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eye view by the Hawk
Page 71
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• Cordon Bluey
An Australian contemporary, Truck and Bus Transportation, is currently carrying a series of four-page Leyland ads which closely resemble the feature pages of a woman's magazine — though with one big difference. Page one contains a monthly instalment of "The Truckie Gourmet" — Bluey Tucker describing roadside eating houses for Aussie truck drivers.
Mr Tucker, pictured as a plump, bearded all-Australian guy, has an inimitable turn of phrase — "in the fuel and food business, seeing someone else latch on to your idea must be as easy to swallowas a crateful of jug handles."
mE his culinary tour of the great outback Bluey casts an appreciative eye over menus and waitresses, who sometimes warrant his bighest accolade of "a real bottler". Typical fare for the Aussie truckie can include (for breakfast) lamb's fry and bacon, goulli.sh, curried chicken and. rice, Vienna sc I, and meat balls.
uoy ticker Issue No. 3
• Fan-tastic
The rest of the 'F & BT ad is devoted to a rnontbly feature describing feats performed )), the drivers of Leyland trucks in the tough :onditions which seem to prevail in Australia. Undei. the title of "The Leylanders" the ieries has something of the flavour of a Boy's Own Paper adventure rather than
truck advertisement. Last month's gripping nstalment, for instance, was about a lonely iriver who spent 14 hours digging his truck )ut of a ditch and then drove for hundreds )f miles with blood-streaming hands.
British readers might well find this ipproach more fun (if that's the word) than he usual straightforward ads. A series about he cidinary highspots of Al might go down t real treat (I'm catching Bluey's turn of already), and how about a souldrama involving broken fanbelts at ton M6? thras earin idn
I Foursome
'he agas of cross-ownership, technical gree ents" and pooled design and developlent n the European truck field are really etting most complicated — and likely to
become more so as the rising cost of research and tooling forces companies to spread their investments.
One of the boldest ventures is the VolvoSaviem-Magirus-DA F "club of four" project for the joint development of a range of lightmedium trucks. It has drawn some sceptical — not to say scathing —remarks from some senior folk in the British truck industry who see in it all the pitfalls of committee rule, magnified by the multi-national participation.
But at least some of the partners in the deal are vehement that everything is going according to plan; a recent suggestion by a correspondent in CM that the VolvoBerliet deal, which is due for signature this month, might upset the club-of-four plan have been strenuously denied.
Interestingly, I'm told by a French source involved in the project that when Berliet was in financial need over a year ago, Saviem suggested to the French government that it might buy a half-share in Berliet through Renault (which is state-owned and owns Saviem). The Government was not averse, but the scheme was, says my informant, turned down from the Berliet end — which was no surprise to those who know how reluctant Michelin is to get tied up with State businesses. The connection? Michelin effectively owns Berliet.
• Driver drain
In its annual report just published,-National Freight Corporation records that in 1972 its 20 driver training schools turned out over 3500 men. I asked a senior NFC man what the annual wastage was, and learned that it's about 50 per cent. Many drivers, I was told, take jobs in the own-account industry. A familiar story.
Like many other people in haulage, NFC is worried about the future shortage of hgv drivers — they reckon that by 1975 the industry will be 30,000 licensed drivers short.
Does the NFC use driver agencies? A very firm "No!" was the answer to that one.
• Superspain?
Which country in Europe would you expect to have the finest highway system by 1980? No prizes for the answer, but you may be as surprised as me to learn that the claim is being put forward by Spain. The Spanish Mi niste r of Public Works, Seiler don Gonzalez Fernandez de la Mora, told our man in Spain recently that "our aim is that by 1980 we shall have the best highway system of any country in Europe. During 1973 we are contracting more than 1000 kilometres
of autopistas (motorways), which is more than in the previous six years."
It seems that nearly 40 per cent of Spanish government investment at present is in public works. It will benefit road freight and coaching operators, but I fancy that they'll have the car tourist largely to thank for the scale of the road works — and for that promise about highway leadership.
• Miracle at Loughborough?
The "jumbalance" — a Mercedes-Benz/ Willowbrook coach specially built for the Across Trust, a new charity bringing mobility to the disabled — is back from its second trip to Lourdes and is now on a goodwill tour round Britain raising funds and Green Shield trading stamps. At the vehicle's launch by Jimmy Savile on Friday one of the Trust's officers told a story concerning the building of the ambulance — by 25 men at a time working flat out for six weeks — by Willowbrook. "Appen you needn't go to Lourdes at all," said one of the men. "Oh, why?" he was asked. "Appen you've got a miracle here," he said.
• Fulltime Fodens
Since CM's story last week about the effects of the Gardner engine shortage, Fodens have had a windfall — they've managed to obtain another batch of power units (not Gardners). Fodens' Tony Smith tells me this means they've enough to carry them through to their expansion programme in September without going on short time after all.
"Only one previous owner — a mild little vicar".