Vehicle design THIS LETTER is addressed to the commercial vehicle industry:—
Page 80
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Gentlemen, can I help you? I have been personally involved in road haulage for several years and have come to realize the absence of certain types of vehicle with which I feel the industry should provide the haulier.
Several vehicle manufacturers advertise the fact that they like to pioneer and so lead the field with new and improved vehicles and many do live up to this ideal. However even I can see room for great steps forward in vehicle design embodying major construction changes and not just such niceties as improved vision, tilt cabs, etc.
To give just one example, there is a big need for—and an easy way of building—a vehicle in the medium-heavy range which while being to all intents and purposes a normal rigid can when required be readily separated into tractor /trailer, giving both the benefits of articulation and the safety and ease of operation of the rigid. Such a vehicle could be constructed immediately by most manufacturers from their existing parts and chassis with little or no extra cost to the operator.
Obviously in competitive manufacture the first on the market with such a vehicle would have a tremendous advantage both prestige and sales-wise and there was none on show at Earls Court this year.
DAVID R. TURNER, 21 Cross Lane, Marple, Stockport, Cheshire