Less downtime and more profits

22nd September 1972, Page 93

22nd September 1972

Page 93

Page 93, 22nd September 1972 — Less downtime and more profits

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• A promise of improved comfort and reliability leading to reduced downtime and increased profits was made by Mr D. W. Redmond, managing director of Atkinson Vehicles Ltd, on Friday last week. He was speaking to the Southampton sub-area of the Road Haulage Association at its "stag" dinner.

The commercial vehicle cabs which would be in production in the next 12 to 18 months, he said, would be equal to or beat anything in the world. Cab strengths of some European trucks were not all they appeared to be. There was little point in building a cab to withstand a certain impact if that same impact knocked the cab off the chassis, he explained.

Reliability on Atkinson vehicles had been affected, in over 80 per cent of cases, by the effectiveness of minor, relatively low-cost, components, according to Mr Redmond. Recent efforts were expected to halve the problem within six months and this would quickly show a reduction in time off the road and increased profit for the operator, he predicted.

Looking further ahead, Mr Redmond thought that increased vehicle weights seemed to make sense in relation to Common Market commitments but there existed, as yet, only EEC recommendations. The British Government, too, might be chary of bowing down to EEC directives and thus encouraging the anti-lorry brigade to join the anti-Marketeers.

However, he foresaw the adoption of European weight standards after three or four years to give a gross weight of about 42 tons and a maximum axle load of 11+ tons. With a gvw/driving axle weight ratio of 3+ to 1, a 10-ton maximum on the driving axle would give only a 35-ton gross weight.

That meant that for gross weights over 40.25 tons, two driving axles would be required. As a 6 x 4 tractive unit would probably weigh a ton more than a 4 x 2, it would be hardly likely that operators would be prepared to find the additional capital involved for a mere +-ton increase in payload.

More traffic for road hauliers from Southampton docks was forecast by Mr D. A. Stringer, port director at Southampton, when he revealed that British Railways proposed shortly to withdraw from the dock area altogether.

Traffic through Southampton was increasing under the stimulus of the expenditure undertaken on container facilities, not to mention the £5 mu spent on roll-on/roll-off facilities.