AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Busmen win

14th March 1981, Page 21
14th March 1981
Page 21
Page 21, 14th March 1981 — Busmen win
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

FOUR DUNFERMLINE coach drivers who were made redundant when Rennie of Dunfermline Ltd decided to sell seven coaches have won their appeal against unfair dismissal before an industrial tribunal.

Rennie dismissed the four drivers last August without warning, paying wages in lieu of notice, The only reason given for redundancy was the proposed sale of the drivers' buses.

Other drivers with less service than the dismissed drivers and whose buses were not sold were retained, but all the dismissed drivers were capable of driving any of the retained buses.

The tribunal had no hesitation in ruling that Rennie's had acted unreasonably; there was no reason why any of the dismissed drivers could not have been switched to one of the retained vehicles.

The drivers were awarded compensation of £510, £400, £510 and 14,572 respectively. The conversion is based on the longest 508D wheelbase — 4.1m (13ft Sin) — and with 19 seats, the Devon 508D fills the gap between the 12-seater minibus and the 10m 45-seater.

The seats are moquette-covered and have hinged armrests. Roof and interior side panels are attractively covered in carpettype material, and set into the roof are two lift-up vents, three fluorescent lights, and three radio speakers. Side windows are bronze-tinted.

The rest of Devon's specification includes Treadmaster flooring in the aisle, full-length luggage racks, lights for the twostep entrance, and a 0.84cum (30cuft) boot.

From the passenger's viewpoint, the ride is smooth, but engine noise levels at higher speeds occasionally give a reminder that the 508D is essentially a converted van.

Binding rear nearside brake linings took the edaP off the Mercedes' performance, but • midicoach's regular driver fri Nadder Valley Coaches assu me it could reach 103km (64mph).

With a dozen of the coach's seats occupied, acceleration v less than startling, but t Mercedes seemed willi enough to pull from low rev you were prepared to be patie The engine itself is the M cedes-Benz 0M314 3.8-litre fo cylinder diesel developing 63 (86bhp) at 2,800rpm: With overall length of 6.94m (: 10in) and a gross laden wei. of almost five tonnes (3 tonnes unladen) extra poN. would not have come amiss.

During our 213km (135 mi run, consisting or motorway . cross-country driving, the co averaged a creditable ' lit/100km (19.6mpg), wh would probably have been e better without the binding brt The price is £18,864, plus ve

Tags


comments powered by Disqus