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VlANUFACTURER who in:ed a vehicle now without r attention to driver cornvould be on a disaster Should manufacturers lore attention to one area ifort than another and are more in touch with their ners than others?
3 only way to obtain ngful answers to those ons is to speak to those at arp end of vehicle operathe drivers themselves. CM carried out a driver into the cab environment (CM, August 11, 1978), of those we spoke to at lg Corner service area had g but praise for their les while others cornd of high noise levels, and space.
t has changed since 1978.
s F7 has been introduced, s the T45 range, and most ly Ford's Cargo.
t of these manufacturers 11 you of the millions of s they have spent deng their latest models so light suppose that all the you'd be ironed out.
so.
re drivers opinions 9c1 along with vehicle dein the last three years? I ?.d Farthing Corner and a ither favourite stopping
their way home from Zurich.
Richard Ferguson and Bernard Whiteman both drive for Lloyds of Ludlow Ltd International Transport. Richard was driving a DAF 2800 and Bernard was in a Scania III.
Richard had driven DAFs since 1977 and knew the marque well, and his opinion of it was generally good. "The bunk is fine, the driving position is good and it is quiet inside," he said — much more comfortable than the Volvo F88 he had driven previously, he thought.
At 5ft 10in and 141/2 stones Richard is stocky, but not portly, and had no complaints about the size of the DAF's steering wheel. But he would like to have more
roof insulation on the 2800. "It gets a bit cold at night, particularly during Swiss winters," was his complaint. Richard was happy with DAF's Bostrom Viking 301 suspension seat. "It's a lot better than the seats in my new Ford Capri."
Bernard has been regularly driving a Scania III for the past year, and compared it with other vehicles he had driven. "The Volvo F10's ride is better than the Scania," he suggested, "In fact it's the best of any vehicle I have driven. The Volvo also seems to be the quietest inside but the Scania is quieter than the DAF, for example."
Bernard was "very happy" with the bunk in his Swedish tractive unit and while he was also satisfied with the Bostrom suspension seat he complained that the thermostatically controlled heater made him sweat.
Both DAF and Scania have recently updated their tractive units, of course, so they may feel that criticism of older models is unfair. I wonder if there'll be any complaints about the latest models?
The next driver I spoke to found the lack of legroom in his Volvo F7 sleeeper irritating, but conceded it was "far superior in every way" to the F86 he had previously driven.
Paul Davies, who drives for Fairfreight International of Atherstone, is not exceptionally tall at 5ft 10in, but he didn't like the engine hump in the middle of the Volvo: "There is nowhere to stretch my left leg. I would like to see Volvo offer a Globetrotterlike conversion for the F7 cab."
Of the Isringhausen seat, Paul's only criticism was its lack of lumbar support. But found the F7's heating system "leaves me cold, or, more precisely it leaves my right foot cold.
"The rapid build up of dirt on the side windows is annoying, but then a lot of vehicles suffer from that. I think the electrically heated mirrors are a brilliant idea, though."
Up to this stage we had noticed a distinct lack of British vehicles at Farthing Corner. It is ironic that when we moved farther afield and found one — a Leyland Roadtrain no less — it was pulling a trailer load of Toyota cars.
Cartransport driver Roy Burke was delighted with his new 16.28. "After a Fiat and an old Guy Big J this is magic; and it's so quiet I can hardly hear the engine," he enthused. He praised the dashboard layout
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