Manager's handy book
Page 53
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MANY PEOPLE in transport must be updating their copy of The Transport Manager's Handbook by inserting bits torn from CM and newspapers on new regulations over the years. Their problem is when to buy a new copy. The 1984 version (Kogan Page; £15.95) is the 14th edition. However, such is the large number of newcomers to the business each year, that there may also be plenty who do not know how comprehensive is this handbook — 685 pages — by David Lowe.
As the author says: "The new measures on weights and dimensions must rate as the most significant new law which has been enacted in the past 12 months." Vehicle weights and dimensions — chapter 9 — takes 23 pages.
As the legislation is piled on remorselessly, the risks of the contravention of some new measure or other are increased, he says. However, his book is a practical interpretation of legal matters for the layman — it is not a definitive legal work of reference.
What it does is to provide a great deal of information, including diagrams, tables and lists that are relatively easy to look up.
Say you have a skip loader for the first time, and think: "Does this call for height marking?" It is indexed. "When vehicles or trailers are used to carry containers, engineering equipment or skip loaders," says the handbook, "the height of the vehicle and its load must be indicated to the driver in the vehicle cab if the height exceeds 12ft. The height marking, in letters and figures at least 40mm tall, must show the 'travelling height' to within an inch." There is a bit more on this subject, but you get the idea.
This latest edition includes new material on: • environmental conditions to be applied to 0-licences;
• regulations relating to twoyearly checks on tachograph installation
• medical provisions for hgv drivers' licences • hazardous loads; • and the recently introduced sick-pay scheme.
The author has written firsttime chapters on renting and leasing, and on fuel economy. The book can be criticised: dery is "a high-cost commodity" when we know it's b-expensive; and one expects papers and magazines to be spattered with ads, but not a book — with half-pagers, not necessarily ruled off! But the important thing is this: while transport specialists will need additional information, dipping into this book from time to time rather than relying on memory may well help operators retain their 0-licence.
Kogan Page, 120 Pentonville
Road, London Ni. IIIJFD