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BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 62
Page 63
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BY THE HAWK
• The Hawk's man has been to Great Ormond Street in London, to see two young truckers set off on a roundBritain spnsored lorry drive. The 5,000km journey will raise more than £10,000 for the famous children's hospital.
The effort, called Trucker's Appeal for the Children's HOspita! (TACHO), is the idea of John Folland, once a patient there. He and his co-driver, Ruse!' Dowle, were seen off by Eddie-the-Eagle Edwards, who presented a cheque for money raised at Commercial Motor's Truckfest.
The drive is being sponsored and organised by Owner Operators UK. Other sponsors include Chartwell tachographs and Wightman Mountain, Show Flooring and Hunter Distribution. The pair are driving a Volvo F12, provided by the manufacturer, with a Carrymaster boxvan with BPW triaxle running gear and is ballasted to 38 tonnes.
Shell is supplying all the fuel for the trip; Cellular Business Systems a cab phone; and CB equipment comes courtesy of One Stop Communications of Rochester. Former driving instructor John Folland is a class one driver with Extra Staff driving agency, which is giving him paid leave for the trip. Dowle works for carpet delivery company MCD London. Folland, who had an operation at Great Ormond Street after an accident when he was six years old, says the hospital faces massive renovations. "I hope my thick drive will emphasise that this is a national appeal. It should also give the transport industry a better press," he says.
The drivers will stop overnight at Kings Lynn, Birtley Truck Stop at Newcastle and Dundee truck stop, before heading round John O'Groats, down the west coast, through Wales and then through Cornwall, via Land's End.
Contributions can be sent directly to the TACHO account (number 51049157, code 4045-50), at any branch of Midland Bank; or by cheque or postal order made payable to: TACHO, do 181, Sundbrige Drive, Waldersbde, Chatham, Kent, ME5 8HN. For more information phone Mike Forbes on 01-684 3435. • Rita, Alan, Kerry, Dominic, Tara, Sheehan, Yasmin and Maria. No, they are not members of a pop group, but part of the Yule family who, between them, run Truckers, a tipper haulage company based in South Humberside.
The 11-truck firm consists of Maggies, Constructors and an E-reg Iveco Ford 300.23. Maria, the eldest sister, says the family has had its fair share of truck parts problems: "The new Constructors we ordered have been fitted with the wrong tipping gear, the 300.23's springs don't last a minute — thank God we have our old Maggies to rely on," she says.
Maria's mum, Rita, started up the company 20 years ago.
• Gearbox manufacturer ZF has found a winner for its competition to find the oldest commercial vehicle fitted with a ZF gearbox. The vehicle is a single-deck bus built in 1939 and owned by Trent Motor Traction whose aprentices have done a full renovation job on it.
Registered in 1939 as RC 7927, the 34-seater was built by Midland Red for Trent, entering service in early 1940 and used on its Derby-based services until 1954. It was then sold to a travelling showman and later came into the possession of a Leicestershire farmer. Spotted in use as a hen house, and in very bad condition in 1978, it was bought back by Trent for renovation. The original eight-litre, sixcylinder engine has been reconditioned and produces 85hp, as originally specified. The ZF gearbox — a G55, four-speed constant-mesh unit — was overhauled. It was one of the last ZF units to be imported from Germany before the war.
• June is the month of parties and this time of the year always sees the Hawk juggling the diplomatic clubs in an attempt to turn down party invitations, without offence, while trying to get to others, to which an invitation may still be outstanding.
Luckily, an invitation to the party of the year turned up and the Hawk was able to dispatch a CM hack to the bash. The party — Pirelli's Book of the Calendar Party — was attended by the road transport industry's leading representatives including Michael Parkinson, Tim Rice (you know, the musical chap) and Jane Lumb. Jane Lumb? That's right. . .she was the first-ever model to pose for the first-ever Pirelli calendar, back in 1963.
Back then, of course, calendars came in two sorts. Jane Lumb says: "Calendars were either really fierce or they were cottage scenes. There was nothing in-between." Derek Forsyth, who initiated the Pirelli calendar says: "Your shock absorber calendars weren't shown to anyone. We wanted to make one that people would not be ashamed of."
I wonder what his mum says, now that he's responsible for the world's most soughtafter girlie calendar. Girlie? Well, not really, since Pirelli produced its 1988 version, showing fully-clothed ballet dancers, male and female.
The party was, of course, a ripper, but was there anyone we could talk to about tyres? You must be joking!