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2nd September 1999
2nd September 1999
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Page 1, 2nd September 1999
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Page 6

Lii=1 Changing the new registration suffix date from August to

September has failed to ignite a boom in sales, according to Glass's Guide. The arrival of Vplates has not matched the usual...

MAJOR ORD131 In one of its biggest deals to date.

LDV has won an £1lm order for 750 vans from TLS Vehicle Rental.

MORE STOWAWAYS The latest Home Office figures reveal that 1,000

illegal immigrants were found hidden on FIG Vs at the Channel ports in August. compared with about 3,500 in the whole of 1998.

ROUE PURIM Petition cards urging the Chancellor to bring in

an essential fuel user rebate will be available at the IRTE Scottish Truck. Bus & Van Show in Glasgow on 3-4 September.

)17=T71 . 1

The Tauern Tunnel between Flachau and St Michael in the Alps, which closed for three months following a fire in May, has now...

NEW JOBS Grimers Transport is hoping to create 20 new

jobs following a move from its Wetherby site to a warehouse in Wakefield.

1:=2:=3 Pallet operator Palletways (UK) has launched a next-day parcels

service and warns parcels firms that they could lose out as a result.

F -777 r 7 1

Resurfacing work between Junctions 3-5 on the M20 near Maidstone. Kent has finished a month ahead of schedule.

TOG has bought Dutch logistics group Van Straaten Beheer; its first major European acquisition in seven years.

DTI still trying to ban firm offering drivers jobs in US

a by Melanie Hammond The Department of Trade and Industry is renewing its action against a company which claims to offer truck...

Brits freed from Bulgaria

Peter Hobbs and John Mills, the British drivers sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in a Bulgarian jail for heroin smuggling,...

• One Man who is less than happy with FR

is Coventrybased engineer Vernon Phillips (pictured) who sought the services of the company in 1997. Phillips, who had already...

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Breaking the grain code

• by Karen Miles One of the UK's largest grain merchants has been caught breaking a code of practice designed to prevent...

Tories plan to focus on transport issues

• The Conservatives plan to focus on high levels of road and fuel taxes at the party's forthcoming annual conference....

Seatrans future

• Dartford ferry firm Dartline is trying to clarify the trading position of Dutch unaccompanied freight firm Seatrans because...

a Anthony Long, former managing director of Liverpool haulage company

AJ Long Transport, is facing a prison sentence after admitting to smuggling more than 25,000 litres of untaxed green diesel...

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Running down the escalator

Do you listen to rumours? According to weekend reports in the newspapers Chancellor Gordon Brown is preparing to climb down...

Speed cameras are blamed for deaths

• by Melanie Hammond Speed cameras and traffic calming measures are actually causing accidents and were partly responsible for...

T&G plans fatigue protest in Dover

• A mass protest in Dover is just one of the initiatives being planned by the Transport & General Workers Union as part of the...

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MAN after-sales side is beefed up

• MAN has made additions to its after-sales service, set up a UK-based call centre for Euroservice and is now stocking Cummins...

Jobs threat by snubbed firm

II A Midlands transport firm has been refused permission to expand despite threatening to close and make some of its 200...

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SCANDINAVIAN LINK Tolls for the Sound Bridge, which opens on

1July next year and connects Denmark and Sweden, will be £55 for trucks between 9-12m; £64 for trucks between 12m-16.5m and £75...

AEROSOL WARNING International operators should be on their guard during

rest periods following reports that substances are being squirted into cabs to make drivers fall asleep and allow illegal...

RENON RIEL Receipts for diesel bought in France should be

kept from the end of this year in order to claim fuel rebates. The French are understood to be trying to reduce the tax...

SWISS TOLL Fees for trucks entering Switzerland will rise by

100% from 1 January 2000. Receipts valid beyond 9 January will be reimbursed.

