and often provides some savings. For some operators control of
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the engine speed when the PT-0 is used provides excellent protection against engine surges.
Finally, there is no reason why the limiter should not be set below the 60mph maximum for trucks, for those vehicles or routes where savings can be proved.
If you cannot avoid it, use it. I only wish more operators had taken this advice when the standard tachograph was first fitted, and subsequently when it became clear that major savings were available in some fleets to those who installed and used the road and engine-speed tachograph.
F Kay Lucas Kienzle Instruments, Birmingham.
Hard times in the sun
• Chancellor Norman Lamont must be correct. The recovery from the recession is surely underway.
I base this opinion on the fact that the Road Haulage Association's annual conference in Portugal this October is already over-subscribed. The haulage industry consistently claims that it is always last to feel the benefits of an upturn in the economy.
In which case the benefits to the rest of us are only weeks away.
How is it that the leaders of such a hard-pressed industry can find the time and finance to go off to the golfing paradise of Albufeira to learn how to improve the quality of their service? As they weep into their vintage port perhaps they will consider meeting next year for a weekend with beer and beef in Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow or some other centre of industry where their customers are located. That way they might stand a better chance of convincing those who employ them that a rate increase is essential to maintain the quality of their service.
I can almost hear them crying now that this is their annual holiday. In that case one must feel a degree of sympathy. Two days away from the desk is hardly compensation for 363 days of hard toil. To add to their woes, holidays cannot be claimed as a business expense.
The RHA is indeed fortunate that the trade publications cover the conference, at their own expense, to bring a record of the events to those less able, or inclined, to spare the time to go.
lain Sherriff Joyden's Wood, Kent.
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