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Let us go faster, be safer, and achieve more
Page 20
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In Vichelinis latest canvassing of the transport community there is overwhelming support for raising the A-road speed limit for truccs to 50mph.
CM'S 'PUSHING 50' campaign for an increase in speed limits on single-carriageway A roads has received overwhelming backing from Michelin's customers in the latest CM/Michelin Business Monitor.
We've had a great response from readers and the survey shows that Michelin's customers back us too: 73% of operators surveyed said the speed limit should be increased.
The main reasons given were that the speed limit causes congestion; it is too slow for modern day traffic; it would improve productivity; and that truck brakes, tyres and roads have all improved since the limits were introduced,so it's now possible to travel safely at higher speeds.
One respondent pointed out that if it's safe for coaches to travel at 50mph on single carriageways then it should be safe for trucks too.
The survey also reveals that the number of operators who currently have driver vacancies has actually fallen over the last quarter. Results show that IS% of operators now have vacancies, compared with 31% in the last survey. However, of those companies that do have vacancies,10% say they need more drivers now than inAugust. In fact, 15% of these companies now need two or more new drivers to carry out their workload. However, the average fleet size of those surveyed was 24 trucks; national fleet operators are likely to have dozens more vacancies in proportion to their size. u