RULES RELAXED Overtaking by trucks is now allowed between 22:00hrs06:00hrs

on the Autosole motorway between Bologna Casalecchio and Florence, on the Brenner between Affi and Bolzano and on the Milan...

MINERAL OIL The RNA warns that vehicles caught transporting mineral

oil derivatives to Yugoslavia from and across Hungary will be impounded and drivers will be heavily fined.

KAZAIIRSIAN UXES The Kazakhstan authorities have set out the road

taxes and tolls for international operators. Contact the RHA's international department for a copy on 01932 841515.

'Corporate killing' law plan

• by Karen Miles New laws to make it easier to prosecute hauliers responsible for fatal accidents could be on their way . A...

FedEx set to retain Prestwick privileges

The Government Is resisting calls for an independent inquiry into its decision to hand Federal Express further freight...

GPS error limited to faults in Japan

• A satellite navigation fault similar to the millennium bug failed to hamper British hauliers travelling abroad, but motorists...

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Plant goes in hire con

• A Forest of Deanbased plant hire company is trying to track down a steel haulier from Essex which may have unwittingly been...

AA rapped over ads claim

1 The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against the AA (Automobile Association) after a national...

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Fuel injection gets more control at Cat

Caterpillar Fuel Systems reckons it has the technology to replace Bosch as the world leader in diesel fuel injection. Toby...

• A conventional, mechanical or electronic fuel system has two

degrees of freedom, In other words, it can control two elements of the injection process fuel quantity and timing. HEUI-A added...

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NOW HEIR-R WORKS

• Caterpillar's HEUI system is not like a typical "common rail" system, in which fuel is pressurised by a common pump and fed...

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ACHIM MILESTONE The 100,000th Actros has rolled off the production

lines at DaimlerChrysler's Werth plant in Germany. So far this year the plant has built 26.000 units with targets of 42.000 by...

SECRET TO LINOBBITY William Kirk of Macclesfield believes the secret

to a long life is a combination of ERF cab and Cummins M11, Eaton and Mentor driveline. The company expects each of its six new...

FORD RANGER BOOMS

The new Ford Ranger is topping the sales charts in the first two months of UK sales. Ford says the pickup sold 156 units in...

WINNINGS ORDER Kenning Car, Van and Truck Rental is buying

500 Nem Ford Dailys in its biggest purchase. The vans will be rented out on a daily and long-term basis to the private and...

LDVs FOR BARBADOS The Caribbean Is set to have more

LIAls on its roads after the Barbados Water Authority ordered 10 Convoy Crew Cab Dropsides. There are now more than 50 Convoys...

INEENIER

In the Vehicle News Extra on chipping (CM19-25 August, page 141 we said it was advisable to fit heavier SR1900 gearboxes when...

Asbestos crackdown looms

m by Peter Lawton Suppliers, operators, fitters and distributors are risking unlimited tines by using asbestos brake pad...

A 101 takes steps to boost driver safety

• Food distribution specialist A to Z had driver safety in its mind when it asked Solomon Commercials to add side steps to four...

!dam MAN haul

is James Ham and Sons of Chelford is taking 71 new tractors from MAN in a major fleet replacement programme. Each Evolution...

Surface savings

Fuel consumption could be Gut by nearly 8 billion litres a year if modern asphalt was used on all UK roads, according to the...

Daf deals in old news

• This 41-tonne 95XF FIG 430 Oaf is starting an unusual paper round with Williams Transport of Huntingdon. The firm is using it...

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Called five times, then out

A Co Durham haulage firm, appearing at its fifth pubic inquiry related to vehicle maintenance since August 1994, has lost its...

WEEK IF The one-vehicle licence held by Auchterarder-based Peter Rattray

has been suspended for a week by Scottish IC Michael Betts. Rattray was called before the IC because of concern over his...

INDEFINITE SUSPENSION Scottish TC Michael Betts has revoked the licence

for two vehicles and three trailers held by Ian Finlayson, trading as Highland Loghaul. of Culbokie, and has disqualified him...

