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21st May 1998
21st May 1998
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Page 1, 21st May 1998
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Page 6

BRIEFS * More than 1,500 people attended two open days

held by Wincanton Logistics as part of its recruitment drive for the new distribution centre it is managing on behalf of...

VI bosses secretly filmed staff at work by Karen Miles

and Rob Willock • Vehicle Inspectorate staff are up in arms over revelations that they were secretly filmed by their...

Irish close in on dole cheat drivers • The Irish

authorities have copied their UK counterparts by launching an offensive against truck drivers who claim the dole while they are...

*Two vehicle examiners arrested on suspicion of issuing fraudulent annual

test certificates have been re-bailed for at least another three weeks. The pair were arrested last November at the Purfleet...

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RHA rethink on demos by David Craik • The Road

Haulage Association has paved the way for a U-turn over its support for hauliers' protest group TransAction as it ponders its...

Runaway truck mystery • Mystery continues to surround the case

of the 70mph "runaway truck" on the M1 which hit the headlines last week. Initial examinations by police, the Road Haulage...

Driver jailed after two due in crash • A Carlisle

truck driver who drove his tractive unit at speeds of nearly 70mph just before colliding with a car, killing two of its...

More trouble for Transland Transport Transland Transport, the fledgling Birmingham

haulier operating without an 0licence (CM 14-20 May), is in more trouble—this time over its use of the name Transland. Bury...

Page 8

Ex-franchisee wins legal aid to sue Panic Link by Rob

Willock • An ex-franchisee of parcels firm Panic Link has won legal aid to sue the company for over £80,000 for non-payment...

ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL ! t's funny how

chance conversations in crowd ed rooms set you thinking. Last week, at the same event, two people said different things about...

Road rage driver fined • A Highlands lorry driver who

has been convicted of two road rage incidents has been fined the equivalent of two-and-a-half weeks wages. Kenneth MacPherson,...

Page 10

Haulier slams P&O rate by Rob Willock • Tyneside family

haulier Twice Vital has closed for business, blaming P&O Ferrymasters' "unviable" short-haul rates for its failure. Father and...

DOT launches consultation on HGV training regulation • Regulation of

HGV driver training through the creation of a statutory register of instructors has come a step closer with the launch of a...

Who's beating congestion./ • The latest figures from the Department

of Transport suggest that some urban areas are proving more successful than others at tackling the problem of rush-hour...

Strang heckled at RHA dinner • Hauliers let Transport Minister

Gavin Strang know what they thought of the Government's fuel duty hikes when he addressed the Road Haulage Association annual...

Page 12

Road boost in Ireland by Karen Miles and Brendan Nolan

• Northern Irish operators are to receive a rare boost following a Government pledge to invest £100m in the Province's...

East Sussex haulier stung by offshore loan • An East

Sussex haulier has refused to pay £1,400 to a man he believes fronts the rogue finance company in Falkirk which has been...

Bridge bashing measures fail ft New anti bridge-bashing regulations have

had no effect in reducing the number of accidents, the Freight Transport Association claims. From 1 October last year, all...

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TIR conflict in Russia by Ian Wylie • Confusion is

this week surrounding the carriage of certain goods into Russia after local customs officers decided not to honour a deal on...

BP sold damaging diesel from 200 filling stations • BP

has admitted that last week it sold diesel from up to 200 filling stations in the SouthEast which could block fuel injectors,...

Due to repair works, the bridges on the Vistula at

Gora Kalwaria (roads 717-723), Plock (road 60) are closed to all traffic. As this will cause difficulties in crossing Warsaw,...

BRF drops demand for road building • The British Road

Federation is to give up its campaign for large-scale road building in favour of "quality of service from the highway system of...

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Shining in Shropshire I RTE '98 was the year of

the reluctant In spite of all this, the exhibition at Telford was a great success. There were plenty of operators looking at...

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BRIEFS • ZF has integrated an assisted gearshift system into

its Ecosplit gearbox. The Servoshift system is said to offer significant reductions in gearchange effort and speed compared...

Page 24

Frontline cab for 4-Series by Bryan Jarvis • Scania will

be showing off its latest factory-built Frontline-cabbed 4-Series municipal truck at next month's Institute of Waste Management...

BRIEFS • Island Plastics of Cowes, Isle of Wight, best

known for the bodies fitted to the AA's Vauxhall Bravos, is back in business following its purchase by a group of former...

ERF wins heavy business with a fast delivery time •

Cadzow Heavy Haulage specified a unique ERF 8x4 tractive unit after its predecessor, a Ginaf Daf rig, was written off in a...

