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3rd February 2005
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The Sly MT is preparing guidelines for bodybuilders to certify their quality levels in the run-up to Whole Vehicle Type Approval — and the industry will never be the same again. Bryan Jarvis reports.

Tnick manufacturers such as Iveco and MAN sell complete vehicles with a range of bodies that are produced and fitted at their factories or distributors. It's a popular concept,especially among the large rental or express parcels firms where fleet engineers appreciate the short lead times this allows.

However, this practice is creating a growing interest in whole-vehicle warranties. CV bodybuilders are facing up to the implications of Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA), and they'll need to prove that their manufacturing processes are up to standard — particularly with the advent of 'duty of care' liability law.

With all this in mind, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is working with the truck, body and trailer manufacturers to draft 'best practice' guidelines.

Truck manufacturers already provide vast amounts of engineering information in the form of build specs, engineering drawings and instructions — in printed form, on CD-ROMs and on the intemet — to help the bodybuilders convert customers' chassis.The guidelines will encourage CV bodybuilders to work to the letter of these recommendations; they will also provide an 'audit trail' that satisfies all third parties.

Legal implications

Such guidelines will have farreaching legal implications so the SMMT is soliciting the financial and insurance sectors as well as manufacturers. Assuming it can drum up enough support, it aims to launch the scheme at the CV Show in April.

But won't world-weary manufacturers see this as one more layer of red tape that will hinder more than it helps? Not so, says the SMMT's CV development manager Robin Dickeson:"We've contacted 400 companies and have had a positive reaction from many of them."

With limited resources the SMMT has no intention of building a guideline database, nor of running independent audits. But it will coordinate the current informal agreement between chassis manufacturers and bodybuilders.

"To a large degree it will be selfpolicing by virtue of the bodybuilder's declaration of intent," says Dickeson." Once they've signed the agreement they must go ahead and comply, then prove that they've complied."

Thompsons (UK)'s sales director Scott Burton already works closely with the truck manufacturers and welcomes the guidelines. "The SMMT's long overdue initiative could help bodybuilders deal with the WVTA problem," he says. "We also have problems with so-called tipper builders who use cheap low-grade metals and undercut our prices, sometimes by as much as £1.000."

A customer might think he's got a bargain but, when components fail prematurely, someone has to pick up the repair bills.Thompsons' system is simple enough: the firm works with truck manufacturers,and sticks to their recommendations.

Benefits of agreement

Boa]] oy MD Gerry Brown echoes the general view that formalising this relationship can only be good for the industry as a whole:"We've always been in favour of a higher regulation of bodybuilding activities."

The Construction & Use Regulations deal with lighting, mudflaps and rear underruns, but Brown points out that they fall a long way short of defining how bodywork and additional equipment should be mounted on a chassis. His hope is that the proposals will lead to important technical clarification.

Another optimist is KingTrailers' Mark Carrington. He believes the SMMT's initiative will give UK manufacturers some influence when it comes to shaping the content of WVTA:If we can't resist the Directive, isn't it better to take an active part in developing it, to the benefit of our own industry?"

Rather than leaving our European partners to take the lead, the SMMT's scheme will give the UK industry a voice in vital debates on subjects that will affect us all.

For the past 20 years Carrington has advocated trailer registration and, ultimately, complete trailer type approval, but that's still a long way off "It leaves us with a dog's breakfast of a framework in which the industry has to operate," he says, "and puts us at a total disadvantage when competing with other EU manufacturers which do have a formal framework to work within."

And he isn't worried that the specialist manufacturers' services will be diminished:"As long as unusual applications require innovative solutions, our services will always be in demand," says Carrington."Regulation will never stifle this type of engineering ingenuity" The Iveco and MAN initiatives with JC Payne show what can be achieved in the way of providing customers with complete purpose-built vehicles with comprehensive documentation, akin to what the SMMT is seeking to promote. But not everyone is enamoured of such a scheme.

Daf sales engineering manager Bob Ford concedes that there is a requirement for bodybuilders to take full account of their products,just as truck chassis manufacturers do. But in its present form, he doesn't think it will work:"It needs to have teeth if it's going to convince those less-than-professional bodybuilders, who lack the necessary knowledge to convert truck chassis, in a way that conforms to our own engineering standards."

Many bodybuilders meet with Oafs full approval but there are others who,despite being good engineers in their own right, do not.

Ford recalls one manufacturer of excellent skip-loading equipment with almost faultless quality processes but relatively limited knowledge on how to mount it to a chassis. One operator had so many problems that Daf engineers were twice called in to show just what was wrong with the installation.

Occasionally, a customer will order a chassis from a Daf dealer while insisting on bodywork from an unaccredited bodybuilder. "Usually the decision is based on price,-says Ford."But, having stated our position,we take a step back."

Of course,many bodybuilders have already gone down the accountability trail with BS5750 and ISO 9002. But they should be aiming at full IS09001 accreditation if they're going to come into line with WVTA and the rest of the ELI.

wish the scheme well," Ford concludes, "but it needs to be stronger and more assertive if it's going to be effective." •


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