LITER HEARING Penrith magistrates have adjourned until the middle of

the month the hearing of the case against Darlington lorry driver John Smith. accused of two offences of using a forged...

ONE DOWN Unsatisfactory maintenance has resulted in the licence held

by A Nichols (Cow Mills). of Chipping Sodbury, being cut by one vehicle by Western IC Christopher Heaps at a Bristol public...

BIB WITHDRAWN A bid for a new international licence for

two vehicles and two trailers by Ashford-based SS Game was withdrawn shortly before it was due to be considered at a...

orance was 'common' in area

William Lambert. managing director of Waivevat. trading as Advanced Scaffolding Services (ASS) claimed there were many...

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The use of a forged tax disc and failing to

produce tachograph cnarts has cost an owner-driver Alan Blease £810 in fines and costs. Blease, who is based in Swinton,...

Brake faults in three vehicles

Three vehicles with brake defects have been suspended from the licence held by Ebbw Vale-based CD Transport by Welsh Deputy...

A Welsh owner-driver, who had an interrupter switch fitted to

his tachograph so that he could compete with a larger rival he suspected of breaking the law, has been fined £2,000 by...

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DEVELOPING A LIFE OF CRIME

The Hawk is well aware that you don't need many brain cells to be a car thief, but thought perhaps that a minimum of one might...

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• About 70 people are killed in workplace accidents every

year. On top of this statistic from the Health Safety Executive (HSE), another 1,000 or more major injury accidents occur...

HSE inspectors can impose statutory notices on employers whose workplaces

or procedures do not meet safety requirements (that is, closing them down until matters are put right). Failure to comply with...

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COMPANY

New DTI websites The Department of Trade and Industry has two new websites: • www.dti.gov.uk/worldtrade/ offers information on...

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0 ith so much power avail

able these days, many hauliers looking for a premier league artic for 41ton n e work must be tempted to go for the...

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DRIVERS' VIEWS

▪ BRIAN HAULING, a self-employed driving instructor from NOV Training Services at Devizes, had stopped at BP's Swindon...

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11 IV ith ever more vigour, law enforcers are blaming inadequate maintenance

for cases of loose or lost wheels. Traffic commissioners and courts are distinctly less sympathetic to tales of the unexpected...

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*h a 7

warn Hazchem hauliers must appoint a safet end of the year. Failure to do so risks an two years in prison. But pressure on...

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WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

According to the University of Huddersfield's Transport and Logistics Research Unit, recruitment problems could be tackled by:...

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Later this month trade unions gather for their annual conference.

Transport unions at Brighton will be insisting on fewer hours for the same pay as the Working Time Directive is introduced....

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Ron Webb is very much an East End of London

boy. He was born there and still lives there. He started work as a press operator at Bellings in the early 1970s and became a...

David Higginbottom claims to be the only trades union general

secretary who has an MBA. He started his working life as a lorry driver in 1972 and in 1983 he spent a year taking a business...

Brian Fitzgerald is branch secretary of the docks, marine and

transport branch of general union SIPTU which is by far the largest union in the Irish Republic. He is one of the few trades...

Page 50

Jim Duckworth, editor of Road Transport Law and head of

Transport Law Services, Woking, Surrey, helps solve your legal problems in this regular column. Write to Commercial Motor, Room...

POLICE STOPS

was driving a 7.5-tonne truck on the M1 when I noticed a white car in my mirror with its headlights and a pair of small blue...

EXPRESS HOURS

• I do express delivery work with a 3.5 tonne van to East European countries. Do any hours restrictions apply to me while...

CATEGORY CHANGE

• I am somewhat confused as to the types of vehicle loan drive with an HGV category G4E driving licence. My licence describes...

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Ad I would like to welcome the introduction of the digital

tachograph in Europe as scheduled within two years. If properly developed it offers enormous benefits by improving the safety...