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18th June 1998
18th June 1998
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Page 1, 18th June 1998
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fp Si NI Di 06111 The Government has published a

consultation document to decide which of should be the responsibility of the Mayor. * Volkswaaer has confirmed it plans to...

Steel contractors face 20% rate cut by David Craik •

Up to 17 small hauliers working out of British Steel's plant at Shotton face bleak futures after BS gave its distribution...

Hauliers hit by Euro Forwarding crash • Derbyshire haulier FB

Wolfe is fighting for survival after a Wiltshire freight forwarder went under without paying it for several Continental loads....

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Customs swoop on green-diesel fleet by David Craik • A

director and a driver from a Liverpool haulage firm have been arrested and charged with smuggling more than 25,000 litres of...

Unlicensed haulier charged with theft • An Essex haulier who

vowed to continue operating despite being refused an 0-licence is now facing criminal charges. Takeley-based Paul Ellis, of...

Two missing semi-trailers were found during a police raid at

the premises of County Durham operator Kate-Em Hire on 11 June. Kate-Em director Clare Davison says it was simply a mix up,...

Redundancy threat hits Exel Newsflow • Exel Newsflow drivers working

for the Mirror Group at Watford and Hebburn are facing redundancy from Sunday 5 July when TNT Newsfast and Eddie Stobart take...

Falkirk scam warning • A Gloucester haulier is urging current

or aspiring hauliers to contact the Falkirk police if they believe they have been stung by a rogue company in the town which is...

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Trans-Action: future unclear after threat by Karen Miles • Trans-Action

is reassessing its tactics after receiving police warnings over last week's protest—and the offer of a meeting with the...

Diesel hike toll continues • Another family haulage firm has been killed off by the constant rise in diesel prices.

Ryelands Transport Services in Hereford, which transported soft drinks and fertiliser, will put its 20 lorries and assorted...

SMALL TRUST IN PRIME HAULIERS Imagine your business is on

the brink of collapse. What's your next move? For over half of the nation's hauliers this may not be just a silly role-playing...

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Shell drivers' job threat by Ian Wylie • More than

50 tanker drivers at the Shell Haven refinery in Essex face an uncertain future after the oil giant admitted it may shut the...

Road deaths level out • The number of road accident

casualties rose by 2% last year compared with 1996, according to new figures from the Department of Transport, but the number...

Haulier denies hours scam • A Suffolk haulier forced its

drivers to falsify their tachograph records to allow them to work over their permitted hours, Ipswich Crown Court heard last...

First road pricing trial cuts car use • Leicester City

Council says its road pricing trial is a success, with many motorists supporting a move to tolls. About 60 car owners took...

French jail another Brit for smuggling • A Doncaster owner-driver

arrested in France last December has been sentenced to four years in jail and fined £1.5m for smuggling more than 500kg of...

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Haulier fights C&E for truck by Miles Brignall • A

Liverpool haulier whose life was turned upside down after one of his drivers was caught with a consignment of drugs in his...

Beef ban rethink cheer • Hopes of an end to

the beef ban by the autumn have been given a muted welcome by British hauliers. Although the expected lifting of the ban will...

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ECM appeal rejected by Mike Jewell • ECM (Vehicle Delivery

Service) unfairly dismissed 24 drivers and yardmen by refusing to employ them after taking over a contract for the carriage of...

Duty advisers shamed • Advisers responsible for informing ministers on

why fuel duty on diesel should be higher than that on petrol have been shown by a retired driver to be ignorant of the facts....

Haulage sector's outlook worsens • The financial future of UK

haulage companies is becoming increasingly bleak, says a report from a financial analyst. A depressing 56% of hauliers face...

Haulier cleared of drugs run • A haulier, who set

up in business after being given Clm of his father's £6.6m lottery win two years ago, has been cleared of involvement in a drug...

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Battling binwagons!

Wellies, Pacamacs and sou'westers took on World-Cup ticket status in Torbay last week as a rain-sodden !WM show became a mud...

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i DAN trailers ers n the OK by Iep van

der Meer • Dutch trailer manufacturer D-tec plans to sell its Ultra lightweight trailer as the main product in a UK sales and...

Free charges for electric vehicles • A public charging site

for electric vehicles has opened in Sutton, South London. Three charging bays are now on-line in the town's Gibson Road car...

Shell promises 5% cut in fuel bills • Shell UK

claims it can save hauliers 5% on their fuel bills, thereby negating the impact of this year's fuel duty increase. Launching...

Mercedes drawbar for artistic moves • Cadogan Tate has taken

delivery of a specially made Mercedes-Benz drawbar rig for its pan-European removals and fine art groupage operation. The...

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Conditional discharge • Sheffield haulier Paul Stocks was given a

conditional discharge for 12 months after admitting a number of drivers' hours offences before the City's magistrates. He was...

Cash-crisis haulier hit • An international haulier whose company was

wound up earlier this year for the non-payment of VAT, and who ran two vehicles without tax for six months, had his licence...

