LDV belts up minibuses
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by Toby Clark • LDV has made three-point seat belts standard across its minibus range, and has taken on new employees and increased production at its Birmingham plant.
200 and 400-Series minibuses have been fitted with lap belts as standard since 1992; the move is the first evidence of LDV's £30 million product development programme, said by chief executive Allan Amey to be "well on stream". It will culminate next year in the introduction of the facelifted model.
code-named -Bulldog". Around Lim has been spent on developing and testing lap-and-diagonal inertia-reel belts, built in to Isringhausen seats with integral head restraints.
Nine months of development included testing to ECE14 standards, which require a lOg horizontal pull test on each belt—a total of 4.5 tonnes on a threeseat assembly. The assembly is compact, with neat grey mouldings covering the mechanism on the back of each seat.
LDV will now fit only forward-facing seats: it has already
stopped listing crewbus variants, and the replacement of a pair of inward-facing rear seats means that the 200 series minibus will have 12 seats rather than 13.
The new seats and belts would normally add more than £1,000 to the finished cost of a 17-seat 400 series minibus, but the prices of all versions have been pegged. Deliveries start next month.
The three-point belt system entails a strengthened floorpan and cross-members, so it cannot be retrofitted, but pre-October 1992 minibuses can be dealer-fitted with lap belts throughout. LDV dealers are also offering training for drivers of school minibuses.
Increased demand—in particular fleet orders from the Royal Mail and the AA—has prompt ed LDV to increase production from 250 to 300 vehicles per week. This should give order cover for at least two months and has led to the recruitment of 65 additional staff, taking the total workforce to 1,180.
Ford has finalised prices for retrofitting lapbelts to Transit minibuses built between 1986 and 1991. Schools and voluntary organisations can buy the kits (which include belts, fixings, padding and strengthening plates) at cost price: around £350 (inc VAT) for a 12-seater and £400 for a 15-seater, fitted by a Ford dealer.