AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

BIRD'S-0(E VIEW

3rd August 1985, Page 52
3rd August 1985
Page 52
Page 52, 3rd August 1985 — BIRD'S-0(E VIEW
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

OR THE sake of a quarter square mile out of 365sq miles of Dartmoor National Park — a sacrifice that the official inquiry into the A30 Okehampton by-pass proposal thought was well justified — all movement will continue regularly to cease in that dreaded West Country town. After 20 years the situation has become a bore.

The inquiry started six years ago and made as recommendations more than two years ago, yet relief from traffic thrombosis is no nearer. A joint committee of both Houses of Parliament has upheld objections to the officially preferred route, which just snips the park's northern fringe. The committee thought that it was better to sacrifice farm Land by taking another route.

The result is nail-biting frustration in a region where tourists are bringing in 11,000m a year, with a corresponding demand for road-borne goods and services. Much as I cherish Britain's countryside, this is a case where a sense of proportion is needed.

DAVID LART.ER, who from a height of 6ft 7V2in used to paralyse batsmen with his bowling when he played cricket for Northamptonshire and England, is now coaching at the Motcc at High Ercall. His "team" are on certificate of professional

competence, executive development and traffic managers' courses.

An ankle injury while dispatching the Australians 20 years ago ended a bright career in first-class cricket. An interest in transport led him to Townsend Carriers, of Higham Ferrers, where as training officer he first came into contact with the Road Transport industry Training Board.

Then he took over his father's haulage and tyre-retreading business, which he sold 10 years later. After several more moves, which took him back to company training, he has settled in Shropshire.

COSTLY, UNRELIABLE catalytic converters, by panic out of Californian politics, are likely to make an unwelcome intrusion into Britain as a result of German intransigence over Common Market regulations on exhaust emissions. The effect will be to raise car prices greatly, increase fuel consumption and reduce power. Cars over two litres, much used by business executives, will be most

affected. .

Even the lean-burn engines now being developed are expected to add £500 to a

car of the kind used by sales representatives. Trade and industry, which are the main owners of cars, will have to foot the bill in the first place, but ultimately the consumer will pay for the harsh limits on exhaust emissions recently imposed by the EEC. I hope the public will find the difference in the atmosphere worth the cost.

Commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonnes are next on the list for attack. I wish their makers and operators the best of Common Market luck.

WM MOTOR traders third in last year's league of business failures and the Motor Agents' Association urging them to improve their reputation for service, an appropriately named young man in Devon is trying to redress the balance. He is 20-year-old Peter Steer, of Wadham Stringer (Newton Abbot), who will represent the United Kingdom in the motor vehicle mechanics' section of the International Youth Skills Olympics in Osaka, Japan, in October.

He was selected from more than 3,500 candidates who underwent tests by the Road Transport Industry Training Board. Meanwhile, he has an intensive training programme ahead hut it will hold no fears for one who, according to Ian Creek, Wadhana Stringer's group training manager, "shows a very cool, calculating approach when under pressure."

Occupations covered by the Skills Olympics range from hairdressing to carpentry, with 320 competitors from 18 countries. Britain's hopes rest on Peter's going through the right door. There no prizes for giving an engine a shor back and sides.

DAVE WETZEL, savouring 1 last months as chairman of f Greater London Council Transport Cormnittee, is rubbing his chilled ha together because a £115,000 grant fr( the council has enabled a Lancashire to build a railway wagon with refrigeration gear driven from an axl is said to be able to hold a temperate of minus 32°C over long distances.

The chairman's aim is to divert to as much as possible of the 5m tons a year of deep-frozen and chilled foods that are transported by road in Lona "causing great disturbance." How th traffic "to the large food stores and markets" is to complete its journeys rail is not explained. Perhaps the doughty Dave will deliver it in a dee freeze wheelbarrow from the railheac HEN JEAN GERMANY i not hurling a horse and her over disconcerting obstacles, she is driving a new DAF FA3300DKX fin. horse box all over Europe. She expe to clock up 15,000 miles in attendin events this season. The vehicle, luxuriously furnished by a cabinet maker, has a special 6.1-metrewheelbase 16-ton chassis.

Ted Edgar and David Broome are other star show jumpers who have turned to DAF to help them over thi sticks.


comments powered by Disqus