• In a written reply to a Parliamentary question, transport secretary John Bowls (above) says it is estimated five or six fatal...

by Miles Brignall • Skelmersdale-based Ken Abram has called in administrators after recent expansion was followed by financial...

have hit problems this year. Only last week John Dee, the Durham-based firm, was split and sold by administrators—it had debts...

• Distribution and warehousing giant 'WRM Logistics has installed a new management team and moved its head offices to Kent in...

• British Government promises to force the French to deal quickly with compensation claims from British hauliers after the...

• More polluting lorries are being stopped on Britain's roads. Figures released last week by the Department of Transport show...

by David Harris • Volvo is recalling 400 FL10 and FL7 trucks because of faulty V-stays locating the rear axle. All the...

• The Department of Transport has admitted that spending on road maintenance has been cut back so much that it can no longer...

by Miles Brignall • The British Embassy in Athens is still warning hauliers to avoid Greece despite a number of hauliers...

• Trailer rental group CTR is to spend £55m updating its vehicles despite reduced profits, partly due to its ageing fleet. The...

• A former charity book keeper appeared at Richmond Magistrates Court last week charged with 12 counts of theft. Hugh Philip...

• The heads of the two main drivers' unions looked set for another clash this week despite Trades Union Congress attempts to...

by Phil Cram • The inquest has opened on a Cumbrian truck driver who was killed by a falling load just weeks before he was due...

• An owner-driver has been cleared by a jury of smuggling cannabis worth £344,000 hidden in a cargo of shoes. Roger Smith, of...

• The Council of EC Transport Ministers has backed a proposal by EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock to set up transEuropean...

• Circumventing Switzerland on the way to Italy and the Balkans costs European hauliers nearly £340m a year, as the journey...

• Preparations by the United Road Transport Union to set up a drivers agency are to start in earnest following a decision by...

• Wincanton has won Iwo Christmas relief contracts to deliver for Safeway and Woolworths. It is handling 619 lines for Safeway...

by Miles Brignall • Prospective truck drivers taking the new theory section of their driving tests will have to answer 21 of...

l• Hauliers will pay higher insurance premiums if the Government approves a Law Commission proposal to force negligent drivers...

• A majority of EU states support the mandatory fitting of electronic tachographs in new LGVs from 2000, but the UK wants to...

after fracturing a lorry driver's skull with a pick-axe handle had his sentence cut from five years to four-and-a-half by the...

• Jailed driver Mickey Chinnick is a shadow of his former self Neale. Neale visited Chinnick last week in Istanbul prison where...

• The continued restructuring at the UK's largest haulage firm NIFC appears to be bearing fruit after the group announced a 39%...

• Business failures in the transport industry are the highest within the British economy, according to figures released last...

by Derren Hayes • Most drivers will be spending Christmas Day at home but almost all will be working at some time over the...

Truck drivers fancy themselves as policemen, bully other motorists and routinely break speeding laws, says a new survey. But...

• Blockades in France, Austria and Greece have not exactly made drivers' lives easy on the Continent recently, but most are...

Rear steering axles offer tighter turning circles, reduced tyre wear and reduced ground damage on loose surfaces. Last year Nem...

• The Allison-equipped dray enables the driver to concentrate on the road better when driving in stop/start urban traffic. At...

• Having evaluated the enhanced safety and advertising benefits of reflective graphics on one of its double-deck trailers,...

• XL , y,braking and construction requirements come in for both light and heavy trailers on 1 January 1997, as part of revised...

• Truck drivers will soon be able to send and receive e-mail and find their exact location anywhere in the world using a...

Information and advice on the Heavy Goods Vehicle annual test, produced in association with Iveco Ford Truck. • How often do...

by Brian Weatherley • Seddon Atkinson aims to extend the appeal of its tractor range early next year with the addition of 6x2...

• Aberdeen haulier Alistair Cooper has bought the first XLcabbed Foden 4000-Series artic in Scotland with a 4554 (339kW)...

• The Scottish Office's requirement for on-board weighers to be fitted to salt and grit spreaders used on primary routes has...

• Freed from the old Milk Marketing Board's rigids-only policy, Lancaster operator Si Bargh is using a 2+2 artic tanker...

by Steve Banner • Boalloy has invested £1.5m in a 6,100tn 2 custom-built plant at Avonmouth near Bristol capable of building...

led to the revocation of the licence held by Whitehaven based J&C Kelly. The partners appeared before North Western Deputy TC...

• A Cumbrian owner-driver, who changed his operating centre and his home address twice without notifying his local Traffic...

• A Somerset 436 haulier had his Operator's Licence revoked and was disqualified from holding a licence for three years when...

