EEC
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New design van for US Post
MI Delivery vehicles with all-aluminium bodies to save weight and resist corrosion being delivered by Grumman Corporation from next April to the American Postal Services have a projected life expectancy of 24 years, compared with eight for current vehicles. The power train, Grumman informs Transport Express, should last 12 years. "Its cargo capacity of 1,0001b will be double that of the familiar Jeeps on the road today."
Around 9,000 will be produced during the calendar year part of the $1.1 billion contract for 99,150 vehicles.
The aluminium body will be mated to a General Motors S-10 chassis; the power unit is a GM 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with three-speed automatic transmission.
The cargo area has been designed to allow the Postal Service to develop an integrated modular container system for mail. Special receptacles will be removed from inside the street collection boxes and fitted into the vehicles.
Australia sells to Saudi Arabia
110:Phee Industries of Pittsworth, Queensland, Australia, has designed and sold seven oversized livestock trailers to Saudi Arabia. The convertible all-steel trailers can carry 350 head of cattle on one deck. The crates are 4.7 metres and 13.5 metres long, exceeding Australian NAASRA limits by by 0.4 and 1.4 metres respectively, reports the March edition of Truck & Bus Transportation. • Liberalisation of transport with the countries of the EEC is on its way, Reg Dawson, ex-Transport Department head of road freight, told the Road Haulage Association international group (Roadway, April). The treaty of Rome does not specifically require it, but members agree in principle that there should be a free market by 1992 at the latest. The new drivers' hours rules, which take effect from September 29, are dealt with in a two-page article by RHA industrial relations and training manager John Cox in the same issue. A major change is from the rolling week to a fixed week. This will be from 00.00 hours on Monday to 24.00 hours on Sunday. The new EEC rules do not apply to vehicles where the maximum permissible weight, including any trailer or semi-trailer, does not exceed 3.5 tonnes; although the 10-hour daily driving and 11-hour duty limits, which are the only UK domestic rules not being replaced, will apply to these vehicles.
111The EEC Commission, reports the spring edition of Diesel Times, is under pressure to standardise requirements for diesel fuel Cold Filter Plugging Point (CFPP). Some members of the European Parliament are asking that common rules apply for all European countries. Currently, CFPP for dery ranges from only -5C in France to -18 in Germany. In Britain the CFPP is -9C.