye, but I cannot help feeling that in our industry Chloride will continue to mean Exide and vice versa.
Quartet to Trio
WHAT must be a unique situation for the professional " organization associated with the transport industry came to an end recently when Mr. James Amos, chairman of Scottish Omnibuses Ltd., completed his term of office as president of the Institute of Transport. He was, in fact, the first Scot to have been elected president of the Lo.T. This broke up an extraordinary quartet of Scots holding B32 top offices in the industry. Strangely enough the quartet had only just been made up—Mr. W. M. Little, Edinburgh's transport manager having been appointed president of the M.P.T.A. only a few days previously.
Other Scots holding top positions in the industry are Mr. W. Dodds, of Troon, Ayrshire, leading light in the Passenger Vehicle Operators Association, and Mr. T. Gray, Edinburgh's deputy transport manager, who is chairman of the Scottish Road Passenger Transport Association.
Appropriately enough the M.P.T.A. are holding their conference in Edinburgh next year.
Light Work ?
I NADEQUATE and inefficient rear lights have been under fire again recently, and not only by Authority, in the shape of Mr. Marples, who said that spot-checks had
shown that about a quarter of the vehicles examined were below standard in this respect. Everyone must be in favour of any reasonable plan to cut this figure down, and I, for one, welcome a recent move by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
They have circulated a letter asking staffs at filling stations to make a particular point of checking all lights when vehicles pull in. I know that at least one big oil company, Petrofina, have already responded by sending copies of the RoSPA letter to every Fina dealer, asking them to adopt the Society's suggestion. A laudable move.