SUSPENDING THIS BELIEF • For years we have been told that air suspension systems are the least damaging to roads. Rather like...

• A traffic check last week on the Al in Cambridgeshire unveiled 78 offences including one of using a vehicle exceeding...

air hits roads harder • Top scientists at the Government-funded Transport and Road Research Laboratory have discovered that...

• The 1989/90 transport training levy has been cut by 25% to 0.6% as the first stage in the phasing-out of the Road Transport...

• Police plan to confiscate trucks in a crackdown on flytipping. A test case will be heard at Tower Bridge Magistrates next...

• The EC Commission has slammed West German plans to slap a special tax from next year on lorries above 18 tonnes, Legally, the...

• Local traffic areas must be retained following the Department of Transport's shake-up of licensing authorities, say both the...

• London Buses admits that the venerable Routemaster bus is nearing the end of its life with the company after more than 30...

IN The road transport industry scored well in this week's Queen's Birthday Honours list with an OBE for John Little Copland, a...

• The following winners of the CM Truckstart competition each gain one year's free membership of the Truckstart insurance-based...

IN The third stage of the Commercial Motor/Leyland Daf Riumerthon race left the blocks this week with Turner Fain group...

as well as hazardous tankers as seen here in this bulk liquid tanker produced by German manufacturer Kassbohrer in conjunction...

I In our loading strap test (CM 23-29 March 1989) we tested a strap manufactured by Morco (Tarpaulins & Blinds) Limited. We...

• This year's TankCon exhibition, held at Charnock Richard in Lancashire, close to the tanker industry's Mersey/ Humberside...

• Christian Salvesen, the Edinburgh-based diversified food distribution and industrial services group, has announced pre-tax...

• No private contractor will bid for tenders from large socialist local authorities if they continue to indulge in...

• A dedicated independent scheduled airfreight trucking service, linking Britain's main air cargo gateways, will be launched on...

• Chemical producer Croda Universal, has taken delivery of two new Seddon Atkinsons, in a one-year renewable contract hire deal...

• Federal Express UK's Systemline logistics and distribution management division is sustaining its record of rapid growth with...

• Heavy haulage firm Thomas Marler and Sons has been taken over by Transport Development Group company Beck and Pollitzer...

• BRS Northern has clinched a £530,000 five-year contract hire deal with Clansman Cases of Stockport, Cheshire for three...

• All Leyland Daf Roadtrains will be fitted with the Eaton Twin Splitter 12-speed gearbox as standard from this summer. The...

• The first MAN 8x4 242 F9() to enter Britain has gone into operation with Barry Molyneux Haulage in Merseyside. The vehicle...

• Bedwas Bodyworks has built its first Max0p bodies for electric vehicles as part of a fleet order for 11 temperaturecontrolled...

• Allison Transmission has unveiled the prototype of its World Transmission (WT) automatic gearbox, which will be offered as an...

• The first production batch of four Volvo Plaxton Expressliner coaches will go to Potteries Motor Traction towards the end of...

• Sheffield-based South Yorkshire Transport is hitting back at some of its independent competitors by setting-up a new...

• Stagecoach subsidiary Cumberland Motor Services has bought the coaches and bookings of Stephensons of Maryport, a move which...

• An Alexander-bodied Leyland Olympian double-decker with features to aid the disabled was among vehicles on show at the...

• Hughes of Llanrwst has introduced two new lveco City Nippy 92 minibuses on its Alpine Travel routes in Llandudno, competing...

• Barton Transport shareholders are to meet on 30 June to vote on a proposal to sell the company to Wellglade Group, which owns...

• Small operators who have expanded their bus operations could be vulnerable to takeover in the next few years, warns a leading...

• The long-running battle between Hull independent Good News Travels and incumbent operator Kingston upon Hull City Transport...

• London Buses is to take another look at banning smoking on all its vehicles. A survey is planned next month to see if a...

• Groups of more than 15 children aged under 16 will be banned from coach travel on all roads in France from 14:00hrs on Friday...

• One of the biggest fleets of Bedford Midi vans in the country is being set-up by a new company, Home Buy, which will use the...

• Dorset-based frozen food firm Hunt's has bought nine Leyland Daf Roadrunners for its South-west delivery fleet. The vehicles,...

• Swift Service has won two 12-month warehousing, trunking and delivery contracts for Rockware Glass. Under the deals, worth...

• Interlink Express has announced a second top management departure within a fortnight. Mark Reddington has been appointed...

• Waste management company HT Hughes has announced a 31% rise in pre-tax profits from 21.4m to 21.83m for the financial year to...

• Shares of Hadleigh Industries, the parent company of Al International and Cooks Transport Engineers, rose to lip above the...

• Assembly of Norfrig trailers in Britain has started at A & M Vehicles in Norwich, and at WSM Bodies in the West Country....

• W lilting of Great Yarmouth is to merge with its sister company JD Fairweather giving Fairweather a total fleet of 36...

• Grangemouth-based haulage contractor Glen & Company has won a fiveyear ,2200,000 contract hire deal with Scottish Road Services.

Warwick — the new home of the national headquarters of Volvo Trucks (GB) Ltd., A move aimed at supporting our declared ambition...

• Bury, Lancashire-based Direct Parcels has appeared before the town's magistrates on 127 drivers' hours and tachograph...

• Local residents have blocked a South Wales haulier's plans to move his operating centre, following the sale of the operating...

• Drivers for Penrith coach operator W H Mandale, trading as Mandale Travel, were pressurised by passengers not to take their...

• Disciplinary proceedings involving Monmouth-based Greenlands fransport have been adjourned while the company has its trailers...

• North Eastern Licensing Authority Frederick Whalley has reserved his decision on a Harris Distribution application for 22...

