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16th October 1997
16th October 1997
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Page 1, 16th October 1997
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Page 6

BRIEFS

• The EU ban on !K beef exports could be lifted early next year, and Northern Irish beef could be back in Europe before the end...

EU blocks plan for a 48hr haulage week...

by Martial Tardy and Sally Nash • Plans to impose a maximum 48-hour working week in the transport sector appear to have come...

EU Transport Ministers have rejected Neil knock's proposal to introduce

"freeways" that would have helped hauliers get round weekend driving bans. But Kinnock says that before the end of the year...

• •

...but hikes the price o f pining up • Within three years every new UK haulier will have to stump up £6,400 for his first...

Page 7

Driver blamed for five crash deaths

• Two plant hire firms have been fined a total of £500,000 for failing to ensure public safety after a low-loader driver killed...

Weighting for a train

• Just 4 0 0 of freight currently moved by rail would go by road if all hauliers were allowed to operate at 44 tonnes, claims a...

COMMENT

WORKING WEEK WON'T WORK L ike "The innocent and the beautiful", hauliers have "...no enemy but time". As WB Yeats wasn't a...

Page 8

Turks save on wages

by Rob Willock • British haulage firms are using cheap foreign labour for international work to save on wages and transit...

• Commercial Motor is receiving reports that some British vehicles

being driven to and from the Continent by foreign drivers are unlicensed and untaxed, but that many authorities are turning a...

Haulier pays £63,000 for fire

• A North Yorkshire haulier has been heavily fined after a devastating fire which began as a lorry was being loaded with a tank...

VAT changes threaten debt-factoring hauliers

• Hauliers using debt factoring companies could face extra financial problems as a result of new VAT rules set by HM Customs...

Dutch refuse UK qualifications

• The Dutch Government will no longer recognise a certificate of professional competence gained in Britain because it says it...

Page 10

Reprieve for Welsh quarry

by Karen Miles • The continued haulage of up to 270,000 tonnes of materials a year from the largest slate quarry in Wales seems...

Further ferry merger row

• Uncertainty over the future of cross-Channel services looks set to continue because of a legal row between the competition...

Dentressangle is paying for strikes

• Norbert Dentressangle failed to convert a 12% increase in revenue into profit growth in 19% because of a 15% jump in its...

Malham limit spells 12-mile HGV detour

• Hauliers in North Yorkshire could have to make long detours if a 10-tonne restriction is imposed on a bridge in Malham. The...

Page 12

Edinburgh plan omits freight

by Phil Revell • The man responsible for transport in Edinburgh has admitted the city has a strategy for all areas of...

TGWU in transfer talks

• The Transport & General Workers Union may take Wincanton Logistics and Hoyer UK to a tribunal to solve the driver crisis...

Return loads? Check the net

• Hauliers will be able to reduce their empty mileage or subcontract excess loads by accessing Europe's first Internet freight...

Scottish disaster narrowly avoided

• A Blue Circle cement truck carrying ammonium nitrate, the highly explosive fertiliser and other volatile material caught fire...

Page 13

Russian TIR ban threat

by Karen Miles • Hauliers travelling to Russia could face massive disruption from next year if a threat by the country's...

Couple refused compensation

• A couple left physically and mentally scarred by a horrific crash in which their stationary van was struck by a lorry, came...

Irish Haz training fails to keep pace

• More than 300 hazardous goods certificates will expire in Ireland over the next three months because of government inaction...

CONTRACTS

• Wincanton Logistics has a three-year leasing contract for a fleet of specialist tipper vehicles from animal feeds compounder...

Page 16

Green fleet saves costs

BOC Distribution Services has made the UK's biggest investment so far in natural gas-powered trucks, buying 10 ERF EC12...

THE FILLING STATION

• BOC's initial investment includes about £300,000 for a dedicated filling station, which could supply a fleet of 40 to 50...

Page 17

THE ENGINE

• VerityPerkins Eagle TxSi liquid-cooled, lean-burn, spark-ignition engine, turbocharged and charge-cooled with drive-by-wire...

THE TRUCK

• ERF EC12 4x2 tractive unit. GTW: 32,500kg. Gearbox: Eaton Twin Splitter. Fuel tank: MVE double-wall 400-litre tank,...

THE DRIVER

• Ian Coleman has driven BOC's gas trucks for several years, including the CNG-fuelled EC12 that CM has tested against a diesel...

Page 18

Decker boosts loads

by Toby Clark • Gray & Adams has supplied a double-deck refrigerated trailer to James Hall & Co of Southport which will use it...

Combi-fuel Combo at Motor Show

• Vauxhall will show a dual-fuel CNG/petrol Combo van at this week's London Motor Show. It is based on a 1.4i (Hi Tom) Merit...

Sprinter runs to 500,000km

• As a result uf a product monitoring programme MercedesBenz is confident that its Sprinter range will complete a 311,000-mile...

Volvo offers waste version of F17 • Volvo is now

offering FL7 6x2 positive-steer refusecollection chassis with factory-fitted four-man crew cabs. four-man (plus driver)...

Page 19

More vision in lower lighting

• Brigade Electronics has an upgraded version of the Clarion Backeye vehicle CCTV system, offering many benefits to the...

HeIla enters brake pad market

• With the introduction of the Hport range, Hello has made an important move into the competitive brake aftermarket. The...

Suspension parts and steering kit

• Roadlink International has introduced a range of truck and bus steering and suspension components to complement its existing...

Heat and sound cut

• Cool-it Mat, from Agrienrach, is a new composite thermal/ sound insulation material for vehicles. It reduces both oppressive...

