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10th July 2003
10th July 2003
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Page 1, 10th July 2003
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ANPR system to help VOSA

catch the cowboy hauliers EXCLUSIVE • by Chris Tindall Cowboy hauliers will soon have no hiding place as the enforcement...

HOW ANPR WORKS

CM exclusively joined an ANPR team for a day to see how the new technology works in practice. Radio-controlled colour and...

1125 FWD Drivers faced chaos last Monday (7July) when part

of the M25 was closed as it flooded with four feet of water causing 20-mile tailbacks. LI11.1 The Highways Agency has launched...

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ED chaos as deadline nears

• Confusion surrounded the publication of legislation on the horizontal Working Time Directive—which comes into force next...

Cuts spark strike vote

II Nearly 50 Christian Salvesen drivers are to vote on strike action after being told their meal allowance will be scrapped and...

RHA to lobby Customs

• The Road Haulage Association is lobbying Customs to have smuggling laws changed following a successful appeal at a VAT...

Ailing firm's licence revoked

• Sussex-based Nature's Way Logistics and sister company Heyland Haulage have had their Operator's Licences revoked after they...

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Exel sheds 50 jobs, one depot

Exel's Tradeteam division is axing 50 jobs and another beer distribution depot as part of its rationalisation programme. The...

MT studies foreign trucks on our roads

• by Dominic Perry The Department for Transport (DfT) has launched a new study aimed at discovering the distance covered by...

Two copper loads missing

• Police are hunting for thieves who stole two trucks belonging to Owens Road Services containing 11m of copper last weekend....

Two men charged with fatal arson attack

Two men appeared before Cleethorpes Magistrates last week charged with the manslaughter of truck driver Derek Bailey, who was...

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Spotlight shines on Webb and Turner for pay deals

• The Transport & General Workers Union (T&G) this week announced that two of the most important negotiating jobs in road...

Nowhere to hide...

If you're a cowboy operator, watch out —Big Brother really is watching you now. Or at least that's what it will seem like now...

Cornish fuel theft spree

lw Cornish hauliers have been advised to step up site security following a series of diesel thefts in the county, Devon and...

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TCs scrutinised

• The Better Regulation Task Force (BRTF), a government advisory body, is assessing the democratic accountability of TCs and...

CfIT: Govern men I will fail to deliver

• The government will fail to deliver the majority of its 10year Transport Plan targets set for this decade, according to the...

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UK long-haul drivers endangered species

• by David Harris The British long-distance lorry driver is an endangered species because foreign drivers are much cheaper,...

• The difficulties sometimes faced by British drivers abroad were

demonstrated last month when a would-be stowaway fell to his death from the top of a trailer in Casablanca. The man was trying...

• One of the only overland driver-accompanied services to Iraq has resumed services for the first time since the war.

Sevenoaks-based Orient Transport Services is running full-load and groupage into Baghdad and Basra, mainly carrying freight for...

• The government admitted this week that one of the

lessons learned in the Iraq war was that it needed to track supplies more accurately during any future military campaigns....

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Farmer tells inquiry about fatal accident

• by Lairence Ford A Fatal Accident Inquiry has heard how an HGV driver for Cumbrian haulier William Armstrong died after an...

Austria fails to cut HGV traffic

E A bid by the Austrian government to ration the amount of international haulage traffic on its roads has been quashed by the...

Police appeal for witnesses

• Police are appealing for witnesses to a head-on collision between a car and a truck in South Yorkshire which killed an...

MG repeats call for £10 an hour

• The Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) has repeated its call for a i10/hr minimum wage for all truck drivers when the...

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Tribunal supports TC's judgement over repute

I by Mice Jewell Part-time transport manager Michael Waddington has lost his appeal against the decision of North Eastern...

Checks must be in contract, warns lawyer

• Transport companies have no legal right to ask employees to see their driving licences unless it is in their employment...

Customs seize a million in fags

U Customs officers at Immingham have made two seizures of contraband cigarettes—worth over Lim— within seven days. The first...

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Turn the tap to service compliance

Maintaining the roadworthiness of your trucks—and having comprehensive records to prove it—is at the very heart of the...

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Cutting cost to increase share

Building trailers for the UK haulage indus is a perilous occupation these days with tight margins, diminishing volumes and...

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Mercedes' C-Class van for the workers

With VW's new contender already unveiled, it's now the turn of the 'other' Germans to enter the ring. The van makers from...