Three-part Magyar suits Patterson • Batley-based Patterson has bought a Magyar food tanker from UK supplier RHM Tank Sales.

The Dijon-built threecornDartment tanker can be usec with a wide range of foodstuffs but will mostly be used for chocolate....

Page 26

Talk to your trailer with a computer from Haldex •

Haldex Brake Systems (formerly Midland-Grau) has launched a hardware package, known as PC Interface 1, which will enable...

Ecotek walls for your van • A range of light

moulded bulkheads for the loadspace of vans is now available from Ecotek (Design & Mouldings). The units are light enough to...

Premier bin-lifter joins Zoeller range • Zoeller Waste Systems has

introduced a bin-lifter to its range. Called the Premier, the maker says it incorporates technology resulting from 50 years'...

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BR' Haulier called to account Wendy Smith, trading as WS

Freight Services, of March, had been called before Turner, sitting as Eastern Deputy TC at a Cambridge disciplinary inquiry, to...

Welsh firm warned over Irish trailers • The poor condition

of Irish trailers being hauled by a west Wales firm, which ed to the imposition of a large number of prohibitions, resulted in...

Full up • Eastern DTC Brian Horner has granted a

bid by K&K Scaffolding of Southend-onSea for a second vehicle on its licence despite representations from neighbouring...

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Last chance for major fleet • One of the largest

haulage companies in West Wales has escaped with a final warning at a Cardiff disciplinary inquiry following a series of...

Tr Irk suspended A York haulage company which had a

vehicle involved in a fatal accident in February 1997 has had one of its trucks suspended for two months by North Eastern...

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The pay gap They say that every story has two sides: let me put across mine as an ex-Currie employee.

Some 20 years ago, after dropping a load in Berlin, I happened to cross the Channel with drivers from a wellknown tanker outfit...

Family favourite My dad and I have saved issues of

Commercial Motor from as far back as the 1980s, and to this day are very pleased with its information and realistic portrayal...

Brazilian five-pot your roadtest on the Volkswagen LT35 in its 2.8-litre-engined form certainly made interesting reading (CM 3-7 May).

Clearly your tester, in comparing the four-cylinder 2.8litre with "its 2.5-litre fivecylinder stablemate" has been taken in by...

Specific search Ihave followed with interest correspondence in Commercial Motor

concerning the current driver shortages and, in particular, the initiatives from Ian Hetherington of the Road Haulage &...

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Action, not words Later this spring our Government should produce

its White Paper on transport, presumably with an emphasis on the integration of the various modes for movement of passengers...

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Too complacent Iwonder if you are aware of the reason

why foreign motor vehicles are predominant on the roads of Britain. I can now reveal the answer—complacency and arrogance....

Breakdown costs Vou have recently 1 referred to the cost of vehicle repairs on the Continent.

May I ask Commercial Motor to approach the various vehicle manufacturers to ask if they are prepared to justify the outrageous...

Good choice T'Thanks for the combination knife that I have

just received for my CM vouchers. Very handy, good selection—much better than a Swiss Army knife! C Stopford, Thornton, West...

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bird's eye view by the hawk Happy winner Mho is

this man; and why is he so happy? The answers, in order, are: Steve Porretta, managing director of Coventrybased fuel merchants...

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-THE HILUX PICKS UP Until last autumn, Toyota's Hilux pickup

was singularly ill-placed to compete in the UK market-place. Its ridiculously hard suspension might have been suited to the...

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ILAWV CM has teamed up with Donald Armour from the

Freight Transport Association's legal department to highlight laws in the pipeline. He is unable to take telephone calls at...

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Fuel is one of the haulier's biggest costs, so can

the payment of fuel bonuses cut down the expense? CM reports. Bonus schemes can be an effective way of ensuring the company...

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Paper chasing Few hauliers would list paperwork among their hobbies,

but if you want to keep costs under control you'll have to accept fleet management as a daily chore—unless you hand the whole...

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• ■■ Many hauliers thrive by specialisation—Slaters Transport takes the

view that the more services you offer, the more work you get. Judging by its track record, the theory works... FACTFILE:...

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beat the

So who's afraid of the Millennium Bug? It's only going to affect the big computer users—the giant logistics companies, isn't...

Si BARGH'S ON THE BALL Action 2000 cites SJ Bargh

as an example of a transport company that has recognised that the Millennium Bug could cause massive disruption to its...

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'Simplistic pricing has unfortunately become a catch-all solution' Owner-driver Charles

Henderson does not agree with the Road Haulage Association's Essential User Rebate scheme. He has his own ideas for reducing...