hate transport going into birth Sea oil, waste disposal Ind electric vehicles
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HE National Freight orporation is beginning to lgage in a wide variety f joint ventures. It is [ready involved in the evelopment of battery-elecic vehicles and is looking at ivolvement in distribution f North Sea Oil, the Dllection and disposal of ulk waste, transport and -affic management coniltation with the new local uthorities, and assisting in le corporate planning of its ustomers' businesses.
Announcing the new joint entures at a press conm-ence last week, Sir Daniel 'ettit, the NFC chairman, aid: "We are going to exand but our growth will be ,ased on our capacity to be ood and not by direction h rough legislation."
The Corporation has ompleted a feasibility study f battery-electric vehicles nd has now asked Chrysler UK and Chloride Ltd to produce a prototype for parcels and smalls traffic. It is to have a gross vehicle weight of 5.1 tonnes (5 tons) and a carrying capacity of 2,032 tonnes (2 tons), a range of 64 km (40 miles) and a top speed of 64 km/ h (40 mph).
The NFC is also looking at a similar project with an unnamed European manufacturer. The British prototypes are scheduled to begin their operation trials towards the end of this year or early in 1975.
Mr W. Batstone, chief engineer NFC, said that this was just the tip of the iceberg and soon they would be looking at very heavy vehicles with Chloride's Silent Rider bus very much in mind.
The Corporation is also to become involved with oil companies it is hoped on a partnership basis — with Tankfreight Ltd handling the NFC side. Mr Brian McGillivray, Tankfreight's md, told CM: "We want to be involved in the collection, storage and distribution of the product, but not, at this stage, in setting up retail outlets."
Tankfreight will also be involved in a joint venture with local authorities and industry in the collection and disposal of waste products. The company is currently examining the feasibility of interchangeable trailers and bodies. Mr McGillivray said that there was no good reason why a unit that pulled a tank should not pull a bulk waste disposal body, and he said that they were also looking at swop bodies. "We are looking at every aspect of both the oil and waste disposal operation."
The Corporation is also offering its services to the new local authorities in the area of traffic management and routeing of hazardous loads traffic, but since the authorities were only established on April 1, no real progress has yet been made.
"Get NFC help"
A similar type of venture is being offered to commercial organizations. Sir Daniel Pettit said: "We are saying to these people. 'Let us get involved in your corporate planning in the earliest possible stage'."
Later he told CM that the next logical development from contract hire was to assist in corporate planning and to provide customers with a whole range of services including warehousing and distribution: "But we plan to provide many more which are not yet available," he said.