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atch of the day
Page 16
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• A nationwide load-matching scheme based on Independent Television's Oracle teletext service is being launched this week by Corby-based TeleTruck.
The scheme, which already has more than 100 subscribers, matches trucks to loads with the Oracle network listing available vehicles by counties, giving their current location and destination and a contact telephone number.
Customers with loads can then call the haulier direct to arrange a pickup.
For buyers looking for a vehicle, the service is free; they need only tune into the Oracle teletext service. Hauliers are charged £10 a week (£520 a year). For this a subscriber is allowed two vehicle entries per day during the normal 15-hour daily Oracle transmission time.
TeleTruck will update its list via its Camden, North London centre, on the hour from 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Final updates will be carried over to the following morning, while the final update on Friday will he carried over to Monday morning.
TeleTruck is the brainchild of 47-year-old David Burns, who has been in the road transport industry for more than 25 years — including a nine-year stretch as Unilever's transport manager.
According to Burns the scheme, which is not based on any other previous Viewdatabased load matching service, has taken three years to develop and an investment of some £100,000.
He says that his company plans a team of five regional agents to help sell TeleTruck, and in time he also hopes to set up additional updating centres in the UK and on the Continent. TeleTruck will initially only provide details of trucks,' but if there is sufficient demand TeleTruck could be expanded to include cargo.
Burns believes that the TeleTruck scheme will be particularly useful to ownerdrivers who, he says, do not have the back-up resources to drive and keep their vehicles fully booked. The company claims that 30% of all HGVs currently running on the road are either empty or underloaded. In addition to vehicles operating within the UK TeleTruck will also carry details of international vehicles.