Volvo's good figures
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VOLVO was one of the few manufacturers at Tipcon last week to find any encouragement in this year's first quarter registration figures for multi-wheeled rigids.
DAF TRUCKS (GB) is to make York's Backstop automatic braking device an option on all Its rigid chassis and will be the first vehicle manufacturer to do so.
The Backstop applies a reversing vehicle's brakes automatically if something contacts the rubber tube which is mounted at the extreme rear of the vehicle.
The D-section tube is connected to the air braking system. Compared with the same period last year, Volvo GB's sales of six-wheelers have increased by 50 per cent, from 105 vehicles to 151, taking its market share of this sector from under 12 per cent to 19 per cent.
While the number of Volvo eight-wheelers registered so far this year is virtually the same as in the first three months of 1983 (at 112) the generally lower sales in this sector has again given Volvo an improved market share, from 19 to 22.5 per cent.
The market leader for both sixand eight-wheelers continues to be Leyland. In the first quarter of this year Leyland has sold more than twice as many three-axle rigids as its closest rival (Volvo), with Daf holding third place.
Leyland's Constructor Eight has taken over from its predecessor, the Scarnmell Routeman, as the favourite eight-wheeler among British operators, with Volvo's F7 holding second place ahead of Foden.