BIRD'S-EYE VIEW
Page 48
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TIE SALE of MacBrayne Haulage reminds me of a colleague's experience 10 years ago, when signs that all was not well could already be discerned.
He was working for Convoys Group of Thornliebank, Glasgow, when a delivery of 16 cases (of about 15 lb each) of Orkney fudge arrived for packaging by an entrepreneurial customer under the label "A Taste of Scotland".
The delivery was made off the back of a MacBrayne trailer, which had been sent out from the local depot. The driver was in no great hurry — as, he explained, delivering the fudge was his day's work. Perhaps the van driver was having a day off.
OP Deck Travel, which has been using Bristol doubledeckers on tours of Holland, has certainly rung the bell in the Netherlands. Unfortunately the bell is in the Coen tunnel on the route from Amsterdam to north Holland and warns of the passage of over-height vehicles.
The buses, 10cm higher than the Dutch legal limit of 4m, were several times recently in dispute with the wire on the tunnel roof which, if broken, turns the traffic lights at each end to red. This caused monumental traffic blocks but allowed the culprit to escape.
Alas, immunity is no more. Wire has been replaced by electronic beams. that pinpoint the offender. One TDT bus is reported to have been impounded and three others escorted by the police to the Belgian border. All the company's vehicles are said now to be persona non grata in Holland.
"We arc trying to get to the bottom of this," said John O'Donnell, of Top Deck Travel — although it is the top that is causing the trouble.
ENDEAVOUR, a balloon in which two men are to try in the autumn to fly non-stop around the world, takes its name from the ship which, with James Cook in command, sailed from Plymouth in 1768 to circumnavigate the globe. The flight by Julian Nott, the British pilot, and Peter (Spider) Anderson, the Australian copilot, is due to start from Perth, Western Australia, where a prototype has already flown successfully.
Thomas Meadows, the international freight forwarder, is aiding the venture by co-ordinating, free of charge, the shipment of Endeavour to the USA for its maiden test flight. If this succeeds, the balloonists will return to London for final preparations, again by courtesy of Meadows, before setting off for Perth.
Crane Fruehauf took advantage of the Hot Air Ballooning World Championships in America to advertise its T-Air suspension for semi-trailers by sponsoring Thomas Holt Wilson, who, like his benefactor, comes from Norfolk.
FTER Baroness Phillips had presented Robert Montague, chairman and group chief executive of container rental group Tiphook, with the Queen's Award for Export Achievement, the occasion was celebrated soberly with tea and cake. Was this because finance for the company's development had been provided by the United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution?
HILE cyclists are being urged to proceed with greater safety, the travelling populations of our major cities will be encouraged to drink fizzy American lager beer. Both are the subjects of city bus advertising campaigns which will hit the streets this autumn.
As many as 1,450 buses in all of the Independent Broadcasting Authority's television areas will be carrying the message "Hot from the USA" on Tshape posters advertising Budweiser's beverage.
At the same time, the Central Office of Information is to use buses in London, Stoke, Hull, Leicester, Nottingham, Plymouth, Southampton, Edinburgh, Derby and the major conurbations to press home its "Cycle with Safety" campaign.
Those cyclists who may be wending their merry way around the environs of Telford, proceeding of course with the utmost care and attention, will have other visual distractions to contend with. The Tellus bus company is inviting the youth of the Shropshire town to decorate a bus shelter. Designs arc being sought in a competition run by the PSV operator as part of its Street Machine programme aimed at giving the younger citizens of the town a better deal on the buses.
by the Hawk