• Gloucester haulier Andrew Bennett had his licence revoked and faces a five-year ban from holding an 0-licence, after he...

• North-Western Traffic Commis sioner Keith Waterworth has told the partners in Sheffield-based Direct Transportation that it...

• Drivers' hours and tachograph offences led to a Gwent company receiving a serious warning about its future conduct. Geoff...

• A Fareham haulier who continued to distribute pallets for the Ministry of Defence despite having his Operator's Licence...

• A tipper operator was cleared of fly-tipping after Chorley magis trates accepted he had taken all reasonable steps to prevent...

• The Road Haulage Association is holding a number of health and safety seminars in the New Year. Dates and venues are: 15...

• The Training Services Department of the Freight Transport Association has been given full accreditation by City and Guilds...

• Belfast-based shipping and forwarding group Quality Freight has taken over the franchise for the Irish operation of Red Star...

A-Z of models • The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) is to publish a new Register . of Vehicle Model Titles...

Tesco link • The Red Funnel Group is to start a drop trailer service for Tesco Stoics, linking distribution depots at...

Lynx • Lynx, the express parcels arm of NFC, has appointed Alastair Meikle as its director of network logistics. Securicor •...

London • A406, East Finchley: Single-lane traffic on North Circular Road between Henley's Corner (Al Falloden Way) and...

I was interested in your article headlined "Franchise ends in row" last week (CM 28 Nov-4 Dec). As an owner-driver myself I can...

I'm writing to you following recent industry comment about the lubricity of the lower sulphur "ordinary" diesel fuel that has...

of ordinary diesel and not the "ultra-low-sulphur diesel" marketed in the UK as Greenergy City Diesel and Sainsbury's City...

S urely the British trans port the has a very simple solution to getting paid by the French. No haulier to buy French trucks,...

FI inally the Government has done something to encourage the greater use of natural gas in commercial vehicles. Chancellor...

I n this fast-moving, fast-changing world there are few constants. But at Christmas we can still rely on some traditional...

R IGHT THE T R ACK "Soldier?", "Sah!" "Take your horse and see what's on the other side of that hill." "Sah!" "And soldier."...

For the police Christmas is business as usual but, despite rumours to the contrary, officers are human and have been known to...

R ing up Delice de France at its head office and depot in London's Wandsworth, and you will be greeted by a telephonist with a...

used to merely involving themselves with the transport of goods from A to B, now find themselves enmeshed in a riot of...

PARTNER The Peugeot Partner van has a knack for turning heads as it is not derived from a familiar car. Is it worth the...

A re the manufacturers getting a firmer grip on the used market? During recent weeks the signs have been ever more apparent....

°Hacked For this year's CM parcels survey, we picked 12 courier firms and asked them to deliver a package from Volvo truck...

• We recently read somewhere to beware of products marked "heavy duty" and "extra strength" as often they are terms used just...

indicates a solo truck plat,...,, ed at 17 tonnes with a nominal 230hp engine As the most powerful of Iveco's six-cylinder...

Aberdeen, Alperton, Ashford, Avonmouth, Aylesbury, Banbury, Barking, Barnsley, Basildon, Basingstoke, Beccles, Bedford,...

be remembered as much for the laws that were not passed as for those that were. A year that started with a vigorous burst of...

• When the Transport Select Committee recommended this summer that trucks running without Operators' Licences should be...

• One of the most important pieces of new law set to be introduced in Ireland is to make consignors liable for overloaded...

DAY ONE IlOur start and finish point was the British Gas fuelling station at Warrington in Greater Manchester. After final...

but it won't go away. Euro-4 will follow Euro-3, and we'll see pressure to adopt alternative powerplants: hybrids, hydrogen or...

THE DIESEL The 12-litre Tx is not the most advanced diesel on the market, but Perkins has developed the old straight-six Eagle...

• One of the biggest obstacles to the widespread acceptance of compressed natural gas is storage of the gas on the vehicle. The...

All the gas stations we used operated on the same principle. Gas is fed from the main then compressed and stored at around 200...

• We had fuelled twice in the course of the first day and struck upon a problem we had not anticipated. The diesel truck was...

• In service, the gas-powered ERF has used around 20% more gas than it would diesel. This is as a result of the engine's design...

The Department of Transport is flying a kite on heavier lorries. Will the average operator benefit—or will 44 tonnes remain...

means the conventional first rung on the ladder to running a transport company. But run one she does: a thriving express...

there than drivers to fill them? HGV driver agency Temps North West reckons the jobs market is the healthiest that it's been...

T he trouble with the transport industry is that it is highly regulated, but those who flout the law will have a significant...