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26th September 1996
26th September 1996
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Page 1, 26th September 1996
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Manchester TAO is hit by resignations

by Karen Miles • More than a third of the 60 staff at the Manchester traffic area office will have resigned by mid-October,...

BRIEFS

• Greenwich Borough Council is to review its six month han on HGVs using Romney Rood on 6 November. The ban will depend on...

111 deal averts Parcelforce strike

• A national strike at Parcelforce has been averted following an agreement between the union and management to review the...

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Magazine deal saves jobs

• More than 200 jobs with magazine distribution specialist Mortimer Group have been saved following Exel Logistics' plan to buy...

French customs reject beef going to Portugal

by Lee Kimber • A British haulier en route for Portugal has been turned back by French customs because his cargo of Marks &...

COMMENT

CORPORATE PHILOSOPHY short while ago we noted that no company, let alone any haulier, had ever been found guilty of corporate...

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Trainers fear cost rise

by Jane Sayer • The cost of vocational driver training will more than double to around £ 1,500 if candidates have to pass the...

Hours debate

• The Labour Party could reform drivers' hours regulations if a motion at next week's annual conference in Blackpool is...

Biscuit base to boost Essex jobs

• Dozens of new drivers' jobs are set to be created with the opening of a new distribution centre in Essex. Businessman Peter...

New models dent LDV profits

• The cost of launching and advertising two new models is being blamed for a slight fall in first-half profits at Birmingham...

Factors help in expansion plans

• Using a factoring company to collect debts increases hauliers ability to expand, says a major factoring specialist....

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Customs stops business

by Ian Wylie • The wife of an ownerdriver who is awaiting trial on drugs charges has accused customs red tape of driving her...

RHA offers health and safety audit

• A Road Haulage Association health and safety package due to be launched in November has been given the thumbs-up by the...

INNOCENT DRIVER JAILED IN FRANCE FOR 10 WEEKS

Last week the latest in a string of British lorry drivers accused of carrying drugs was released without charge. Miles Brignall...

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P&O predicts ferry fares will rise through merger

• Ferry giant P&O predicts that cross-Channel ferry fares will rise and capacity will be cut by up to a third over the next...

Carpet Express turns UCG round

• United Carriers Group has turned a £1.4m loss into a £750,000 pre-tax profit thanks mainly to a stronger performance by its...

TGWU claim to reflect mood

by Karen Miles • The Transport and General Workers Union is about to announce next year's wage claim in a declaration likely to...

Clean diesel—at a price

• Supermarket giant Sainsbury's has pushed up the fuel bill for its LGV fleet by £1,500 a year per vehicle by using cleaner...

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Haulier guilty of Inanslaughter

by John Davies • Jacksons Transport of Ossett and its former managing director Alan Jackson have been convicted of manslaughter...

Iii 'bett & Britten boosts

profits and revamps fleet • Distribution group Tibbett & Britten is investing £5m on the first part of a fleet modernisation...

Dagenham Motors hit by incentives

• Ford dealership Dagenham Motors has blamed reduced incentives from the Ford Motor Company for a 6% fall in its first half...

Rockwood redundancy row

• Nearly 200 former transport workers of Rockwood Holdings look set for a legal clash with the firm's receivers. Coopers &...

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False tacho appeal lost

• A Cumbrian owner-driver who was jailed for four months for the falsification of tachograph charts has lost his appeal against...

Haulier takes a voluntary cut

1 U A Bishop Auckland haulier took a voluntary cut of 10 vehicles in his licence authorisation when he appeared at a Leeds...

Vehicles granted

• Though taking no action against the licence held by Joseph McAllister, trading as DS Services, of Lundin Links, Fife,...

Heavy fine

• Rochdale magistrates fined NT Gallagher & Sons 1.300 with .E30 costs after the company admitted a gross overload of 22.6% on...

Tacho time

• Digbeth-based Neil Thomas, trading as Centro Waste, escaped with a serious warning at a Birmingham disciplinary inquiry after...

Convictions warning

• Fridge Freight (Fyvie) of Inver - uric escaped with a warning before Scottish TC Michael Betts at an Aberdeen public inquiry...

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Drawbar 750mm too long

• Andover livestock haulier BJ Langdow-n & Sons was given an absolute discharge by the Selby, North Yorkshire magistrates...

