Nottingham's Rambo talks safety with Volvo heads
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THE 1985 WINNER of the prestigious Mark Vane memorial award for showing "courage, courtesy or care on the road is John Taylor, a lorry driver from Brindsley, Nottinghamshire. In addition to receiving the award. John was taken last week to Sweden by Volvo Trucks for a combination of sightseeing, study and discussions with both Volvo and an operator.
As John Taylor formally received thc Commercial Motor
and Volvo-organised Mark Vane Award last week CM editor Allan Winn said: "You've done something to raise the image of the industry almost single-handedly.
"We are very pleased to be able to make an award to someone like you — someone who has done something positive for someone else and for the image of the industry."
Taylor, a night trunker with Nottingham based J.
Stirland, was also compli mented for his "incredible courage, resilience and resour
cefulness" by one of the eight judging panel, Frank Page of the Mail on Sunday.
Last January, Taylor — who is now nick-named Rambo by his workmates — rescued a van-driver crushed underneath a lorry after a headon collision.
He went through the back doors of the van and ripped out a passenger seat, the dash board and cleared the air passages of the trapped driver. Finally, he used a crowbar to get the driver's door off. Throughout sparks were dying out of the lorry onto the top of the highly combustible van, and he was covered in paint.
John's first call at Volvo in Sweden was to talk to Leif Strand (vice-president, sales and marketing) and Lennart Svensson (manager of the driver environment and traffic safety department) about road safety. John quickly showed he was interested in this subject, suggesting that vehicles should be fitted with equipment which warns a driver he is following too closely. He discussed other ideas with Strand and Svensson, such as warning lights which come on automatically when a vehicle has an impact, or instruments on the sides of motorways which would detect when there is a stationary vehicle close by.
John was then shown some of the results of the accident investigations which Volvo carries out in conjunction with the Swedish authorities: since 1969 it has investigated some 1,100 accidents. One of the disturbing features which Svensson pulled out was that over 80 per cent of accidents involving trucks were either single vehicle or truck-truck incidents.
After a sightseeing tour of Gothenberg, John visited the headquarters of Hallens Akeri, a Swedish haulier of about the same size as John's employer, J. Stirland.
He was surprised to see the number of log hooks and time sheets which Swedish drivers still fill in, and at the hours which the Swedish drivers seemed to be working — though he was relieved that they did not seem to be paid much more for it.
Then it was off for the MOSE important meeting of
the trip, lunch with Sten Langenius, chairman of Volvo Truck Corporation. Over lunch, many of the comparisons which John had been drawing came out, and Sten Langenius then presented John with his own replica of the Mark Vane trophy. Afterwards, he was able to see where Volvo's largest trucks are made, in the very modern Tuve plant, and the research laboratories nearby.
John's final day in Sweden started with ins indoctrination into Sweden's annual Santa Lucia celebrations before he was let loose on the Swedish roads with a 38-tonne Volvo FL10. For John, this was a major experience: his first time on continental roads and in a left-hand-drive vehicle. He said that the lightweight power steering was impressive after that fitted to his usual mount, a 32-tonne E.RF, but he found the light synchromesh gearchange rather strange compared with the ERF's Fuller box. He was impressed with the quietness of the cab, and the ventilation, and declared that he wouldn't mind driving all day.