E Brigadier Compton Boyd, Eastern Traffic Commissioner has reserved his decision on a bid for a new eight-vehicle PSV 0-licence...

• In our report under this heading in CM dated 8-14 June, we wrongly described Stevecastle Limited of Otmdle near Peterborough...

BY THE HAWK • TNT chairman Peter Allsebrook was generous in his praise of Trade and Industry Secretary Lord Young at the...

• Robert Dods-Brown, the second operator to take part in the joint Leyland Dal/ Commercial Motor Runnerthon, has changed his...

ICOAPX • People cope with the undesirable effects of middle age in different ways. Some believe that by trying to look younger...

1982 persuaded the Stirling family to invest in a sizeable yard at Mossend, near Bellshill in Lanarkshire. The main attraction...

SIR FAIR CRITICISM • I have read with interest your roadtest (CM 8-14 June) on the diesel Landrover. We operate one of these...

• Increased engine power, greater demands of driving in traffic and the development of electronics have all played a part in...

awaras 1 9 8 9 • Every successful company invests a lot of time and money in getting its image right. A haulage company's...

• It has taken Richard Lawson 10 years to break into the car transport business and win, he claims, the third biggest share of...

• Britain's international hauliers are cautious about the Channel Tunnel: only just over half of them (51%) plan to use the...

Shires Abel to go in style • A £90,000 luxury horse box, built by Oakley Coachbuilders, is now in service with East Anglian...

• A number of toxic-liquid carriers are now using Lithgow Saekaphen's special tank linings to combat internal corrosion. A S...

• An unusual 56m 1 powder tanker developed jointly by British Alcan and Sutton Bridge-based Metalair, and built on an...

• David MacKrill Engineering is offering a deadman type of hydraulic control for its rearend Skiploader in place of the current...

• Telford-based Huck-UK has improved its Hucktainer low profile fastener for GRP body panels. It now has a unique locking...

• Shelvoke Dempster has begun demonstrating its latest Revopak 11 wheeled-bin refuse collection vehicles, which have a new...

• Clean-A-Drain of Maidstone, said to be the U K's largest independent sewage cleaning company, has invested over £110,000 in...

• A new purpose-built training workshop for the vehicle industry is to be built in Livingstone on the initiative of the...

• York Trailers has modified its curtain-sider design to earn itself an order for 40 semis from Ferrymasters: five of them in...

• Swedish road hauliers benefits from generous C&U regs. with 24m maximum train lengths and a GCW limit soon to rise to 56...

• With increasing use of overhead and tail-end fork-lift loading, specialist bodybuilders are using slidingroof systems to...

• APA I lydraulies of Stokeon-Trent is marketing a new 2.0-tonne brick grab fitted with extra protection in the event of a...

• GCM 600 (formerly George Cohen Machinery) ha moved to Avenue One, The Business Park, Letchworth following its recent...

• rhe Association of Recovery Vehicle Operators' annual display at Warwick this year gained the title of International Recovery...

• District councils, continually under threat from enforced spending cuts and competitive tendering, are angry about being...

NI There was plenty of innovation among the bodywork on show at the Institute of Road Transport Engineers conference and...

Continued from page 16 tonne or 32.5-tonne operation. An unusual feature of a 7.3m insulated body by Truck Bodies is its...

• West Bromwich bodybuilder BradeLeigh launches an all-moulded Ford Transit Luton next month (July). It is one of several...

• Mebon Coachguard anti-corrosion treatment on welded square-section steel framing is proving itself a key to the success of...

that it accounts for one in three of all the commercial vehicles on Britain's roads today? That was the problem facing Ford...

Ford Transit 100L/1201. Light Commercials T he question posed at the beginning of the first road test report on the new-shape...

Operator 1 has an 80 strong fleet of Transits and Sherpas on spot hire and contract hire. Operator 2 has 70 Transits on...

• "I would buy a diesel van — if only they went faster." Despite what some manufacturers might tell you, this criticism of...

the publication of the original Commercial Motor roadtest report on the then-Iveco 35.10 Turbo Daily that it was withdrawn from...

have different wheelbases: 3.95m on the HiCube; and 3.2m on the High Roof Plus van. These dimensions give body floor lengths of...

)perator 1 has six Turbo Daily's on his fleet. His nain work is nationwide print distribution for a arge printing...

HIGH-VOLUME VAN F VER since it introduced the Bremen van into Britain seven 4 years ago, Mercedes-Benz has devoted by far the...

Mercedes-Benz 307D Light Commercials D uring the past four years Commercial Motor has tested a number of MercedesBenz vans...

MERCEDES-BENZ 3071) HIGH ROOF VAN. ORIGINALLY TESTED: 1/6/85. ENGINE: MB 0M616LG 71hp. GEARBOX: MB G1/18-S16 5-speed. BACK...

the unusual step of marketing it through its car dealer network. Judging from the numbers now being sold — 2,100 units last...

Renault Master P35 Light Commercials W hen Renault introduced the Master range of 3.5-tonne gross models in the late 1970's, it...

R.ENAULT MASTER P35 TIPPER RIGID. DRIGINALLY TESTED: 1/2/86. ENGINE: PETROL: 80hp. TEARBOXI 5-speed. IACK AXLE RATIO: not...

VOLKSWAGEN LT35E • Next April the Hanover-built Volkswagen LT range will celebrate its 12th birthday. It is now manufactured...

Volkswagen LT35E Light Commercials major point in favour of the Volkswagen LT range, sold at gross weights from 3.18 to...

LKSWAGEN LT35E HIGH ROOF U30 DIESEL PANEL VAN. LGINALLY TESTED: 17/1/87. 3INE: VW 6 cylinder ID! 100.5hp. kRBOX: VW 5-speed....