Non-attendance meant no licenc

• A Wigan owner-driver who failed to attend a Manchester disciplinary inquiry has had his licence revoked by North Western...

Operator was not licence holder

• A Scottish haulier told a public inquiry that a defective vehicle that had his 0-licence on the windscreen was not being...

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Rear steers pay dividends

by John Kendall • Access to farm sites is the bane of many an agricultural haulier. Artics present just about every problem...

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Bonnets on top

The 1996 IAA Show in Hanover was as impressive as ever: Mercedes' Actros was the obvious star of the show, while other...

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haulage factflie

Xs Haulage Factffle page provides busy operators with brief news items on: forthcoming events, services, business products,...

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letters

Do you want to comment on any of the stories in Commercial Motor? Does someone in the industry deserve a pat on the back—or a...

Worth appealing

y ou report that a Yorkshire-based owner driver was fined by magistrates in Kent for the offence of using a vehicle in a...

Wheel advice

T read with great interest the article on wheel loss (CM 12-18 September). I have seen many wheels fretting and moving but the...

One rule for them...

T see that the European 1Commission is planning to introduce computer tachos within two years (CM 19-25 Sept). Is it too much...

Untidy but legal

I am really angry about Brian I am really angry about Brian Weatherley's introduction to his comment headed "Shame on you!" (CM...

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bird's eye

view by the hawk Commercial Motor takes road haulage very seriously. However, once a week our quirky correspondent, the Hawk,...

Nerves of steel

0 orkshire Intermodal opalor Cobra Railfreight kept busy di ng Ow summer ferrying Italian-built sk .1 beams from its prier&...

Turning logic on its head

O f you saw a road sign parity obscured by overgrown vegetation and complained to the council, what would you expect them to...

Something old, something new, something borrowed, sometlino green

squith Motor Carriage claims this is the world's most luxurious van, if not the most aerodynamically efficient. Called "The...

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he narrow inside the Series or

ont end left less width Series cab than either the ERR Ehe Volvo Fl..10 but it was wider than the Euro Tech and Scania's P93....

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.The legal requirements for vehicles used to transport :food products

are included in various areas of legislation such as the Health & Safety and Food .Safety regulations. 'Code of practice The...

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OPERATOR PROFILE VEITCH BROTHERS

TrneIy trade W hen you think of drivers hanciballing goods you tend to think in terms of sacks of potatoes, bags of flour,...

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Wrong rates

You may be entitled to appeal against the uniform business rate if your depot's size has been wrongly assessed. Now is the time...

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'Judges don't know about the fact of life of modern road haulage'

Innocent drivers accused of drug smuggling face harsh treatment from European courts, says Stephen Jakobi, campaigning lawyer...

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Polluters face new jail threat

• Since 1 September this year, all businesses disposing of waste oil have had to comply with new Government regulations...

GREEN BRIEFS

+ The Department of the Environment has decided that thick-wash operators will NOT after all require a waste management...

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• Ever been tempted to get all that paperwork in

your office, pile it up in the middle of the yard and set fire to it Sounds a great way of celebrating Guy Fawkes Night—but it...

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Stay green—or face the wrath of the local council

• An operator who generates excessive fumes, noise or smell from his premises could attract the unwelcome attention of his...

Greencheck for Volvo truck operators • In the three months

to 31 August 1996 more than 4,000 Volvos—some 10% of the parcunderwent a free environmental check in a Volvo distributor or...

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TOUG H

HEAD In these days of lightweight environmentally sensitive trucks the air-cooled lveco Ford eight-legger is a bit of a...

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The Mercedes-Benz 814 is the archetypal German vehicle: ultrareliable, solidly

engineered and quietly competent. There may be more exciting vehicles in its class, but we couldn't find anyone with a bad word...

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To drivers it's an insult; to operators it's a compliment.

The term "gaffer's motor" might have been invented for Renault's nofrills, hard working G range. • The G290, built in the UK...

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Used Seddon Atkinson Strato multi-wheelers tend to cost less than

the equivalent ERF or Foden, which makes them good value for arduous site work, but they're not easy to find. • Following a...

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They don't come less like gaffers' motors than the mighty

Volvo F16. It's one of the flagship tractors that owner-drivers lust after and while the cab's looking a little dated, demand...