Europe the need for a common approach
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HARMONIZATION in road transport throughout Europe was the theme of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers conference at Solihull on May 10 and 11.
Presenting a paper on legislation and vehicle design, Mr John Furness, chief mechanical engineer of the Department of the Environment, said the EEC's progress towards a common transport policy had been slow and the only .'xisting rules likely to have a direct mpact on vehicle operators had been :hose covering drivers' hours and -ecords and tachographs. Many aspects )f EEC technical legislation would, lowever, become effective in Britain — or example, while initially the C and U egulations had been amended to rovide for vehicles which met the EEC raking directive, in the long term the C nd U rules would have to be amended ore completely to embrace that direcye.
While the EEC's attempts to armonize vehicle size and weight gulations were welcome in principle, practice it was not that simple. The oposals involved many limits which ffered widely from those in the UK d also included such items as aximum height and tractor/ trailer ight ratios which we did not have at esent and which could cause oblems.
The proposed EEC vehicle size limits uld cause no serious difficulties but suggested axle weights and gross hide weights were already causing ncern; the UK and West Germany were reluctant to accept axle loadings above 10.25 tonnes (10 tons) because of the estimated increase in bridge and road surface damage. But Mr Furness revealed that 870 bridges had already been strengthened in preparation for the uprating of UK limits to 44 tons for artics and 56 tons for road trains — 1970 proposals which came to nothing. There were, he said, a further 300 bridges still requiring attention and even with this expenditure of effort to cater for vehicles within the present C and U weight limits there were many bridges unable to bear heavy vehicles.
Mr Walter Batstone, NFC chief engineer, suggested that we should stick at 10 tons and "wait and see". On brakes, he advocated a detailed study of two-line systems, which he felt were the equal of the three-line; we were the odd ones out, which leads to trailer matching difficulties in Europe.
Training variations
The need for co-operation in technical training was highlighted in a very detailed paper by Mr David Wheatley, consultant director, City & Guilds of London Institute. He showed how French, German, Dutch and Belgian apprentice and engineering training differed from country to country and was in many ways quite unlike our own.
It was a testimony to the value of the UK professional institutions that only in this country was the term "road transport engineer" generally understood. In the past, attempts to gain mutual