Page 22

Sick leave

• Bridgend haulier Mark Davies, currently in hospital, has had his licence suspended until he is well enough to attend...

Wrong centre

• The use of an unauthorised operating centre by Bury St Edmunds-based Joshua Taylor-Smith Removal Services has led to the...

Coatbridge warned • - 1"hou g h taking no action against the licence

held by James Forsyth Coatbridge, the Scottish DTC Richard MacFarlane issued the company with a formal warning in regard to...

No paperwork

• Using a refuse vehicle without a current test certificate and without a vehicle excise licence has cost Stephen and Elizabeth...

BR'" Haulier learns his lesson

• A Coventry haulage contractor who threatened to close his business down when his company's licence was suspended in September...

Caught out by changed law

• A Guildford waste disposal company and one of its drivers were given absolute discharges after Bedford magistrates were told...

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Overloading charrs thrown out fnr kirk of o bridge check

Overloading charges brought against Blackburn lorry driver Paul Charnley have been thrown out by the town's magistrates....

Hired reefer van was heavier than usual

• The driver of a reefer van was given an absolute discharge for a second axle overoad by Ormskirk magistrates but his employer...

Page 24

Call for agency liability change

by David Craik • A disgruntled Hertfordshire haulier is calling for driver employment agencies to take more responsibility for...

Gap between tests costs £3,000

* A Basingstoke couple claim their dream of a life on the road has been dashed because a driving school gave them the wrong...

Fair Trials wants inquiry into drugs lorry storage

• There are calls for an inquiry into the case of a British lorry driver arrested in Spain on drugs charges, who was found to...

Page 26

EVENTS

• 20 October: Institute of Electronics and Electrical Incorporated Engineers lecture on Electronics in the Motor...

TRUCK RACING

Super Truck Race, IN Final round, Jarama Spain. Saturday 4 Oct: I. M Oestreich (M-B). 2. S Borgudd (M-B). 3. N Crozier...

BUSINESS MOVES

Doubly cool • Reefur Services, a Carrier Transicold sales and service dealership, has more than doubled its operating area. It...

Loader links

• HMF (UK), the UK subsidiary of Danish lorry loader manufacturer Hojbjerg Mask infabrik has appointed new dealers and renewed...

Baltic boost

• DFDS Transport has increased its capacity in the Baltic Sea by employing a third RO-RO vessel, DFDS Baltic Line. The service...

PRODUCTS

Nut discount • Commercial motor insurer, Crowe Insurance Group is endorsing the Disc-Lock Safety Wheel Nut. It is also...

Christmas cards

• Ben, the Motor and Allied Trades Benevolent Fund, has issued a Christmas catalogue of cards and gifts, including calendars,...

Page 27

Problem solved

A s an owner-driver, I read with interest the problems your reader Kurt Hutchinson had with his Renault Magnum (CM 9-15...

One man's meat...

I was interested to read your test of the Foden eightwheel tipper (CM 4-10 September), but the comments regarding the...

Knight of the road

H aving read any number of newspaper stories about the antics of lorry drivers I have just bought my first copy of your...

Recovery rates

T recently read a letter in the 1 Commercial Motor from a recovery driver taking about wages for the job (CM 2-8 October)....

Hibernian Hiccup: 2

Y ou put a headline on the Scottish show about "Hibernian" hauliers. I'm not scottish (or Irish) but I do know the difference...

Hibernian hiccup:1

D e the heading "Hibernian hauliers" Mused on your Scottish IRTE Show report (CM 25 September-1 October): where was the show...

Page 28

A winning way Erj i-ho, hi-ho it's off to work we

go. ..He looks a happy lad and so he should. John Campbell, a driver for Morrisons Construction, is the latest winner of the...

Voice from the past

0 ometimes we British can be a bit slow on the uptake. On 22 August 1928 a letter to The Times (signed only "Enquirer")...

Page 29

Baby driver

3 enius often tells at an early age. One-year-old Eimhin Moore is obviously a discerning young fellow destined for great...

Here comes the bride

U ou will often see a bride pull up outside the church in a vintage Rolls Royce or Perhaps a horse-drawn carriage. The carriage...

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OUT OF

OLDHAM If you want the predictability of a Cummins/Eaton/Rockwell driveline matched to the advanced cab design of a...

Page 34

DRIVERS' VERDICTS

As usual, having completed our three-day test route, we headed for a truckstop to invite some drivers to have a go and give us...

Page 48

Reach for the

The pier may have gone but Wigan crane operator Ainscough is determined not to live in the past as it sets about expansion by...

Page 51

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has been a long-established goal

of the European Union as a way of stabilising currency values. The Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), established in 1979, prevents...

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ENS E PICIII INIGS

Since the Environment Agency was set up it has prosecuted in some headline-making cases. But every day there are serious cases...

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IfES on the ROAD

Having a truck stolen is bad news for any haulier: for an owner-driver it can be the end of the line. Wise operators take...

Page 56

TRACK VA RS

Despite a slow start, intermodal rail systems by Thrall and Bombardier Eurorail, among others, are gaining ground on road...

Page 57

GB Express's Jeff Duval

already runs 300 piggyback trailers on the company's own block trains—a block train consists of 23 trailers—on services from...

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RECENT AND IMMINENT LEGISLATION

The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) ns 1996. CIF 1 July 1997. Provides exemptions from a number of C&U regulations for...

FUTURE LEGISLATION

• Vehicle dimensions: Changes proposed to C&U regs to allow drawbars up to 18.75m overall length, enforcing EU Directive 96/53....

Page 59

'We have seen the tacho develop from being a spy to an ally'

T he European Union hopes digital tachographs will be with us by July 2000. Smart cards for truck drivers instead of tachograph...