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birds eye view by the Hawk II Cheap ventilation
Page 61
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A general manager at last week's APPTO conference in Liverpool told me a cautionary tale. He was visiting another municipal fleet when he noticed a small hole in the corner of a bus windscreen. It was too rectangular to have been made by a bullet or stone, and his curiosity was aroused. Closer examination revealed other similar disfigurations on the vehicle.
It turned out that the bus had been in a shunt and needed new windows. The operator had some templates made up, and to make them easier to manipulate a little hole had been left at each corner — which the glass maker followed faithfully, so each window had a little corner cut off.
A cheaper method of fresh-air ventilation would be hard to find.
• Colour coded
There was plenty of discussion at the APPTO event about the need for unified control of stage carriage services within each of the new county councils. It obviously can't come too soon in some parts of the country, to judge from this story by A. H. Wright of Tyneside PTE, where some repainting is evidently still necessary.
Mr Wright overheard the following in one of his bus stations: Woman to inspector: "Is this green bus a red one or a blue one?"
Inspector: "Actually, madam, it's a yellow one."
• Night trunk?
I don't know whether its the first time Tower Pier on London's river has been used for an international transport operation, but at 8pm on October 20 it's going to be the scene for really pushing the boat out.
Burlingacre Ltd and Eagle Wing Ltd, TIR builders , and hauliers respectively, have jointly organized a "Night Out" on the "Ferry Bell", with 120 managers, drivers and wives.
What with disco-ing and buffet-ing from 8pm to lpm, I reckon it'll be a case of walk-on, roll-off.
• Road-town
Not entirely surprising, I suppose, that an area favoured by one form of surface transport should become the focus of attention for another, but I still find it odd to contemplate Swindon as a road town after its long railway history.
I was talking about this last week with G. W. Hutt, director and g.m. of Lex Tillotson (Swindon) — which, he tells me, now has the widest range of British Leyland truck franchises between London and Bristol. (They now have Austin-Morris, AEC, Leyland Bluefine and Redline, the AEC and Bluefine appointments having been made formally on Monday.)
The corning of M4 has given Swindon's transport situation a big boost, but it had already attracted a host of those kinds of modern trade and industry which five by distribution --W. H. Smiths, a variety of book producers and Woolworth's central UK .WaretIOUSC are prime examples.
And as well as this sort of national distribution, the considerable population growth in the town has 61 to a big increase in urban distribution, so it really has become something of a transport boom town.
• Record response
The Institute of Advanced Motorists has been a fade overwhelmed by the transport industry's response to its offer, made earlier in the year, to admit heavy goods vehicle driving instructors to TAM membership without taking a test Over 750 hgv people, and some sinallarhy qualified commercial vehicle instructors, have become members — which is reckoned to be more than half the total number of such instructors in the country.
I hope they'll recognize that they are in good company: I believe the no-test admission to the JAM has previously been restricted to holders of Police Class One driving certificates — the best you can get
11 Wide strata One of the most colourful publications to drop on my desk from time to time is a glossy with the title of Strata and a cover depicting a multinational array of truckmixers.
It's the international review of the Ready Mixed Concrete Ltd group, and has, I suppose, achieved one of its purposes in opening my eyes to the coverage of the group: there are operating subsidiaries in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Israel, Eire, Trinidad, Belgium and Hong Kong.
One particularly interesting fact to emerge from my reading is that the R/VIC company in Germany is permitted under West German transport regulations to operate 10 Cu metre artic mixers, compared with 6 Cu m trucks in the UK — and there are 76 of these giant mixers already in service.
• What we want!
Always happy to oblige a brewery, I'm passing on a message from L. J. Baker, road safety training officer of Watney Mann (West) Ltd, at Parade House, Trowbridge, Wilts.
Mr Baker asks fleet owners who can help with information about the slow roll-over of articulated vehicles on roundabouts to write to him, as he's conducting a survey. He'll refund any postage involved.