Instruments interest TA members
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• Instruments were a main topic at a meeting of the Transport Association in London on Tuesday. First, concern was expressed by a number of members at difficulties that couicl be met on MoT tests due to the continued high failure rate of speedometer drives. Then. after lunch, Mr. A. Smith, joint managing director of Speedograph Ltd., gave a talk on the design and use of tachographs which produced a barrage of questions.
Answering a question on speedometer failure, Mr. Smith pointed out that British-made speedometer heads were the best in the world and that the usual trouble was in the drive shaft. it was stressed that attention needed to be paid to giving adequate support for the flexible drive shaft in the chassis frame end that kinks and sharp bends were to be avoid ed. If this was not done either at the manufacturing stage or by maintenance staff after replacement, it was unlikely that the drive would last for an adequate life, said Mr. Smith: he said that special flexible drives of high quality are supplied with his firm's tachograph.
The refusal of certain drivers to accept the fitting of tachographs was raised and Mr. Smith felt that the extra productivity possible by their use should be reflected in some reward for the driver. Sabotage was possible. he said, but this would normally be obvious and the often-talked-about methods of making the instruments perform incorrectly or not at all were completely fallacious.
Tachographs have been a legal requirement in Germany for 11 years, Mr. Smith pointed out, and the same situation exists in other countries, including Sweden, with the rest of the European Common Market following suit from January 1 1970. The units are completely accepted in these countries and Mr. Smith did not see why things should be any different in Britain..
He agreed that much of the concern is that the tachograph record might be used to enforce speed limits, but he pointed out that it would need a special Act of Parliament for this to be done; the instruments will be used primarily to check the length of time a vehicle is in use.