The latest road transport and truck news | Commercial Motor

O-licence centralisation hits next phase

The transfer of goods operator licensing application processing from the South-Eastern and Metropolitan, West Midlands, Welsh and Eastern Traffic Areas to the central licensing unit is to take place this week. The address for the processing of operator licensing for all Traffic Areas is now: VOSA Licensing Application Services, Hillcrest House, 386 Harehills Lane, Leeds LS9 6NF

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January 24, 2007

MAN withdraws hostile takeover bid for Scania

German truck giant MAN has ended a lengthy takeover battle with Swedish truck manufacturer Scania by withdrawing its €10.2bn (£6.7bn) takeover bid.MAN says that talks will be ongoing with Scania and its shareholders to try to exploit possible synergies between the companies.

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January 24, 2007

EWS predicts boom in UK rail freight

Rail freight specialist EWS Network is predicting a sharp rise in the number of intermodal containers transported by rail. The creation of Yorkshire-based EWS Network, part of EWS Group, enables the logistics market to include rail as a significant part of its supply chain for the first time.

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January 23, 2007

Syntex to demonstrate to TC it is 'legitimate'

A Felixstowe company set up only six months ago and now employing two staff with links to a firm that lost its licence is being called before the Eastern Traffic Commissioner to discover if its own licence will be withdrawn. The involvement of two Syntex staff members, Mark Fielding and Hussein Ahmed, with 3PL Solutions has sparked concern among local operators. Fielding and Ahmed were directors of 3PL Solutions around the time its licence was revoked in October 2006.

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January 23, 2007

TC calls for tighter controls on O-licence applications

A Traffic Commissioner is calling for an overhaul of the O-licence application system following a licence application by a director with a criminal record and links to another director who had been disqualified indefinitely. South Eastern and Metropolitan TC Christopher Heaps (pictured) says applicants should have to prove their identity. The system has traditionally operated on trust, but he is no longer prepared to assume that applications will be completed honestly.

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January 23, 2007

New Maxity joins Master and Mascott in line-up

Renault has added to its light delivery vehicle range with the launch of the new Maxity, covering the 2.8-4.5t gross vehicle weight sector.

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January 23, 2007

Iveco unveils new Stralis

It’s big, it’s black - and with the new Stralis, Iveco clearly thinks that this time it has the truck to give it the market share it needs in the European heavy tractor sector.

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January 22, 2007

Replacement SCR exhausts from AVT

Astra Vehicle Technologies is offering replacement Euro-4 and Euro-5 SCR silencer and exhaust systems for specialist vehicles which require the nearside chassis location to be clear.

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January 22, 2007

Concern over Yearsley driver jobs as depot shuts

Yearsley Group admits the closure of the Birds Eye depot in Hull could lead to redundancies among its drivers – but says it will attempt to redeploy them. The frozen foods business, which was sold to venture capitalist Permira in September 2006, is to close its Hull plant this September with the loss of 600 jobs.

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January 22, 2007

T&G and Amicus unions plan to merge

The Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) is set to merge with Amicus, the engineering and technical union. The leaders of both unions have agreed the merger in principle; now it must be ratified by a ballot of members. This should be complete by March - if it supports the merger the new union will come into being on 1 May with a combined membership of two million.

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January 22, 2007

Turners builds up by acquiring CRW

Family-run haulage company Turners (Soham) has boosted its presence in the building materials industry with the purchase of bulk powder specialist CRW for a rumoured £7m. Turners’ MD, Paul Day, says the acquisition, which went through earlier this month, was a natural fit for its business; it already runs 400 tankers in this sector.

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January 22, 2007

Moody drivers benefit from NVQ2

Drivers for Northumberland-based Moody Express have boosted their driving skills by taking Level 2 NVQs via roadskills development specialist Tyneside Training Services. Caroline Moody from Moody Express explains: "We train our drivers every year, though this time we opted for the NVQ course. "As well as completing practical tests, drivers also had to keep written portfolios.

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January 22, 2007

Off-duty cop dies in parcel truck crash

Cumbria Police are conducting an investigation for the coroner into an accident in which an off-duty policeman was killed while driving a truck.PC Steven Robertson, who worked for Tayside Police, was on the M6 near Penrith when the accident happened.

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January 22, 2007

Foreign driver blamed for death of six

A truck driver was unlawfully killed in a crash caused by a migrant worker who was in breach of the Working Time Directive, an inquest has ruled. Philip Woolley was driving a Hovis LGV on a single-lane stretch of the A52 in Lincolnshire when a minibus driven by unlicensed Portuguese driver Orlando Manuel Dos Santos Lourenco tried to overtake another vehicle in the early hours of 14 February 2006.

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January 19, 2007

'Dangerous' rapist denied LGV licence

A truck driver with a string of convictions for violent offences against women - including some committed in lay-bys - has been banned indefinitely from holding an LGV licence. David Tarren was convicted at Teesside Crown Court in 1988 of attempted rape and jailed for 42 months. In 1999 he was jailed for a further eight years for two rapes, two assaults and procuring a woman to become a prostitute.

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January 19, 2007

Former MT assistant editor is new RHA policy chief

Jack Semple has joined the RHA as its director of policy. He replaces Karen Dee who has moved to the CBI. Semple takes up his new post at the end of the month, having served eight years on the staff of Motor Transport, latterly as assistant editor, news and technical.

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January 19, 2007

Fiat’s Commitment to Iveco – Unwavering Says CEO.

Asked about Fiat Group’s commitment to the total ownership of a medium and heavy duty truck manufacturer, CEO Sergio Marchionne responded that it was ‘unwavering’.

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January 17, 2007

Volvo, Freightliner Position Themselves for Increase in Hybrid Vehicle Demand

No shortage of hybrid news kicking around today. There’s an announcement here concerning Freightliner’s pitch for a piece of the medium-duty hybrid market, whilst here is a tale about Mack’s take on the genre. We assume that the Freightliner variant is closely reelated to Fuso's Eco Hybrid.

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January 12, 2007

CNHTC Aims for $1 billion Exports by 2010

Volvo’s current Chinese truck JV partner China National Heavy-Duty Truck Corporation (CNHTC) has been doing a bit more sabre rattling. It expects its annual overseas sales to jump five-fold to $1 billion in four years as it aggressively pushes sales beyond its domestic market, says this report in the Peoples’ Daily.

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January 12, 2007

MAN -Scania Bid: now the Deaththroes.

Looks like the MAN Scania bid has finally died the death. In truth, it’s been coughing up blood in the hallway ever since Bernd Pischetsrieder received the surprise elbow from VW a month or so back, but the rejection by VW of the MAN offer – it is Scania’s biggest shareholder – has finally put the lid on things.

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January 11, 2007

PACCAR and Isuzu invest in the US, but aim for Europe?

The news that both Paccar and Isuzu are to develop new manufacturing facilities in the US comes at an interesting time. Isuzu is to establish a plant in Birmingham, Alabama, and, whilst Paccar is rather coyer as to its plans, we’d put some money on it opting for the same state.

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January 10, 2007

Compliance and record-keeping

Truck operators are legally required to comply with drivers’ hours rules and the working time rules incorporated in the UK in The Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2003 and The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005.

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December 21, 2006

O-licence responsibilities and the CPC

O-licence applicants must sign a declaration confirming they will comply with certain obligations to be given an O-licence and must continue to maintain standards to keep an O-licence once they have it.These include being a fit person to hold a licence; making proper maintenance arrangements for vehicles; controlling drivers’ hours, records and loading; running a suitable depot (known as the operating centre); having adequate financial resources and, for standard national and intern...

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December 16, 2006