BIRD'S-EYE VIEW
Page 63
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LEYLAND'S problem in getting the market to buy more of its trucks is, according to marketing director Rod England, one of "perception rather than reality" — ie, the company's image is wrong. So it was a little more than unfortunate when the video equipment supplied by the hotel failed to project Leyland's image as seen by the advertising industry to a recent press assembly . . . Then, the remote control for England's slide presentation failed to work as well.
In fact, the only remote control that did work properly during this visit was that on a 1/12 scale model of a Roadtrain — and that just went to prove what rotten drivers some of us are, when nearly everybody present failed a 1/12 scale 11CV class 1 manoeuvring test . . .
IIIIN A and Britain have somewhat different attitudes towards the sanctity of justice. A lorry driver and a taxi driver, each alleged to have killed people on the road in Peking, where millions of cyclists daily invite death, were put on public show at a stadium as an example to others.
I laving been pilloried and condemned, they were then taken away for trial.
ALL TOO OFTEN motor cyclists end up under the wheels of heavy lorries. Perhaps the frequency of such accidents might be reduced if they spent some time at the wheels of HGV.
That was the thinking behind the appearance of three Leyland 16.25 sleeper-cabbed Roadtrains at a recent
AFTER the successes of Pot Black and Double 74, television is proud to present Ten Down, the skittles programme brought to you live from the cab of a truck near you . . . (building society manageress Barbara Walker tries our the manoeuvrability of the Roadrunner in the "Leyland Roadrunner Gauntlet Challenge" organised by Lex Tillotson Southampton at the Romsey Show).
motorbike safety rally. The weekend event was staged by Cheshire Police with the aim of keeping more motor cyclists alive on Britain's roads.
More than 200 motorbike riders each had 15 minutes at the wheel of a 32tonne Roachram, three of which were supplied by Multipart, the all-makes parts division of Leyland Trucks. They each had to tow 12.2m (40ft) Boalloy Taudiner semi-trailers around a course which included roundabouts, right and left turns, U-turns and reversing, taking care to avoid strategically placed life-size cutouts of bikes and riders.
They were coached through the course by salesmen with Brookside Trucks of Northampton, Bob Sutcliffe and Kieron Tunney, and their sales manager Bernard Day, who thought up the whole idea. The cutouts, it is reported, spent more time under trailer wheels than they did standing.
0 NE OR TWO boyish sniggers have been heard north of the border recently, though never within earshot of lrvine of course, at Volvo's choice of designation for its two new model ranges.
In Sweden, and probably the rest of the world, there is nothing illogical or funny about FL standing for Forward control. Low mounted cab. In Scotland, however, FL has a more commonly understood meaning: as an abbreviation for French letter.
Perhaps the Scottish journalists at the recent launch of the new Volvos in Gothenburg should be forgiven for visibly stifling chuckles when they were told by a deadpan Swede that one of the features of the new, strong FL cabs was their unrivalled occupant protection.
VIHAT do you Mean, late? We're still waiting for summer." It is definitely an Indian summer for the M25 at Leatherhead; it finally arrives on October 7. Are those cracks in the joints of the sign?
WITH all the fervour of a recent convert from foreign vehicles, Bill Daniel, a haulier of Brierley Hill, West Midlands, has started a "Buy British" campaign among _fellow Road Haulage Association members and elsewhere. Putting his money where his mouth is, he has bought six ERF CP tractors with Cummins NTE .320 turbocharged engines.
The red, white and blue livery proclaims a true patriot. But this is not enough. The semi-trailers exhort "Save Jobs — Buy British" and each tractor carries Jive union flags and — a brave gesture by a Daniel — two ERF lions.
Conjuring up memories of the Lucas lamp without which, in my young days, no bicycle was worth its acetylene, the tractor front panel declaims: "King of the Road."