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II NEWS HEADLINES
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Marketing move
• Leyland Dots sales and marketing division is to be reorganised to make the organisation more "customer orientated".
In trouble
• Bristol Engineering has gone into receivership. Receiver Ernst & Young says the company has a £1.5m turnover from servicing HGVs and PSVs and the reconditioning of engines.
DTp code
• A DTp code of practice for hauliers is due to be published soon. The code was one of the recommendations of the 0Licence review last year.
Toll offer ,
III Up to five new toll-road schemes will be launched soon; the Government is expected to offer road builders 55-year contracts.
Carrymaster sale
• Carrymaster's factory and office site at Carcroft has been sold by the receivers to the Moseley Group of Loughborough, for the use of their subsidiary Doncaster Trailers.
More humps
• The regulations governing the installation of speed-restricting road humps are to be relaxed, and humps will be allowed on dual-carriageways subject to a 30mph limit.
Double purchase
• Caldare Holdings has bought Trimdon Bus Services and Teeside Motor Company, gaining 110 vehicles and two depots.
LB prohibition
• London Buses has imposed a no-alcohol rule on its 20,000 employees. Any worker who drinks during working hours faces summary dismissal.
Animal rules
• The European Parliament is now debating new rules to govern the transport of livestock, including a certification scheme for vehicles and drivers.
Tax drop
• Germany will drop plans for a tax on foreign hauliers using German roads if the EC will think again over alleged disparities in the road tax system. The proposed tax, of up to V600, is due to be launched in July — but the EC plans to take West Germany to court to test the legality of the tax.
Not on his Todd
• Co-operation between European trades unions when negotiating with multinational companies has been called for by Ron Todd, general-secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union.
VI bonus
• Staff employed at the Vehicle Inspectorate are in line for bonuses of up to 1,000 from Whitehall's first profit-sharing scheme. The DTp claims that the move to semi-privatisation has enabled the VI to boost its efficiency and run to a budget.
Bell buy
• York Trailer's new 'Cliderail' skeletal trailer, for transporting six metre ISO containers, has finished its operational trials with the Bell Lines fleet and the first production models are now in service. The 'Gliderair is a fixed length, tri-axle trailer: the container slides back and forth on a low-friction glide rail system. York claims it is lighter, less expensive, and more reliable, than the traditional 'sliding bogie' skeletal.
Index distributor
• Shropshire Trailer Sales has been appointed as distributor for Walker Tridex's three-deck semitrailer car transporter. Special finance deals are being arranged to attract owneroperators to the trailer, although Walker Index insists big contracts are also being sought. A mark II version of the Tridex is due to be unveiled shortly.
Swan buys Strato
• Owner-driver Mike Swan has taken delivery of a top-of-the-range Seddon Atkinson Strato. The 6x2 high-roof vehicle has been liveried in a special tartan, and is fitted with an Eminox stack, fog lamps and air horns.
US wheel nuts
• An American company claims to have developed a wheel nut which overcomes the problem of failure by vibration. Disk-Lock Europe plans to produce the nut in a UK manufacturing plant within 12 months. Call (0795) 844332 for more details.
Fleet replacement
• Tatung UK has replaced its entire fleet with Elm worth of lveco Ford drawbar vehicles supplied by Telford-based Furrows Commercial Vehicles.
Survival plan
• A survival plan for bodybuilder Northern Counties has been announced by Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority. It involves job losses and spending about E3m. Northern Counties is owned by Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive.
Major investment
• Scalia (Great Britain) has made a "substantial" investment in bus and coach distributor, Stuart Johnson. This follows Scania's decision to use the distributor for selling its bus and coach range in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Shell inspection
• While Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive presses ahead with a light rail/bus priority study for the area, the prototype body shell of the proposed design of vehicle for Manchester's Metrolink light rail system has arrived from Italy for inspection by local community groups.
Plaxton order
• Bus Eireann, which operates bus and coach services in Eire, has ordered 20 Plaxton Paramount 3500 coach bodies on Oaf MB230 chassis, built to Tempo 100 regulations.
Four Oaks sold
• Four Oaks Travel, which runs two coaches between Scarborough and Cayton, has been bought by East Yorkshire Motor Services Group.
No strike
• Stagecoach subsidiary East Mildand's second ballot is believed to have voted against striking.
All change
• Docklands Transit has applied to London Regional Transport for two of its commercially operated minibus services in London's Docldands to be transferred to a London Bus Agreement and become part of the London Regional Transport network.