by The Hawk Spare a thought for the little 'uns
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HAS the development of light vans been neglected in favour of heavies? The big 'uns certainly hog the limelight and Motor Panels' Hemi-Tech cab at the Motor Show grabbed its share of attention for its advanced design but not entirely at the expense of the little 'uns.
Merrick Taylor, Motor Panels' managing director, believes that manufacturers and designers have failed to exploit the light van market with innovative ideas. At the show he filled the hiatus with imaginative designs to promote particularly ease of loading and unloading as well as generally improved efficiency.
A risk I foresee is that if light vans depart too far from car derivatives, sales to small traders who use the vehicles also socially may be discouraged.
Where have all the bodybuilders gone?
THE GRADUAL decline of the bodywork and trailer section of the Motor Show may be as regrettable as John Hope, Craven Tasker's sales director, believes, but, given the enormous cost of exhibiting and the current state of trade, it is hardly surprising. Another reason is provided by John Hope himself — fewer manufacturers.
He appreciates the "smaller events", among which he presumably includes the RHA's annual Tipcon, but he says "there is still a need for the industry to have a major allembracing exhibition". That is undoubtedly so, but limited sales-promotion budgets have to be spent where they give greatest value for money. The Tipcon, free from stand contractors' exorbitant charges and with a highly selective audience, has established itself as the mecca for tipper builders and operators.
Two minds with two wheels
BEDFORD and Leyland are leaning over sideways to sell more lorries. Leyland illustrated a Roadrunner — "the toughest truck on two wheels" — at a perilous angle on the front cover of Commercial Motor of September 29. A similar stunt was used by Hills Garages (Manchester) in a Bedford promotion.
Hills employed the Bedford Fall Guys, a 28-man stunt team which performs incredible tricks on CF and TL Bedfords, to launch a new "driver deal" customer service and sales arrangement at Manchester's Belle Vue Stadium. The team has put on 160 shows in the United Kingdom during the past summer and is staging another 87 in New Zealand between October and February.
Steve Street, the team manager, said that although the vehicles spent half their time on two wheels, no wheel bearing had ever failed.
Rail reorganises for uphill haul
IN AN EFFORT to wrest traffic from hauliers, Rai[freight has been revamped on company lines. It is divided into seven commodity sectors, each with a national business manager, and the finishing touches are now being put to the reorganisation scheme.
Harry Sanderson, Rai!freight director, has no illusions about the task of stimulating customers' confidence and convincing potential customers that "rail is reliable as well as cost-effective".
He has been stabbed in the back by employees who have refused to handle coal and iron ore. Roy Harries, regional freight manager, prefers a football analogy: "Railwaymen have scored a classic own goal," he said in relation to the Ravenscraig steelworks in Motherwell. By backing the miners he commented bitterly, they had given "some 80,000 tonnes of coal and ore every week to the private haulage industry at a time when they were flat on their backs because of the coal strike."
To illustrate just how supine hauliers were, he added that he was in the British Steel Corporation's headquarters in Scotland when an English haulier telephoned to offer 70 38-tonners off the peg. But the BSC had sufficient transport.
Quoted in Rai!news, Roy Harries paid his rivals this graceful tribute: "Road hauliers have shown that they can transport the required amounts of raw materials efficiently and there can be no guarantee that all the Ravenscraig traffic, including finished products, will revert to rail."
Lay off industry, our rulers are told
GOVERNMENT-bashing, an ever-popular sport in the motor and transport industries, is enjoying a minor boom.
Several manufacturers' managing directors have recently attacked Government interference and S. Harry Hooper, president of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, scored another goal at a reception at the Parish Show.
He spoke for fellow sufferers in the EEC as well as for British makers when he said: "Our governments, both in London and Brussels, must accept that the constant meddling with legislation, both technical and fiscal, can do untold harm to our future; just as Government actions in the Sixties and Seventies contributed so hugely to the decline of our industry up to 1980 ... we must argue against the worst types of crowd-pleasing but industrydestroying legislation, to which all governments are prone ..."
He promised sensible improvements to create a safer, better environment for all, but, he qualified, they "must be affordable in social and economic terms and preferably in concord with ... our sister states in the EEC."