WARD
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Duncan Ward has been promoted to the new position of business development manager, commercial vehicle sales, at British Car Auctions. He joined BCA in 1985 as a trainee operations manager and was previously UK sales and operations advisor for the company's light commercial sales activities.
RENAULT VI
Renault VI is expanding its service network with three new sites. Dunstable-based Renault Trucks Chiltern, which covers most of the northern Home Counties, has put two new service points into the north of its territory. Like Renault Trucks Chikern, Renault Trucks Wellingborough is owned by the manufacturer; it has a three-bay workshop.
Based in Gamlingay, Cambs, A J Hall Fleet Services will cover the Beds/Cambs border.
Further north, ET Commercials of Grimsby is opening a service outlet near Spalding in Lincolnshire with Dave Woods as general manager. it will cover the southern part of the county. ET took aver a neighbouring Renault dealership in Sheffield last autumn.
NEWTON
Tipper operators eagerly anticipating the promised introduction of 44 tonnes next year could be in for a shock, warns tipper trailer dealer Andrew Smith, managing director of Newton Commercials of Harlington, Beds. He reckons that at 44 tonnes most tipper trailers are likely to be overloaded on their rear axles, with too little weight imposed on the king pin. "The longer the trailer is, of course, the less problem there will be, but long trailers spell operational difficulties," he points out. "Operators often have to drive into farmyards, and will face access problems with long trailers. Some of them have to tip in buildings, and a long body may foul the roof."
Industry experts add that operators may also be worried about how stable a trailer with a long body will be when it is tipped, and how great the risk will be of it toppling over—always assumingthat it doesn't touch overhead power lines first. Hauliers transporting aggregates may be safe from a rear bogie overload because they can ensure that plenty of weight is dumped directly on top of the king pin, Smith suggests. "But there's always the danger that the lead will end up overflowing the trailer's sides," he points out. That's because so many firms run step-frames, with bodies that are shallower at the front than they are at the back. "Many run slopers too, so the cargo will tend to run to the back anyway,' he points out.
An inability to use existing trailers at 44 tonnes without extensive alterations could destroy their second-hand value, he warns; and that will hit dealers as well as hauliers. I've got £1m worth of stock at present, and I could see it devalued by anything from 20 to 30%," he says.
Nobody knows exactly how the 44 tonne regulations will be framed, and that poses another problem: "We're having to order eight to ten months ahead to get build slots, but we don't know what the law is going to be. We're having to take our best guess as to whether the trailer wilt meet the rules."
He realises that not all tipper owners will want to run at 44 tonnes, which may be some consolation to worried tipper trailer dealers. Many people who buy grain opt for 25 tonne loads, he reports, and the current weight limits can cope with them quite easily. In any case, some delivery points cannot cope with more than 25 tonnes at a time.
UK tipper trailer manufacturers have rather more to worry about than the possible impact of 44 tomes. Smith says the strong pound and weak Euro are making imports increasingly aft active. 'They match the quality of UK products, and are sometimes better," he adds. 'We will see a tidal wave of foreign tipper trailers sweeping across the UK over the next couple of years unless the pound falls in value against the Euro by 15 to 20%."