EC springs to rigid specs
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• New regulations covering rigid truck drive-axle suspensions are on the cards, following research by the European Commission.
The Commission study was launched last June following agreement by EC Transport Ministers on higher weights for rigids, if they are fitted with "air suspension or a suspension system with an equivalent performance". A specification for such a system has now been produced. The Department of Transport says that ordinary leaf spring suspension systems would not satisfy the proposed specifications. It is believed that operators will be able to uprate their existing vehicles' load capacities by fitting the EC approved suspension. The EC Commission is also behind a campaign to open up the EC market for electric vehicles. A consortium of 55 European cities, including Electric trucks backed by EC.
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sheffield and Newcastle on Tyne, have set up an organisation called CITELEC to encourage the use of electric vehicles.
Experiments have been conducted by local authorities in Bonn, where the mail vans are electrically-powered, in Brussels, where the university runs a fleet of electric personnel carriers; and in Rome, which uses electric buses.
"For the first time we have the users and the politicians coming together instead of .iwt scientists and manufacturers," says CITELEC chairman Ferdinand Dierkens.