Transport books and publications
Page 37
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Drivers' guide
• Entitled Professional Drivers' Guide, a pocket-size handbook by B. A. Thompson has lately been published by Croner Publications, 46-50 Coombe Road, New Malden, Surrey.
Running to 140 pp including diagrams, it covers many aspects of the law affecting drivers, the driving and hgv tests, skills and techniques, maintenance, security and the care of special cargoes, and there is a separate section devoted to Continental work. The latter is particularly useful and includes a tabulated "yes /no" guide to licence, TIR and other requirements in each major European country.
The comprehensive nature of the guide, which costs £1.25 plus 5p postage, could possibly prove a disadvantage, deterring drivers from buying or reading because of its sheer quantity, though in fact a very clear index makes it an effective quick-reference work.
Unfortunately, ambiguities and errors in the first section make the reader doubtful of the guide's accuracy. For example: "the provisions of the Transport Act 1968 require a driver to (a) see that the vehicle that he drives is in a fit and serviceable condition (b) comply with the regulations governing driving and the use of goods vehicles with loading and unloading". It is the Road Traffic Act's Contruction and Use Regulations which lay down the former, while the meaning of the second section is not at all clear. Similarly, the reader is told that "an Operators' licence permits vehicles to be used for any type of operation and to carry goods in connection with the operating company's business for hire or reward". This is very misleading.
One gets the impression that the author is stronger on the technical and driving aspects than he is on clarity of legal explanation. ' B.C.
Motor claims Cases
A supplement to the sixth edition of Bingham 's Digest of Motor Claims Cases has been published by Butterworth and Co (Publishers) Ltd, 88 Kingsway, London WC 2.
The supplement details some of the evidence and decisions in a wide variety of motor claims cases resulting mainly from traffic accidents. Also included in the supplement are some notes on the agreement between the MoT and the Motor Insurers' Bureau for compensating victims of motor accidents caused by drivers who ;tannot be traced.
The cost of the supplement is £1 plus 5p postage and of the complete work £6 plus 35p postage.
New ABC guide
• A new edition of the ABC Goods Transport Guide for the period January/June 1971 has been published.
The Guide comprises 434 pages and is claimed to contain the most comprehensive guide to road transport services in the UK.
Separate sections cover the general carriers, the specialist, carriers, international hauliers, storage and distribution, shipping and ferry services and plant hire.
The price is 50p post free and copies are obtainable by post from Book and Sundry Sales Dept, IPC Business Press Ltd, 40 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1.
The facts and figures
• Did you know that 2,672 German, 1,067 Swedish, 94 Japanese, 512 Italian, 406 French and 56 American commercial vehicles were imported into the United Kingdom last year? Or that one can obtain a summary of overseas Construction and Use Regulations for 50p? Or even that more new goods vehicles (239,559) were first registered in Britain in 1969 than ever before?
This is but a small sample of the facts and statistics published in The Motor Industry of Great Britain, just out in its 1970 edition —giving facts for 1969. Published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, Forbes House, Halkin Street, London SW1, it costs £5 post free (but SMMT members receive one free copy).
The main sections of the book are devoted to worldwide statistics of vehicle production, import and export. The book details UK production of commercials and . cars by make, with retrospective comparisons— though in groups rather than by individual badges and weights. The main figures for commercial vehicles are:—
Driver behaviour: study needed
• Much more intensive, objective study of driver behaviour is necessary before any firm recommendations can be formulated which might improve driving skills, safety and make ,driver tests more relevant. This is, in general terms, the conclusion of Driver Behaviour, a report just published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, after long investigation.
The report examines many facets of driving skill and behaviour; it is obtainable price 85p (11 French francs) plus postage from OECD Publications, 2 rue Andre-Pascal. Paris 16e. • One of its most useful features for those involved in driver training and selection is a bibliography listing over 200 books and papers published internationally on these and associated subjects.
Road traffic cases
• The sixth edition of Road Traffic Offences by G. S. Wilkinson, has recently been published.
The book's main feature is its detailed treatment of the principal offences which can arise under Road Traffic legislation.
It is intended mainly for use by the legal profession, covering, as it does in some detail, the procedural aspects of road traffic cases both from the point of view of the defence as well as of the prosecution.
The publisher suggests that the book is no less valuable to the transport operator, the police (to whom it is obviously well suited) and the average driver with a thirst for knowledge.
Certainly a delve into its 600-odd pages would be interesting to the transport operator or motorist who intended tangling with the law, but I suggest it would be heavy reading otherwise.
Examples of case law are quoted throughout the book and it takes almost 40 pages to list all these and nearly 22 pages are devoted to lists of the statutes.
Since the death of the author the book has only been updated to June 1969 from the previous edition which was published in December 1965; but a separate supplement has been included to bring it up to date to May 11970.
Published by Oyez Publications for The Solicitor's Law Stationery Society Ltd, Oyez House, Breams Buildings, Fetter Lane, London EC4 the book costs £6.50.
D.L.
Useful for operators
• Much information of practical Value to operators of articulated vehicles is contained in a 32-page booklet which has lately been published by the Trailer Manufacturers' Association. Entitled "Standards for artics—why they make sense for operators" and costing 124p post paid, the publication sets out in detail all the current coupling standards governing the interchangeability of tractors and semi-trailers. It also explainS why such standards were laid down in the first place, and why it is in an operator's interest to abide by them.
Standards dealt with are those originally drawn up by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and, since the passing of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, covered by the British Standards Institution.
This is the first time that isolated items of such information have been consolidated into one work of reference. They are set down in simple, non-technical language and perhaps the most interesting reading is contained in the six pages devoted to the categorization of artics. These explain the idea behind the SMMT's complicated proposals for classifying tractive units and semi-trailers into various categories in order to show what units are dimensionally and operationally compatible with one another.
The booklet has been written by John Dickson-Simpson, of Transport Press Services, and copies are available on application to the Trailers Manufacturers' Association, 4 Norfolk Street, London WC 2R 2BB. T.W.