AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

9th September 2004
9th September 2004
Page 1
Page 1, 9th September 2004
Close

Page 6

Forwarder baffled

by his own debts The boss of a collapsed freight forwarding firm says he does not know how the massive debts occurred. Dominic...

Customs demands £100,000 in VAT

SLOUGH-BASED operator Taylors of Heathrow is closing down after a petition to wind it up was registered by Customs and Excise,...

Page 7

Light Atego 8x4 for UK

AFTER MUCH "Will they? Won't they?" deliberating, Commercial Motor can reveal that DaimlerChrysler (UK) will be bringing a...

Speeding led to conspiracy charge

A TRUCK DRIVER and a member of staff employed by Garforth, West Yorks-based Whitkirk Produce Co have received suspended prison...

Reality TV

A Polish driver had his truck containing 200 televisions stolen after he got out of his cab to ask for directions. The...

HGV runner

Police are hunting a trucker who drove off following a fatal motorway pile-up on the M6 northbound between Keele services and...

Online booking

Eurofreight has launched an online service to make it easier for operators to book trucks onto its ferries. Potential users can...

Nuisance callers

A third of drivers admit to still using their handheld phones while driving, according to RAC Legal Services, even though this...

Real TV

Channel 4 is looking for truck drivers to take part in a Cutting Edge programme on gridlock. It wants to hear from anyone with...

Page 8

Fresh flavour for FTA boss

Former ETA boss Lawrence Christensen is going to wield a new broom for Sainsbury's distribution network. Guy Sheppard reports....

School of safety

ROAD SAFETY campaign group Brake and parcels firm FedEx have joined forces in anew initiative that is designed to cut road...

Page 9

Killing bill outra

THE LATEST dithering over the government's flagship corporate killing bill has been roundly criticised by road safety...

Data protection

Barry Proctor wonders about the wisdom of allowing VOSA and the police such an open door to monitor all our dealings through...

Waste crisis threat

NEW END-OF-LIFE legislation which came into force last November could lead to mountains of old trucks being dumped rather than...

Page 10

CLAMP DOWN ON THE CLAMPERS

" But anyone, it seems, can set up a damping business and charge to release vehides " Frustrating. Distressing Expensive....

Page 12

Prepare for LRUC pitfalls

A leading road transport technology specialist warns that HGV operators could pay a huge price for the Lorry Road User Charge....

The key questions LRUC —The key questions that must be

answer Road Tech boss Derek Beevor warns that truck operators must be given satisfactory answers to the following key questions...

M6 Toll price cut is attracting more truckers

MIDLAND EXPRESSWAY (MEL) reports that more trucks are using the M6 Toll since charges were cut by 40% at the end of July. MD...

Page 13

Council falls out with police over bin truck licences

A SCOTTISH LOCAL authority is at loggerheads with the police about whether its new recycling vehicles can be driven by staff...

Freedom or folly?

Take a stroll with us through the little side roads of the transport world — the diversions and detours, the quirky, the...

Page 14

Hit-and-run hunt on A303

HAMPSHIRE POLICE have launched a nationwide hunt for a truck driver who failed to stop after being involved in a fatal...

RVIC plants

RMC is axing 80 jobs in its cement division's Rugby and South Ferriby plants, including a number of drivers. The job cuts come...

Page 16

Faster you go, more you pay

Speeding penalties are set to increase with your speed. Jennifer Ball reports. THE GOVERNMENT has launched a consultation on...

Page 18

Car hauliers in a tight spot

Guy Sheppard reports on a new hazard. GROWING DEMAND for bigger cars is endangering the lives of the drivers who deliver them,...

Page 19

Sprinter and Vito with ESP as standard.*

Safety has always been our top priority at Mercedes-Benz. ESP gives you added protection in difficult conditions and we don't...

Page 20

Child killer gets prison

Jennifer Ball tells the fate of a driver who walked away from a fatal crash. AN UNINSURED TRUCK driver has been jailed for...

Managers see way clear to buy-out

NOTTINGHAM-BASED operator Clearway Distribution has been sold for £3m to a group of its managers led by incoming chief...

Two roll-back transporters slide into play

RECOVERY OPERATORS can now chose lighter, easier-to-load bodies with two new options on the market. Worldwide Recovery...

Page 22

A cautious welcome

The Freight Transport Association's latest Quarterly Transport Activity Survey (QTAS) reveals that domestic haulage growth is...

