North American haulier hit
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III A survey by the Private Truck Council of America reveals that insurance premiums for private carriers have increased by an average of 114%, reports the May edition of Traffic Management, That's high, it says, but nothing like the percentage increases of 200, 300, 400 and in a few cases 1,000 that the for-hire truckers have experienced.
The journal also reports that 12 out of the nation's top 17 van lines suffered significant declines in net earnings from 1984 to '85. And the industry overall experienced a woeful decrease in earnings of 27.5% as high operating costs outpaced revenues.
In a feature on the less-than-truckload sector of the trucking industry, the journal suggests that in a few years' time a handful of carriers will dominate this LTL market. Since the Motor Carrier Act was passed in 1980 many small carriers have fallen by the wayside in "a classic struggle for survival". "Since deregulation, the strong have gotten stronger and the weak have gotten weaker," says a consultant, Deregulation is the source of the industry's woes, says James C Harkins, managing director of the Regular Common Carrier Conference. "It's shurtsighted to suggest that efficient carriers are getting bigger. Rather, it's the bigger carriers that are getting bigger,' he says. "To says there has been an increase in service for everybody is a flat lie," he argues.
Meanwhile, Canada is preparing for transport deregulation. The journal's News Analysis section reports that Canada's federal Ministry of Transport wants to loosen entry to trucking, facing new entrants with one requirement: a "fit, willing and able" test. The Canadian Trucking Association says motor carriers are uneasy about competing against governmentowned transport companies in a deregulation market. However, shippers are strongly in favour, arguing that dereg legislation would 'let them buy transport services in a competitive market."
II The world's longest paper round... is operated by truck An air strike in Australia gave Sydney based Atuform the chance to show that road transport is a viable alternative, and now, via a Scania P82M Intercooler, collects papers at home base and delivers to Broken Hill, 1,200km away.
Sometimes, when there is a major disruption to air services, reports the monthly Scania World Wide, this haulier continues with an extra driver on to Perth. Total trip: 4,0001an.
Aluform is so named because it at one time made aluminium truck bodies; today it still fabricates equipment for its fleet of 15 delivery trucks, mostly Hmos. "This paper round to Broken Hill is tough and takes a heavy toll of trucks," says company manager Ron Searle. "We trust the Scania to do the job."
• Turkey's international transport declined by 5% in 1985 compared with 1984, reports the Financial Times, May 19, in a supplement, but truck movements, importing goods from Europe, rose from 40,000 to 60,000, with Turkish trucks accounting for 40%. The paper reports Saffet Ulusoy, chairman of the Turkish International Transporters Association, as saying that it should be accepted that Turkey is now a leading transportation company. "The border barriers should be lifted. This is Turkey but it is also Europe."
Road haulage carried 37,5% of exports by tonnage in 1984, and the association is lobbying for better roads; only 1001cm are motorways. However, the country has a 3,6001cm share in the 10,000km Trans-European Motorway project, which had a target date for completion of 1990, but is now expected to be about a decade late.
• The recovery in Brazil's economy is being accompanied by increased road construction, reports the current edition of Dynapac Report, and the company is supplying equipment.
• Trinidad and Tobago has launched a fiveyear pilot project for the use of natural gas as a fuel for the islands' motor vehicles, reports the Financial Times, June 3. The project is aimed initially at fleet vehicles, including public transport: the gas costs about 43 TT cents (12 US cents).
Patrick Manning, Trinidad and Tobago Energy Minister, says natural gas leads to lower maintenance costs, less carbon formation and a reduction in the emission of pollutants; the chief disadvantages include the need to store gas in heavy, bulky cylinders and there is a slight loss of acceleration power.
The islands have proven reserves of natural gas totalling 55 trillion cubic feet.
• American Motors, the US manufacturer controlled by Renault, has reached agreement over the provision of foreign exchange to maintain the operations of its joint-venture Jeep assembly plant in Peking. Around 4,000 Chinese are employed in assembling AMC's Jeep Cherokee, exported almost entirely in kit form from Ontario, reports the Financial Times, May 27. Around 750 kits had been held up to shipment. The Peking plant also assembles the Peking 212 Jeep, a Chinese version of a Russian vehicle, MI Yugoslav inflation, almost 80%, is causing increased co-operation between Western motor manufacturers and their equivalents in Yugoslavia, writes Bill Godwin, in a report on the Belgrade Show, in Commercial Motor, June 7.
• Federal Transport Minister Peter Morris predicts that by the end of the year it will be possible to drive around the perimeter of Australia on sealed roads, according to the April edition of Truck & Bus.
MA requirement introduced by the New South Wales Clean Air Act, reports the April edition of Truck & Bus, means that exhaust pipes on an eight-tonne truck must discharge emissions at least three metres above the ground. With some loads, the hot exhaust discharges only a few inches away, and this has led to several truck burn-outs.