No waiting for power
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There seems to be an unprecedented engine:supply situation just now, which has presumably knocked the bottom out of the market for the diesel thieves who not long ago were stealing lorries just to take the engines out.
Several Cummins executives were telling me at their Christmas press dinner that the fall-off in demand in the spring of this year, though foreseen, was the most rapid and dramatic they'd ever experienced. The first three months of 1975 were the best that Cummins in the UK had ever had—then it went flat with a bang.
Bob Campbell surely made the ultimate point about diesel supply when he commented in his after-dinner chat that "Gardner is now in free supply."
For Cummins, one of the important developments of the year has been the success of the Ford Transcontinental outside the UK, according to Bob Campbell. That engine source is Shotts.
Like a tot of people, Cummins is drawing much-needed nourishment from abroad in these hard times, notably the Middle East and African markets. But many British operators will benefit, because they're also putting more service into those overseas territories and especially across Europe for UK-based trucks—some of which was explained in CM last week.