Burrows is three times a Michelin man
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THE BEST PART of becoming Britain's Lorry Driver of the Year comes later. Among a lengthy list of prizes the Michelin study tour stands out, especially for those winners who have a keener interest than most in road transport.
The 1984 LDoY is Colin Burrows, a petrol delivery driver with Esso based at the West London terminal near Heathrow. He raced clear of the field with a spectacular piece of close judgment driving at the national finals at Cranfield in September, and became the first driver to win the annual competition three times since it was started 32 years ago.
This year's study trip was to West Germany, to take in Michelin's training centre, the latest developments at tachograph maker Kienzle, and MAN's truck range. It also afforded the chance to experience some pretty alarming German driving. I went to Germany last month with Mr Burrows, his transport manager Goff Stone, and Michelin public relations man Chris Rogers.
First stop was Karlsruhe to see round the training centre at Michelin Germany's impressive commercial headquarters. Around 4,000 fitters from cus tomers and dealers attend the centre each year. It became apparent that Colin Burrows is up to-date with modern trends in truck tyres and maintenance. (Before becoming a driver he was a truck fitter.) Among a long line of truck tyres on display for people at tending the training facilities, he picked out the XZT-type driveline tyre, which he believes should be fitted to all drive ax les. They give much better traction on the drive axle, he said.
Esso is experimenting with a brand of XZT this month, at the West London terminal.
Michelin devotes a lot of its training time to wheel alignment. As Colin Burrows said, it doesn't matter how good your tyres are if your wheel alignment is wrong.
The job is best done with good, old-fashioned mirrors, Michelin believes, although some of the latest electronic equipment is challenging that view. By and large, the existing computer systems are good for show, our guide said. But you never know if what they are telling you is correct. With mirrors you have the evidence of your own eyes.
The Michelin tour also includes mention of wheels the company makes 45,000 wheel rims a day, we were told. "Not many people know this," our guide said.
But it was with the tyres themselves that most of the in terest lay. One tyre is made from 18 sorts of rubber, mostly synthetic, which are blended to give the right balances between grip, durability, rolling resistance and price. Truck tyres have around 30 per cent natural rubber, whereas car tyres are almost entirely synthetic, made from oiL-based compounds. Natural rubber generally gives better mileage.
The difference in price between car and truck tyres is partly explained by the difference in manufacturing time — one hour at 160°C for cars, eight hours at the same temperature for trucks.
The training facilities at Karlsruhe are bright, spacious and spotlessly clean. "No more than I would expect from a goahead German company," commented Colin Burrows.
From Karlsruhe it is a threehour hard drive to Villingen, the home of Kienzle deep in the Schwarzwald. Kienzle, which has so successfully moved into our tachograph market with its British partner Lucas (which owns 60 per cent of Lucas Kienzle), began as a watch maker in the last century and moved into making instruments in 1926.
Its best known products have been taxi meters and tachographs, which still remain important. But three years ago the family firm was taken over by Mannenmann to gain funds for development into computers. Look out for a change in name to include mention of the multinational giant parent.
We stayed with tachographs, however, following them through the production line. Kienzle makes 30,000 tachos a month now, having reached a peak of 50,000 four years ago. The firm makes virtually the whole instrument itself, including the casings. Latest addition is a new automatic paint shop for the plastic facing which is visible once it is installed in the cab. Although the material is matt black plastic, truck makers insisted that they be painted matt black!
Throughout the production line, modified tachographs are used to monitor the performance of each employee and to calculate his wages. Kienzle is obviously leading the way in tachograph applications!
The use of tacho charts for management information is catching on fast, however, according to sales director Klaus Thede. Charts can and should be used to improve efficiency. It can show up the time savings in good scheduling, for example.
Kienzle is also introducing an all-in fuel and performance monitoring system for large fleets, which has started selling in America but has still to be made available in Britain. With a separate engine speed monitor fitted, it can even pick up in stances when the engine is being revved too fast.
"We are not allowed to look at the tachograph charts," quipped Goff Stone. "You can't use a charge to discipline a driver," added Colin Burrows.
He has mixed feelings about the charts. "At the moment drivers only have to comply with the basic law. Apart from that they can drive as they wish. If the company is in the position to use the charts for disciplining drivers, I hope drivers could gain an advantage from having a good record." Kienzle's belief is also that a premium should be paid to drivers seen to be driving well.
Kienzle not only encourages haulage bosses to examine tachograph charts, it does the same job on a consultancy basis, mainly for courts. The firm has examined 7 0,00 0 charts over the past 30 years, often sent following an accident. The majority have shown the driver was not at fault, the company says.
Hauliers also send in their drivers' charges for assessment on a scale 1 to 6. Mr Burrows did quite well, gaining a mark of two to three (one being the highest!). He would have scored higher, but his charts showed he had been speeding on the M25.