Planning hitch knocks firm • A Tewkesbury TA, firm which

rented a site after being told there would be no planning problems has had its application for a licence adjourned until the...

Cases adjourned • The hearing of 170 alleged drivers' hours

and tachograph offences against Worcestershire haulier Stephen Walker, trading as S Walker Transport, and nine of his drivers,...

Conditions imposed • South Wales DTC Alan Jenkins has imposed

a string of environmental conditions on the licence held by First Call Delivery Services following representations from the...

Smaller fleet • Maintenance problems led to the licence held

by Penrynbased Syd Knowles being cut to 20 vehicles with a final warning when the company appeared at a Truro disciplinary...

Licence victory • Raymond Berry, of Newport, Gwent, succeeded in

his bid for a new one-vehicle licence at a Cardiff public inquiry before South Wales DTC Alan Jenkins.

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Operator is fined for lending authorisation • A Warrington man

who lent one of his community authorisations to an unlicensed haulier has been ordered to pay £700 in fines and costs. The...

Top fine for fourth offence • \ Manchester company caught

for the fourth time using a vehicle without an Operator's Licence has been fined the maximum £2,500 by Bolton Magistrates....

Forged records denied • A Barnsley haulier who allegedly forged

maintenance records and committed drivers' hours offences had his licence revoked at a Leeds disciplinary inquiry. John...

• In a series of earlier hearings him £600 and

Glendenning, of Green Lane, Shotton, was ordered him to pay ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £100 costs. £2,830 after...

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Kerb-crawling trucker sought By Rob Willock • Detectives in Hull

investigating the murder of a prostitute want to identify a white lorry seen in the red-light district on the night she...

Turn on, tune in...and go mad on Verdi's Requiem •

Road rage can be sparked by the music in your stereo, according to the RAC. "In general, if the music is above 60 beats per...

Tests reveal the real you...

• New truck drivers could soon have to take a classroom test to establish their likely safety record—before being allowed in...

That's the way to do it!

• "Just get me to the church on time. ..in a Leyland Daf 95.480 XF Space Cab" may not be every bride's dream on her wedding...

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Bars are better Iw ou 1 d like to say

something about Chris Curzon saying British trailers are the best in the world. That's a generalisation, and it's debatable....

Playing games Traffic policemen are playing "snooker" with vehicles they

pull over, I can reveal. During a recent trip to the Lake District I met an off-duty traffic policeman, who divulged a couple...

Circus trick Iwould like to suggest that the haulage industry in this country is little more than a circus.

The Government, the police and the public crack the whip at the heels of these pathetic animals (hauliers) and put them through...

Towing troubles: 2 With reference to the letter from John

Dixon headed Towing Troubles (CM 4-10 June), we have encountered similar problems towing a trailer behind a 4x4. We have motor...

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Taxing times Until two years ago I was U the

sleeping partner in my son's owner-driver business. We decided to cease trading as it was no longer making economic sense. But...

Slamming back Steven Norris might well have a poor perception

of the haulage industry ("Owner-drivers slammed", CM 4-10 June), but if we had an organisation which did something about our...

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Satisfied drivers With reference to your new story headlined "Newsflow

drivers threaten action" (CM 4-10 June), the drivers represented at Watford wish to disassociate themselves from your article....

Conspiracy theory T have been intrigued by 'your reports on

the recent fuel-duty demos by Trans Action, particularly the "stop press" story that 14 drivers who took part in the London...

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bird's eye view by the hawk A grand day out

ne Sunday morning in May, while the rest of the street was still sleeping, the Hawk and Foden the dog stole away in their...

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lec"s"coril The time has arrived once again for CM's review

of the state of the load-restraint strap market. Colin Barnett has found some good news and some bad news. The good news is...

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The delivery process is ever more reliant on the silicon

chip as paper-based systems look increasingly antiquated. Oliver Dixon charts progress—and assesses customer expectations....

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The road to the 29-tonner is upon us, however reluctant

British mixer operators are to travel down it. Steve Banner speaks to some of the converts. A6.5m3 mixer barrel is about as...

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S NSIT V TY Delicate equipment removal specialists do it very carefully. Steve McQueen reports...

FACTFILE: CARRY GENTLY BASED: Aldershot. ESTABLISHED: 1984. CONTACT: David Hurst, managing director; Michael Kennedy, director;...

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ILAWV ith Do Arm RECENT AND IMMINENT LEGISLATION The Road

Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 1997. CIF 1 October 1997. Require cab notices where the overall...

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any questions Loading defences Can you tell me what defences, if any, there are to an overloading charge?

A Section 4201 the Road Traffic Act 1988 states that it is a defence to prove a vehicle was "proceeding to a weighbridge, which...

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'Users of road freight receive hidden subsidies' Philip Parker, freight

spokesman with Transport 2000, the pressure group for green transport, offers some unpalatable evidence on why the cost of...