HARMONY IN1992
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• The people who really make the European Transport Maintenance Council tick are the operators: when they get up to speak at the annual conference, things always hot up. We have collated a selection of the best quotes from this year's conference in Florence, which capture the tone of the event: "I'm not trying to sell disc brakes, I'm just trying to get some for my trailers!" Terry Ball, Norfolk Line.
"No cab comfort, no road safety," Bernard Giroud, U1CR. "Storemen are expensive and technically non-productive," Roger Denniss, Bass.
"We have been using an automatic bar code system for five years now, and it just does not work. We found our storeman knew our spare parts stock better than the computer and that he could sort things out better than the bar code system," Ian Ogley, British Gas.
"We need to take the pen out of the workshop," Malcolm Filsell, Royal Mail Letters.
"Politicians can never agree on safety. In fact, politics is an impediment to safety," Bernard Giroud, UICR. "1992 could be a disaster," Hans Staals, Daf.
"Operators ask for unreasonable things. I am told that they are reasonable people. No so — they are only interested in profit," Roger Lefevre, Ministry of 'Transport, Brussels. "Give drivers the facilities they need by the side of the road, and you don't need to bolt them on top of the cab," Mike Cowsill, Royal Mail Letters.
"Tyre regrooving, if it is done properly, is very good — but if it is done out in the field, it is reploughing," Gerhard Hoogendoorn, TIP.
"There is no point saving a few killogrammes here and there if I still cannot get an extra one-tonne pallet on the truck." Stan Thomas, S E Thomas.
"Anti-lock braking was made mandatory in the United States. It was an absolute disaster. If you go that way in Europe, all that we in the USA could say is good luck," Rick Debord,