SHOP TALK
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• The eighth annual conference of the European Transport Maintenance Council (ETMC) will be remembered not for its theme of 'Transport maintenance and the environment but for what it failed to say to those who failed to attend. Fleet engineers were vastly outnumbered by manufacturers' and suppliers' representatives.
Is this apathy or a reflection of the differences between the structure of the road transport industry in the UK and mainland Europe? On the Continent a much larger proportion of vehicles were maintained by manufacturers' appointed agents than in the UK.
That cosy relationship suits the manufacturers very well. They only want to play the game by their own rules." said the ETMC's chairman, Malcolm Elisell. Indeed, Mercedes' defence in the brake compatibility debate appeared to be that the truck manufacturer would have to fit different brake chambers and levers to each wheelbase/ weight combination in the range.
The manufacturers could withdraw their support from next year's conference and effectively silence the only Europeanwide critical voice. The only thing that will stop them is if their customers, the operators. are there. So the ETMC needs to get its act together. But more than that it needs support from fleet and maintenance engineers.