Page 25

Success story

Daf Trucks holds the enviable position as well-established UK market leader. Andy Salter speaks to MD Stuart Hunt to discover...

Page 26

Fewer jobs with small operators

YOUR YARDSTICK report's conclusion that driver vacancies dropped last quarter seems out of line with national statistics (CM 26...

Time to crack down on foreigners

1TOTALLY agree with your comments about foreign hauliers ( CM 5 August). cannot understand why operators travelling to the...

Spare a thought for the agency drivers who 'start a new job every day'

I HAVE to agree with Kevin Brooke in last week's issue (CM 26 August) regarding agency drivers. I did not see theoriginal...

Page 28

Fixed penalty

Clampers on the Lakeside industrial estate near Thurrock have hit truckers' pockets hard. Chris Tindall investigates how the...

Page 31

Meat supplier's licence cut back for six weeks of negled

Meat supplier finds it has to pay more attention to transport despite it only being a support business — or it could lose its...

Page 32

Heavy haulier loses six vehicles after 10 faults

A HEAVY haulier has lost six vehicles from its licence after appearing at a second Public Inquiry within five years, with 10...

Heavy fines for special types overload

A GROSS overload on a low loader cost a London company and its driver £1,350 in fines and costs when they appeared before...

Page 33

Operator fined €400 because

driver failed to produce chart AN AGENCY driver who was unable to produce tachograph charts at the roadside has cost a...

Driver who walked out loses case

AN ABERDEEN driver who walked out on his job after being blamed for an insecure load has lost his claim that he was unfairly...

Page 34

Law and orders

My boyfriend noticed that the other driver who uses his truck had left his tacho sheets in the cab. When he reported this to...

Grossly unfair

We run building materials into London and return empty on vehicles plated at 29 tonnes and 32 tonnes. When returning the gross...

Directive question

I work as an operations support clerk Sunday to Thursday, a total of 431/2 hours. I also work for an agency a couple of days a...

Page 36

The problem with monogamy

Is an owner-driver who works for one company an employee or self employed? it used to be an issue for the taxman; now it's...

Page 38

Money in hand

The cost of maintaining 'financial standing' is set to rise. But is it real istic to make operators keep more than £2,400 in...

Page 43

OLD FAITHFUL

Truck manufacturers are well aware that operators are a conservative bunch who generally prefer evolution to revolution; maybe...

Page 56

RENTAL ROUN

y es, yes we know — we're barely out of August, but pretty soon the supermarkets will be putting up their Christmas decorations...

Page 61

t gives the final verdict We were surprised to find

a top-spec lveco among the ranks of Hill Hire's fleet tractors. Presumably this is a reflection of the low standing the marque...

Page 62

Iveco Stralis Active Space

Where's the gearstick? And what do I do? These are probably the first questions any rookie driver climbing into the Stralis...

MAN TGA

Climbing into this truck, we spotted the gearstick and assumed it was like any other 4/4, because that's what it looked like on...

Mercedes Axor

An unpleasant encounter with a slap-over box left us more than a little cautious about driving the Axor, but we persevered and...

Page 63

Daf CF

This contender featured Dal 's usual 4/4 gearbox with rangechange and splitter. The gears are pretty self-explanatory, but to...

ockleys Brick

CAVsthanks to Blockleys Brick for supplying our test loads. For more than a century, Blockleys has been turning out bricks at...

gives the rookie view "Here's your load notes and where

you need to go; see you later." That's about as much instruction as agency drivers get: they're given their load details,...

Page 66

Time to be moving on

Rob Salter writes his last column for CM and mulls over his firm's achievements in the past year. 1 t's nice to be able to say...

Page 68

Magnificent seven

CM tests more commercial vehicles than anyone else — and now we are using our extensive database to help you to find the right...

Page 70

Lead times boost used sales

The traditional summer sales slump never really happened and business is booming in the used truck sector. Steve Banner reports...

Young 4x2s match 6x2s

Due to a shortage of 4x2 tractor units less than five years old, they're now fetching the same money as their 6x2 equivalents,...

Time to pamper drivers

"IT'S NOT ONLY big engines and big cabs that used tractorunit buyers are after," says Steve Smith of Widnes independent dealer...

Page 71

Big demand for big rigids

ENQUIRIES FOR USED 18-tonners with 27ft curtainsider bodies have soared, says Paul Diamond, truck sales executive at Road...

Franchised boost for independents

Too many franchised dealers arc failing to put sufficient effort into selling used trucks, claims independent dealer Lee Smith....