Talking of speeding, the drive on the autobahn to Munich was fairly interesting, as we drove our Mercedes 280 at a steady indicated 220km/h (137mph). Leading the way was Michelin's German pr man, Manfred. I don't think the speedometer was very far out. But the cars which went sailing past us were definitely way over the top of any reasonable speed. It wasn't just the speed, but the fact that drivers sit on each others' metaphorical bumpers. The outside lane of the motorway was marked with an uninterrupted series of burnt rubber marks where vehicles had locked up, The Greens may want absurdly low-speed limits in Germany to save trees, but there's no doubt in my mind that the imposition of some sanity will save nerves and lives. Colin Burrows admitted to some sweat on the palms of his hands when we arrived in Munich.
It was a welcome relief, therefore, to do some driving off-road in a vehicle which is well-nigh indestructable. Our morning with MAN's highly successful 320hp six-by-six army truck was the high point of the trip. The icing on the Blackforest gateau; you might say.
The vehicle, with torque converter, takes extremely steep mud-slopes and quagmires in its sextuped stride. It is basically the same vehicle as the 365hp tractor used to haul Cruise missiles around Britain. Not only does it get you where you want to go, but the ride is remarkably smooth.
Next on the driving list was MAN's new 16-tonner. The model we tried was fitted with very large mirrors — a bit too big, alas, when you're used to driving arouncrcross-country proving grounds without another vehicle in sight. The end came when we went past a boxvan parked appallingly on the wrong side of the road. A slight flick on the end of the mirror was enough. "Breaking a mirror is not a reportable accident," reported a rather sheepish Mr Burrows.
He was back to his best pretty quickly, however, trying out the Bosch ABS systems for preventing lock-up while braking. He slid a 16-tonner rigid build for drawbar operation quite nicely without the system switched on, and it was impressive to feel it stop in a straight line under hard braking with the ABS working, especially as the nearside tyres were on mossy cobblestone while the offside was on dry tarmac.
Mr Burrows normally drives a 32.5-tonne artic, and will shortly move up to 38 tonnes with three-axle tractors. He was therefore keen to get out on to the open road with MAN's topof-the-range 19.361 turbo, coupled to a tilt and loaded to 38 tonnes.
The unit has ZF synchromesh gears and a 360hp engine, mounted underneath the cab. "It isn't noisy but there is more engine noise than one would expect. But that's not wrong. You need to hear the engine to get some idea of how it's working."
There is much more room for the driver in MAN's heavy cab than in most, because of the position of the engine. This means the driver can stand up to get dressed — not necessary when you're delivering petrol in central London, but quite useful for long-distance work where the driver sleeps in his cab.
"The exhaust brake is quiet, but it is effective," said Mr Burrows. "You can feel the truck run away when it is not on. The extra 51/2 tonnes makes a difference. You feel there's a bigger force when you brake."
An Isringhausen air suspension driver's seat was fitted to our tractive unit. "It's a peculiar feeling when you sit down." But after a while he was impressed. "The proof of the value is that I'm not aware of it. The worst seats are those bolted to the floor. They jar the body to pieces."
Mr Burrows believes that his own Seddon-Atkinson has an ideal driving position, but approved of the positioning of the driver in the MAN. "I seem to be sitting about 4in nearer to the side of the vehicle."
MAN and ZF, in common with other vehicle and component makers, are developing a computerised servo-assisted gearbox which will make the gearstick redundant. The idea is that the ideal gear will be selected automatically at all times, and MAN predicts fuel savings of up to 20 per cent. The system will work off a 16-gear box, and will have an economy override. The system should be commercially available early in 1987.
Colin Burrows predicts some resistance from drivers. And the computer system will not be significantly better than a good driver making manual gearchanges. But he concedes that less careful drivers could return lower fuel consumption figures.
We encountered most kinds of driving conditions in our drive in the Munich area. "The motorways are not so heavily congested as ours. We're not so bunched up and don't come into conflict with other drivers so much. The M1 is worse," he said as we sped along the main autobahn round Munich.
He was less impressed, however, with traffic lights at the end of short motorway slip roads, and with the single-carriage slip road. "If we broke down here, we would block the road and have traffic backing up onto the motorway," he observed.
Negotiating some of the oldest A-class roads was difficult. They were very narrow indeed, and Colin Burrows had to keep his concentration fully on keeping the lorry on the road but off vehicles coming the other way.
"The roads are in pretty good order, though. There are not the potholes we get around London. But some of these roads might get a bit naughty when it rains, they are so polished."
The extended test route was well-known to our MAN guide, and is perhaps a route he takes many prospective customers over. MAN buyers are able to go to the factory to inspect and pick-up the vehicle off the production line. In Germany, they are not normally sold at dealers.
A tour of the production facility showed that most of the work is still done by man rather than machine, although some welding and, most recently, primer paint spraying are now done by robot.
The Germans were intrigued at the size of Britain's lorry driving competition, and not a little impressed. They have their own, but it is not nearly so large.
As for Colin Burrows, it was his third Michelin trip; he had already visited Holland and Spain following his previous victories. The German trip confirmed his view that the Michelin is the highlight for LDoY winners.