Hot News
02/02/12 • PACCAR held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new DAF assembly plant in Ponta Grossa, Brazil on 9 January. The high technology and environmentally friendly facility is designed to assemble DAF XF, CF and LF vehicles and the Paccar MX engine. It will produce DAF trucks for Brazil and the entire Latin American market. The DAF trucks will be distributed there through a network of independent DAF dealers.
02/02/12 • LEEDS based nationwide logistics specialist, Bedfords Transport, recently joined the BBC’s Take the first click campaign to help staff improve their internet skills. The Bedfords IT team will be giving their services free to help staff improve their skills on the internet. The offer is also open to partners. Members of the IT team will be available to answer any questions staff may have relating to getting online, browsing the internet, security worries, email, social networking or any and all generic computer and tablet questions.
02/02/12 • RESPONDING to customer feedback and a Transport for London (TfL) report into blind spot technology, Brigade Electronics has re-engineered its Sidescan product. Brigade was invited to take part in the TfL trial in which several operators participated using a range of technologies including Sidescan; a four sensor ultrasonic system fitted along the side of a vehicle which detects cyclists and pedestrians in vehicle blind spots. The system provides an audible warning to the diver and an optional real speech warning to the cyclist – ‘caution vehicle turning left.’
02/02/12 • OPERATOR licensing for Northern Ireland may be in place by April, Environment Minister Alex Attwood MLA told the Freight Transport Association. Tom Wilson, FTA’s head of policy for Northern Ireland, said; ‘In all our meetings with Mr Attwood and, indeed, with previous Assembly ministers, we have put the need for an O-licensing regime for all truck operators right at the top of our agenda. We believe that through this we can significantly improve the safety standards of HGVs on Northern Ireland’s roads.
02/02/12 • THE NUMBER of youngsters aspiring to become Scania CV service personnel continues to increase with more than 50 students embarking on Scania Apprenticeship programmes between September 2011 and January 2012. This latest intake comprises 39 apprentice technicians, five apprentice parts professionals and eight apprentice bus and coach technicians. ‘These figures are part of a healthy upward trend which has seen our intake of apprentices almost double over the past three years,’ commented Mark Grant, aftersales director for Scania (Great Britain) Ltd. ‘That is excellent news, not only for Scania and its customers but also for the transport sector in general.’
01/02/12 • HAULIERS based in the Western Isles are up in arms over the Scottish Government’s decision to exclude commercial vehicles from the road equivalent tariff (RET). Instead, hauliers should get a pre-RET discount increased from 15 to 25%, but in spite of this it is claimed that ferry fares for road haulage operators could rise by up to 175%.
01/02/12 • THE 2012 Gathering of Leylands will be held on Sunday 8 July and this year the location for the event will return to its spiritual home, the town of Leyland. The Gathering of Leylands will form part of the Leyland Transport Festival which is being organised by the British Commercial Vehicle Museum over the weekend of 7/8 July 2012. Visitors should note that the Leyland Society display will be on the Sunday only.
01/02/12 • THE BVRLA has welcomed the news that van buyers are to receive an £8,000 grant towards the purchase of a plug-in van. BVRLA chief executive John Lewis said: ‘It is great that the government has listened to the feedback from business fleets, who have spent the last year telling them that the van market was crying out for this sort of low carbon incentive. Electric vans are expensive, but the combination of this grant, much lower running costs and some significant tax benefits will enable many fleets to take the plug-in van plunge. ‘As well as identifying which vehicles will qualify for the grant, we hope that the government will learn the lessons from its introduction of the plug-in car grant by moving much more swiftly to clarify how the grant will be treated for VAT purposes.’