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Following last week's report on the RHA's 1987 conference, and the Dip's warning that hauliers may have to produce weight tickets before being allowed on to cross-Channel ferries, we report on some of the technical papers that were presented.
• Hauliers and trade associations must work together with computer firms to ensure that their needs are met by developments such as the electronic tachograph, said Fred Kay, the director and general manager of Lucas Kienzle.
Tachographs have, until now, given computer programs the basic information to monitor fleet costs said Kay, but fullscale on-board computers are just around the corner. The on-board truck computer system Kay envisages "will consist of a circuit containing a microprocessor capable of accepting, storing and downloading information". The circuit will link a series of sensors around the vehicle to the in-cab instrument panel and monitor the readings — and those circuits will be compatible so that operators will be able to choose them to suit their own requirements.
Sensors will be available to monitor the load too, and reefer operators will have the opportunity to record the temperature inside the trailer at all times. Print-out tickets will then be available to give to the customer on delivery, showing that the goods were kept at the correct temperature for the duration of the journey. Load weight sensors will have to be fitted below the trailer floor and above the suspension system, said Kay.
NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEMS
Routeing and navigational systems, linked to in-cab printers, should be in use in Britain within the next five years, he said.
Leyland Dafs UK sales operations director Robin Woolcock said that demand for trucks is soaring and that, "as lead times have been extended, it has become very difficult to pick up vehicles from dealer stock. Every manufacturer is now expanding production levels as fast as component suppliers can supply the bits."
Woolcock said: "We have got to the point where we are able to move prices up to more reasonable levels. Even so, we are still only back to where we should have been in 1981. Since 1980, prices have hardly risen at all."
Peter Taylor of RHA Insurance Services asked Woolcock if spares prices had risen faster than general vehicle prices to compensate for the flat market in recent years. No, said Woolcock, "the spares market place is even more competitive than the truck market". Leyland Daf has upped its production rates by 36% so far this year.
Woolcock predicted that 40-tonne trucks will arrive by the early 1990s and that drawbars will be uprated to 38 tonnes from 32. "Keep pushing for that one," he said, "because it is logical." He thinks that it is impractical to increase eight-wheel tipper weight limits to 32 tonnes, because "it is simply not possible to get enough extra weight on the front axle".
On-board weighing systems are still proving hard to perfect because rear axle measurements are too complex. "A costeffective and reliable solution will require a breakthrough in transducer technology," he said, and promised: "We will continue to work on that breakthrough," Woolcock reiterated Leyland Dafs policy that it will not standardise on Dutch made Daf engines. The company will continue to fit Cummins and Rolls Royce engines, he said, and Leyland Daf is easily Cummins biggest UK custmer in the 5.8litre '300' Series class.
Ian Payne, Dunlop's director of commercial vehicle tyres, told the conference that tyres will become 25% lighter in the next few years, getting down to 37kg or 40kg as manufacturers continue to reduce the aspect ratio of their tyres. A 20% lower rolling resistance, reduced side wall flexing, lower running temperatures and lower vehicle centre of gravities will result, said Payne — but he warned that these developments could lead to a deterioration in wet grip and higher inflation pressures. Despite such drawbacks, Payne is confident that "before the end of the century, low profile tyres will completely dominate the market".
Dunlop reckons that tyre wear will be improved by 50% with increased tread depths, laminated construction techniques and new compounds.
Payne added that, "we are setting a 200% improvement in wet grip, but porous road surfaces are the only way — road surface improvements can provide three-quarters of the benefit".
The RHA has carried out a major membership survey through Marketing Improvements Research, headed by Richard Martin. The company interviewed around 300 members, former members and potential members of the associaiton to establish its strengths and weaknesses. Martin reported to the conference that his company has recommended that the RHA should; ▪ Improve its marketing efforts; ▪ Make its recruitment process more positive with RHA staff visiting potential members; 0 Improve its mailing and promotional information; O Train committee officials to take proper minutes of meetings; []Consider drawing up a series of guidelines to define what constitutes a "responsible" member of the association.
NIGH ESTEEM
Most interviewees felt that the RHA was held in high esteem both inside and outside the industry, but the research also indicated that many of the RHA's services to members are so poorly marketed that hauliers often do not know that they even exist.
Freight Transport Association president Stuart Phillips told the hauliers that own-account operators, the industry's main customers, will be increasingly affected by four main factors in the next few years. These are: Britain's membership of the EEC and attendant legislation such as the harmonisation and liberalisation of Europe's fiscal, social and customs rules in the 1990s; the opening of the Channel tunnel and easier access to Europe by rail; ever more competitive markets; and the continuing distribution revolution with, "just in time" delivery schedules and minimum stockholding.
Malcolm Southgate, the British Rail director responsible for the Channel Tunnel, told the conference that hauliers have little to fear from the opening of the tunnel: continuing growth in traffic to the Continent will ensure that there is enough business for both the hauliers and the railways. Some 30 freight trains a day will run throught he tunnel, and BR is aiming to shift 20% of cross-Channel unitised traffic within a few years of the tunnel's opening.
ID by Geoff Hadwick