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BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 26
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BY THE HAWK
• The Foden truck marque is: "ail but extinct and only lives on within the name ERE" This shocking (certainly to thriving Foden) "fact" was spied by the Hawk in the latest authoritative commercial vehicles industry analysis report from ICC Information Group.
The report says rightly that several big names have gone in the past few years, including Albion, Sentinel and Trojan — but also writes off Leyland and Dodge (still very much with us!).
Also, I doubt if Foden will be too happy to be included in that list of dinosaurs.
• Question: How do you wreck a multi-million-pound engine development programme? Answer: You put the latest Ford 1.8-litre diesel engine in the Barkas vans and it withers with embarrassment.
You may laugh but it's true. The Hawk spotted the evidence at the Brussels motor show. In among the bright lights and multi-national manufacturers was the latest offering from the East German vehicle builder Barkas.
So in Belgium, the centre of Europe, the latest "world van" was displayed with Eastern styling and Western engines. The co-operation of East and West has Oven the people of Belgium the choice of the latest 1.8-litre Ford diesel engine in the Escort, Escort van, Orion and the Barkas.
Of course, the traditionalist will still specify the Barkas with the 993cc three-cyclinder twostroke engine, but then glasnost was always going to be a slow process.
• Fiat has donated trucks and excavators worth over .440,000 to help the victims of the Armenian earthquake. The announcement was made during the visit of a Soviet delegation to Fiat Auto's Rivalta plant and research centre. • Robert Montague, the suave and suntanned boss of trailer rental company Tiphook, is to do his bit for charity by joining the Asthma Research Council. Montague, whose two children are asthma sufferers, wants to help the council reach its fund-raising target of £1 million this year.
• Tail-lift manufacturer Ratcliff has come up with a doodle to market its Solo lightweight lift . . . a sequence of sketches which, when flicked through quickly, give the impression of a chap animatedly working the contraption. OK, it's not exactly Walt Disney, but it seems to work. Bottom right of each illustration is a stopwatch which also looks as though it's ticking away the 30 seconds it takes the lift to work. Sutton Bus: split personality.
• The new-born Sutton Bus seems to be suffering from an attack of split personality. Curiosity made me chase an 88N which mysteriously appeared on the 80 bus route during the morning rush hour last week.
When I asked the driver • That awfully posh removals company from East Anglia, AbeIs, has been honoured with the first Royal Warrant as removal and storage contractors to the Queen. The company, founded 27 years ago, runs 80 pantechnicons and employs 300. Its head office is in Watton, Norfolk, and it has depots in Huntington, Colchester and St Albans.
• United Carriers played an active role in helping those unfortunates in Lockerbie left homeless by the Pan-Am air disaster.
The company supported an appeal organized by Greater Manchester Buses employee Chris Scholes with the free use of a Leyland Freighter to transport clothing, food and money.
Two United Carriers men, transport manager Bob Fallon and Dave Charleson, gave up their Christmas Eve to make the run.
what he was doing, he gave me a quizzical look and said: "I'm a 93 of course!" The explanation must be that during the day it drives forward and is a 93, but after the witching hour goes backwards and is an 88N. A cunning ploy to keep fleet costs down maybe?
• Mark Woodward has qualified to drive 38-tonne trucks, despite being born without a left hand.
The 22-year-old refused to allow his disability to dampen his determination to become a Class 1 HGV driver. He won his licence after a five-day course at the S Jones Training Centre at Aldridge, Walsall, which has taught several disabled people since it was set up in 1969.