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Mercedes-Benz provided a challenging venue for the International launch of

the Vito in the hills adjoining the Rhine valley west of Frankfurt. Although there was limited opportunity to sample high-speed...

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Oaf XF95 Alpine is the TH R E

ITO ------ height of anic luxury Fridges fuel • by Brian Weatherley Daf has returned to the 'special edition tractor' fray...

XF ALPINE PACKAGE

Fixed roof spoiler and collars. • Side skirts 14x2 tractors). • Thatcham Ill standard Immobiliser and alarm. •...

cost savings

• Thermo King has launched an extension to its MD range of fridge units, aimed at trucks between Sm and 7.5m In length. The...

Registrations up for fifth month this year

• Growth in commercial vehicle sales shows no sign of abating with June registrations up a record 24.9%, the fifth month of...

Speculation on shareholding

• The 'who-owns-what" truck industry merry-go-round has creaked into life again. The Financial Times has reported on claims...

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Recovery show with real pulling power

• by Brian Weatherley European Tow Show, the first allindustry show for recovery operators, opens its doors at Donington Park...

SHOW SHORTS

• Premier Hazard, manufacturer of warning systems for emergency, municipal and recovery vehicles, is showing the second...

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Transport manager takes the rap for hours offences

A former transport manager was blamed for drivers' hours offences and failure to use designated operating centres when an...

AXLE/VEHICLE OVERLOADING a ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS LICENSING HEARINGS DRIVERS' kr HOURS COURT CASES AND TRIBUNALS NEA ER WIT VEHICLE MAINTENANCE

APPLICATION REFUSED A bid for a three-vehicle licence by Preston-based Anthony Gregson, trading as North West Distribution, was...

DTC adjourns to clear confusion

West Midland Deputy Traffic Commissioner Alan Bourkt has adjourned a licence bid from the Dudley-based Jewkes family until he...

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100% fail rate gets warning

A Worcestershire agricultural contractor with a 100% Initial failure rate at annual test since 1999 has escaped with a formal...

Firm must wait to see if bad language fouls it up

A Manchester company wit have iii to wait for a J month to discover if action wit be taken against it following an incident...

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Do you want to comment on any stories in Commercial

Motor? Does someone in the industry deserve a pat on the back, or a dressing down? Drop us a line at Commercial Motor, L2,...

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Swing while you're winning

Anyone who has seen the latest Toyota Corolla advert will undoubtedly have laughed at what is a cheeky take on a swinger's...

TIME TRAVELLER

Our anachronistic review in celebration of the universal law.. .what goes around, comes around. 75 years ago: 10 July 1928 Sir...

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ERF ECT 420

I PRICE AS TESTED: £82,950 (ex-VAT).' ENGINE: 10.8 litres, 414hp (309kw). OR: 44 tonnes. PAYLOAD: 28.96 tonnes. AVERAGE SPEED:...

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DRIVERS' VIEWS

III JONATHON PERRIS drives a Volvo FH12 34f1for Robert Wiseman out of Stockport. "I like the look of this cab. it is higher...

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CHANGES

Buying oil is getting more complicated with another round of oil specification changes, prompted by the introduction of Euro-3...

E NUMBERS-ACEA OIL GRADES

Oils for heavy-duty diesel engines are classified under various E-grades ranging from El to E5. The grades are determined by...

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EURO-4 OILS

II Chevron Texaco's Dave Spence says the key issues will be how much sulphated ash and phosphorous will be generated by Euro-4...

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OIL SERVICING II In a mixed fleet checking what grade

oil to use can be time-consuming. Multigrade oils are designed to make life easier, but what are the risks? "An engine working...

LUBRICANTS CM always treats with scepticism claims about oil additives,

whether they are aimed at reducing fuel or oil consumption or wear, largely because claims are difficult to prove, and because...

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had been driving for several haulage companies and decided that

I wanted to do it on my own," says Phil Rees, managing director of PD Rees & Son. In 1987, he bought a secondhand Foden...

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tan Robinson is gazing out of the window onto his

yard. "I can see five or six of our trucks standing idle alongside subcontractors' vehicles," he says. And my trucks are...

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di I have never seen so much rubbish coming out of the

European Commission as the Working Time Directive. it is totally impossible for an abnormal loads carrier to comply with and...