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WUNDERBAR!

26th November 1976
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Page 42, 26th November 1976 — WUNDERBAR!
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George Allott, CM's Lorry Driver of the Year, joins John Durant for the trip of a lifetime

ANDERE VERHALTNISSE. Or, as it is in English, so different! Lorry Driver of the Year George Allott first saw Germany in 1945 at the wheel of a British Army tank transporter. Now he has visited the West German Federal Republic as the guest of several German firms on a tour sponsored by Michelin.

Instead of seeing devastated roads, this time he never found one that needed repairing. And he met tremendous hospitality. "I always liked it here," said George. "I could have stayed on here in 1946."

When he mentioned this to one of our hosts at Michelin Karlsruhe, George was told: -This is a great tribute to us," For the affection he felt for the Germans was returned by them.

"You speak better English than I do," joked George in his Yorkshire accent — modified for the Southern English and Germans. As soon as he said ."Danke" the Michelin representative quickly replied: "I think you are now speaking better German than I am!"

Their Swabian hospitality — the tour was confined to Baden-Wurttemberg — was phenomenal: Eating, drinking, talking, drinking, eating again. "We have good gemOtlichkeit tonight, said Herr Haag after our formal visit — prefaced by a speech in German, followed by an English translation. "You understand this word?" We soon got the message. When we flew back George summed up: "This is a trip none of us will ever forget."

First stop during George's study tour was at Villingen. We watched the manufacture of tachographs — 90 per cent of the employees are foreign workers, "gastarbeiter" — in a modern factory on a site cleared in the Black Forest.

HerrThede, sales director, said that the number of tachographs charts evaluated by Kienzle had now reached 50,000 — and in more than half of these cases they had been able to help a driver. Between 2,700 and 2,800 accident analyses had been made last year.

We were shown that on microscopic evaluation, using a three-thousandths of a milli metre hairline, speed over a distance of a mere metre can be checked. Tachographs, of: course, have been required in German trucks since 1953, and their use has saved tyre wear and reduced fuel consumption.

When he saw just the amount of information which the tachograph records automatically, on time, distance and speed, George asked: "Why can't we use them instead of log books?."

That was precisely what happened among the Continental members of the European Economic Community, he was told, and it was planned for Britain too. "This is good," said George. "It saves a lot of messing about."

Kienzle, incidentally, has its own fleet of 15 lorries — Magirus-Deutz, MAN and Daimler-Benz It would like to standardise, but views this as impolitic since all these manufacturers are customers.

The Kienzle Apparate method of production is impressive. It was explainea by a director who lived in Australia for many years. "A great country," he said. After a tour of the production lines, the proceedings were lightened and enlightened when we merged with a jolly party of local lawyers.

While being driven in a coach along a public road we were asked to estimate the distance from us of a car blinking its light, and the speed of both vehicles.

Later, in a Gasthof in the village of Kappel, after attempting a plate of German sausage and cold meats — keep eating, but the quantity doesn't seem to go down," said -George — and drinking good, German beer, we heard the results of the contest. With each result the worst estimate — no names, no embarrassment — was given.

Luckily, George stood up for Britain and won this contest of estimation and observation. He was presented with a prize, a doll in traditional Schwarzwald dress, by Dr Hansjoeng Haefele, MdB (Member of the German Parliament). "This has made my day," said George. Our friends saw it as a tribute to his professionalism.

It was a good demonstration: that a chart gives accurate information: witnesses, even — even? — lawyers give guesses. People's answers may be good or bad — and that's lucky or unlucky for some defendant in court.

The next day we moved on in a VW autobus by Auto Meier and put up at a hotel in Pieiningen for a visit to Magirus Deutz at Ulm.

Automation and cleanliness was the theme of the Maggie assembly line. George, who drives Fodens for BoC Ltd, was accompanied by David Jobson, assistant branch manager (distribution) at Brinsworth, who found this particularly interesting. George and David agreed that the same-size cylinders in all engines on the Ulm production line meant that a large operator's spares holding is minimised.

Although David has, of. course, read about this manufacturer's range of air-cooled engines, he was further impressed after being allowed a really close look. "They're a lovely finished job," he said. "There's some power there," added George, examining the VI 2s.

And power was what George had at hand when we were taken to the test track — unfortunately in fog. "Normally we allow no one else to drive on our test track," we were told. "But for the Lorry Driver of the Year . . ." The vehicle George tried was a 6x4 tipper: part of an order for Siberia, and derated from 350bhp (DIN) to 213kW (290bhp), with a ZF gearbox. Hydraulic installation/bodies were by Meiller, Kassbohrer, K6gel. Its payload was 26 tons.

