FASTRAC FURORE
Page 26
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You have yet again singled out users of the JCB Fastrac as being a particular threat to the road haulage industry (CM25 Nov-1 Dec). Many of your readers will have no understanding of agriculture today or legislation as it relates to tractors. I would comment as follows:
In order to gain an economy of scale, farms today are getting larger, often on split sites. This necessitates considerable use of tractors on the road, whether hauling produce or travelling from farm to farm.
To improve efficiency the market has demanded faster tractors. While the JCB Fastrac is marginally faster than most, over 60% of our Fastracs sold in the UK (including the one you pictured) are capable of only 50km/h (30mph) and so cannot be considered serious haulage machines. Several other manufacturers offer 50km/h models in the UK, although these would be less noticeable to your readers than JCB Fastracs because they look like ordinary tractors.
There is substantial legislation governing the use of tractors by farmers, including the need for operator licensing for certain jobs. Haulage for hire-andreward is not permitted.
There are certain "haulage" operations which, due to their on-road/off-road nature, demand the tractive ability of a tractor. The use of agricultural vehicles in what may be nonagicultural purposes is not well defined within the law and is a cause of frustration to those professional operators who need to use such machines and who want nothing other than to act legally.
PF Hemingway, Service & export sales manager, JCB Lancipower.