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TALL STORY • As a former car transporter driver, I
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have watched with interest two TV reports recently about Ted Toleman and his new £250,000 12-car Iveco Ford car transporter (CM 2531 January).
All computerised, it can do absolutely everything with any type of standard car.
But two things spring to mind about it. Firstly, what happens when the truck is used in the wet? Electrics are notorious for suffering when the dreaded wet stuff gets in them and I have yet to find anything on a vehicle totally waterproof. A truck fitted with a computer, outside!
Secondly, and I think rather more important, I read somewhere in the transport press recently that the EC will be foisting another law on the UK in January 1993 which will mean the UK will have to formally adopt the EC height limit which, dependent on whose rule you happen to be using at the time, is about 4m (13ft 3in). This will not only give Mr Toleman a financial headache, but will cause problems for operators of other high-sided vehicles, not just car transporters.
Apart from rendering all trideck transporters immediately as scrap (it will give sales of oxy-acetylene a boost). it will bring a timely ending to that odd piece of structure responsible for the death of many lamp-posts, traffic lights, trees and odd first-floor bedroom windows — the peak deck on attic transporters. This piece of equipment being an anomaly in the C&U law that has been exploited beyond the realms of possibility by nearly all car transporter operators in the UK today.
If the write-up I saw is correct, this oddity will have to go, as it will be rendered redundant by the height law as I do not know of any car manufacturers who make a vehicle about 0-76m (2ft 6in) high. I do feel sure that conunotions will be heard in very high places, but knowing how we normally fail to get anywhere with the "Burghers of Brussels" when confronted with a law that the haulage industry has to comply with, feel very sure that there will be some upset car transport firms on the day when we have to comply.
Most firms have been struggling to get as many cars as possible to make as much money as quickly as possible. Now it seems some are going to lose three, or possibly four, car spaces on each truck, which will bring us in line with Continental operators, but is bound to put the price of a new vehicle up as smaller capacity loads means higher costs. Therefore, the delivery price will go up. . . food for thought. "I stand to be corrected if wrong."
Chris Morris, Marky ate, Herts.