BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 40
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BY THE HAWK
• The Daily Telegraph may have let slip its true feelings about the haulage industry in a report on the Transport Development Group's annual results, when it said: "The juggernauts that hurtle along our
motorways and often our country lanes as well — should be moving billboards for the companies that own them.
So why have few people heard of TDG, the second largest road haulage business in the country?"
• Batmania has definitely hit Britain and its bus shelters even harder, by jokers tearing down the promotional posters.
However, "Wham, barn!" Adshel, the firm responsible for the shelters, is fighting hack with a rapid-response Bat-repair force. Holy poster hoards, Batman!
• Commercial vehicle distributor Sherwood Leyland Daf is offering the use of its Gregistration demonstrator Roadrunners to local charities for one week each month. Does this initiative have anything to do with the company's namesake, Sherwood Forest?
Any interested charities should ring the Shewood Leyland Daf hotline on (0602) 691692, quoting the "Charity Chariot" scheme.
• Amazingly, the first Norfolk Truck Festival attracted more crowds than the Truck Grand Prix, which was on the same day, according to stunned organisers Live Promotions.
On one day 50,000 truck enthusiasts flocked in to see wheelie trucks, the monster truck, the world's fastest lorry, customised, vintage and res • The Hawk has always been a little suspicious of industry analysts. They spend months looking at an industry, anxiously studying relevant publications and documents and then publish their findings for hundreds of pounds. What is worrying is that, despite the study, analysts can still come up with sentences like this in one report we received: The Japanese light commercial vehicle manufacturers dominate the tored trucks; or was it simply roadies trying to catch a quick tmpse of Noel Edmunds? iU Winners of the Norfolk festival were Andersons Bulk Haulage, best fleet; Paul Binns Transport for best custom truck; Ken Thomas' Atkinson for best vintage truck, and Barry Jackson's T-reg Volvo best-kept working truck.
• The Devon and Cornwall Constabulary's annual road safety campaign was brought to an abrupt stop when star attraction Bobby Badger became so hot and sticky he was UK van market." Clearly, this particular analyst studied extremely selectively, missing all mention of the Ford Transit with approximately 40% of the light commercial market and overall the eighth best-selling vehicle in Britain. Then, of course, there is the Renault Traffic, the Leyland Daf 200 and 400 series (formerly the Sherpa) and the Sevel van from Citroen, Talbot and Fiat. A mere oversight, I suggest.
attacked by a swarm of horseflies.
Otherwise known as police driver Douglas Turner, "Bobby" did not find the attack very arresting, and is now suffering from severe bites, where the swarm flew into his uniform.
• A lorry driver received his most bizarre job offer last week, when money-saving Len Pike from Gwent asked for a lift to a crematorium — not now, but when he's dead. The 77-year-old has fortunately agreed to splash out on a coffin, and has pledged a few pints • Only 23 out of 2,000 motot way drivers, stopped by the police and the AA on the M5, were able to correctly identify 10 different road signs.
One lorry driver only got two right. Motorists who had recently passed their tests an( women drivers did best.
• Contrary to evidence received this week, Crane Fruehauf assures us that it does not sell trailers under th( Carrymaster brand name.
This comes as some relief, because we had been confuse( by a press release from Crane Freuhauf announcing that it ha supplied its 50th trailer to Roy Humphrey (Car and Commercial) which was supplied with this lovely picture of a Carrymaster trailer.
• A reader writes to me to ask: "Referring to Alan Bunting's very interesting Engineer's Notebook article, could you please explain to thi ignoramus the meaning of "monocoque"?
Is it a van with only one driver?
Unfortunately my rather oh fashioned dictionary only give "coquette", who would presumably need more than one driver.
The concise Oxford's definition is: "Vehicle structure without chassis separate from body." — The Hawk.
• Coach driver Dave Thomp son from Target Travel has complained to Northumbria Police that he was attacked 1:13 at least two of his passengers during a trip to France. Thompson claims he was knocked unconscious to the ground and kicked when he at his co-driver complained about their sleeping conditions at th( destination.