We were all given a ride — and thrown about as the tipper coped with the road obstacles that were a cross between a "sleeping policeman" and a tank trap. Then George took off, accompanied by a driver for advice and an interpreter. He drove over the worst obstacles, then went round the track with its many variations of surface designed to test for stress — to the vehicle, that is.

"Some fantastic power there," he said, stepping down. "You're soon used to it. It's just a matter of getting used to changing gear the other way round with your right hand."

In order to cope with the extreme Russian conditions, the tippers have been equipped with a few extras such as reinforced batteries and sweptup combustion air intake pipes. Their FL413 diesels can cope with temperatures from + 50 C to — 50 C.

In the range of interesting but, I should think, useless information, is the fact that Magirus Deutz claims that its air-cooled range uses less air than conventionally cooled units.

Ulm is evidently an attractive town, with the highest church . spire (528ft) in the world, but there was time for none of that. So much transport interest had to be packed into three days that we were soon on to Worth to visit the biggest commercial vehicle factory in the world: Daimler-Benz.

At Plieningen our DaimlerBenz hosts gave us a meal with typical Swabian hospitality: beer, food, wine, conversation and more wine: in that order they believe there's no hang

over. The theory worked . . At dinner we were joined by a German journalist and George was interviewed about himself and Commercial Motor's LD.oY contest — not for the first time. As for prices in Germany, we were told that a service station would charge 10-12DM an hour for an engineer's services. Drivers earn 2,500-2,8000M a month, including 400-500DM for eating and sleeping away from home. Most use their sleeper cabs -and don't waste the money", Nothing_ extra is paid for crossing theChannel.

The oil crisis had brought home to the German people the fact that lorries are essential. However, car drivers are now once again complaining about lorries.

Everything is not perfect on the transport scene: there is a black market in haulage licences. "It is not allowed, but you read the adverts in the newspapers," I was told. An odd point is that, when a haulier gives up a licence, he can stipulate who has it next. And there is some anger in Germany that their wagons have to pay tolls on some .French and Italian roads. All Autobahnen are free.

French workers in Stuttgart are, apparently, the favoured. few. The border is only a few miles away, their German pay is higher than French wages, and after a year they get their German tax back.

Appropriately, France is Daimler-Benz's biggest export market, with 15,000 vehicles a year. One of 8-D's representatives thought it would be two to four years before Europe came together on bhp per ton regulations.

No one can visit DaimlerBenz without being impressed. David certainly was. Every tool. in working order:' he said.

-Even the cranes are painted. Have you noticed we haven't met an accountant? It seems the engineers make it right, the salesmen sell it, and look at the money invested in tools here."

Daimler-Benz sends off about 90 trucks a day by barge, 100 by rail, and .150 by road. Customers can pick up their vehicle themselves, after being given a morning course and entertained to a meal.

The service back-up includes 105,000 parts numbers. Batches of spares for urgent orders leave for the airport every four hours.

Our party had its money's worth. Then it was on to Stuttgart to be guests of Michelin Karlsruhe. George was famous by now. His picture and write-up were in Neueste Nachrichten.

We were able to walk on the production lines, which were moving at around one metre per second. An interesting point was the production mix. Models don't come in batches. George had a look at the New Generation safety cab, where they have changed the plane of the welding joints between panels so that they won't tear in a road accident, but will compress. "I'm pleased that they're doing away with the long window and made it into two, using a

strengthening rod,said George.

George and David chatted about the exhaust pipe production. "Galvanised steel is used and Daimler-Benz appears to have solved the problem of assembly by folding the corners of adjacent panels together,'' said David. 'It may be done in the UK, I don't know, but I have heard people talking about the problem."

On the chassis assembly line, the inspection method was interesting, too. Poker-faced inspectors filled data sheets and were never required to speak to the production workers on the line.

Before we left, George was able to drive a 1626 tractive unit with right-hand drive arokind the buildings. -Just 10 minutes to get used to the gears and you could drive it all day," he remarked.

Last stop was at Michelin Karlsruhe early, on Friday afternoon.

George toured the workshops, tried the latest in wheel-balancing equipment, and saw the variety of wheel rims and tyre equipment on the Continental market..

it was the end of a good trip: Vielen Dank!


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