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BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 46
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BY THE HAWK
• Last week Commercial Motor ran an article in the headline pages bearing good news for those of us worried about the state of training and education in the road transport industry.
Training in road transport was subsidised during the past financial year to the tune of £18 million, revealed the Road Transport Industry Training Board.
This week I bring you further good news on the training front — Cummins Engine Company has been selected from over 1,200 entries for one of the 60 prestigious National Training Awards.
Launched by the MSC this year and backed by the CBI, TUC and Chanel 4's Business Programme, the awards aim to give public recognition to companies with exceptionally effective training schemes.
Cummins received high acclaim for its programme, which undertook to update and reskill its workforce so that it could assemble and test its new light diesel engine, the B Series.
Operators, supervisors, managers and technical support staff all received training in a variety of new techniques including keyboard skills and product assembly, systems management, programable logic controller programming and 'in company' technical diagnostics.
Welcome to the 1990s.
• STOP PRESS . . . News just reaches me that Michelin Tyre has also won a rare National Training Award.
"Our company is totally committed to a policy of continuous improvement and we regard training as an essential element in equipping our employees to meet the challenges of tomorrow," says Michelin's Paul Niblett. • If you're fat — lose weight and make money. That's the message from BEN, the motor trades own charity. When two Volvo Truck dealers flying to Las Palmas for a sales conference found they couldn't fasten their safety belts because of their 'spare truck tyres,' they decided to lose weight in a sponsored slim-in that would benefit BEN. After three months of training and dieting, the stick Leyland took over "Roadtrain" and "Roadrunner" and how lveco was accused of being unimaginative, except with its use of capital letters, with its TurboStar. When it comes to car and commercial vehicle manufacturing efficiency, the Europeans may still have a lot to learn from the Japanese, but, believe me, with all our failings, when it comes to naming models, we Europeans are streets ahead.
Cast your eye down this list chosen, almost at random from the recent Tokyo Show and I am sure you will agree:— the Yoe Long "Feeling" — a car from Taiwan; the Mitsubishi Canter "Guts"; the Mazda "Bongo Brawny"; the Toyota "Deliboy"; Daihatsu "Rugger"; or Mazda "Pair". My first prize for Japanese vehicle names goes to Nissan for its snail-like S-Cargo (get it?) Terry Hardie, managing director of Thomas Hardie Commercials and Graham Turner md of Heathrow Cormnercials lost a total of 23kg (51 pounds) and 'gained' £637. The money was presented to BEN's director Geoffrey Atkinson and will be used to relieve distress among disabled and elderly people BEN helps in their own homes and those who are cared for in the charity's own three residential centres.
• A widower and his three small children lobbied Downing Street last week to demand tougher drink-driving sentences. Lorry driver Frank Marshall, 33, of Hanley, Stokeon-Trent delivered a petition to No 10 containing 11,000 signatures.
Marshall has been "living in a nightmare" since his wife was knocked down and killed by a drunken driver last year. She died two days before Christmas when she was hit on a pedestrian crossing. The driver was jailed for 15 months, nine of them suspended.
Marshall wants drunken drivers banned for life and those "who take life" also prosecuted for manslaughter.
He has been forced to give up his job to care for his children Steven, seven, David, five and Amy, two. He says his sentence "has only just begun" but the driver has now been freed.
"They are beautiful children and they have lost the best thing in their life", Marshall wrote in a letter to Mrs Thatcher.
His call for tougher action was backed by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the Campaign Against Drinking and Driving. • We all make mistakes. The idea is not to get caught, however. Superintendent Brian Coker of the Staffordshire police traffic management department was nicked by his own men on the M6 for doing well over the ton (160krnh) in his car. After pleading guilty Supt Coker was fined £70 with £30 costs by Cannock magistrates last week for what was his first motoring offence.
• Marriage, at the best of times, is heaven on earth. Boy meets girl, eyes twinkle, toes curl and the next thing you know it's Mr and Mrs. Marriage between those who until then have been managing single parent families is another matter. It's not boy meets girl but kids meet kids as well. The marriage between unmarried mum and dad Daf and Leyland Trucks has produced a relatively stable home for its employees. Marriage vows, however, originally included a 'hands-off-our-heavy-truckproduction-in-Lancashire' promise. Since then it has been decided to build the right-handdrive 95 Series at Eindhoven. Is the honeymoon over? Well it might have been. Mama Daf has seen the error of her ways and made moves to patch things up with the `other half.
It was recently announced that Daf Trucks will take part in the 10th Paris-Dakar Rally in January 1988. It was also revealed (wait for it) that two Lancs-based Leyland Daf employees had been selected for the rally team.
Chris Ross and Vernon Smith are employed by Leyland Daf in Lancashire where both completed their apprenticeships. Both in their midtwenties, they are the first British representatives on the very successful Dutch team, Whether this is enough to sooth the British side of the family or not is a family matter. "Kiss and make up," it might be, but is it enough to calm the troubled waters that can blow up in any family when the inlaws come to stay?