News

An interesting bit of gossip reaches our desk, suggesting that Fiat might be in the running to begin supply of a diesel engine to Ford in the US. Could this be a replacement of the ill-tempered Navistar deal? Fiat-powered Super Duty anyone? And what does this say about the mooted interest in Navistar on the part of Iveco? Or that in Cummins on the part of Fiat Powertrain? One thing for sure, it bumps the Fiat Powertrain business yet further towards centre stage.Odd really.

Scania is to source front axles from Hungarian supplier Rába Axle Ltd, in a €2.5 million per year deal. The full story can be read here.That will be another bit of the MAN-VW synergy argument shot to the proverbial then.

Grandparents, I think, are genetically programmed to fret about you. And the more information you give them, the more cause they have to worry. For instance, tell them you've had five accidents in a year while out riding your bike and they might begin to wonder if you should really be allowed out of the house at all without being wrapped in cotton wool. Don't tell them about the minor prangs, however, and they'll sleep safer in their beds.

An operator who avoided bankruptcy by entering an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) may have action taken against his licence because he failed to disclose the IVA at a previous hearing. Consideration of action against the licence held by Market Drayton-based Garry Edwards has been adjourned so his supervisor in the IVA can give evidence. Edwards claimed the supervisor had told him the IVA would not affect his O-licence because it was not a bankruptcy or liquidation.

A driver and crewman have lost their cases for unfair dismissal after they were sacked for falsifying a tachograph chart and claiming a night out. The pair were employed by Hull-based caravan transporter Glen Holt, trading as City Plant. A Hull Employment Tribunal heard driver William Wood and crewman Stuart Stock deny the record was false. It was argued that Holt had not carried out a proper investigation before dismissing the men. The Tribunal was told that in March 2005 the two men were travelling north after delivering a mobile home in the Southampton area.

Every employee will feel reassured by knowing his or her terms and conditions of employment. Likewise, an employer cannot insist on terms being followed unless they are made clear. The law lays down obligations on both sides.Do I have to set down terms and conditions in a statement?The written statement is not a full contract of employment. There are other terms which can make up the full contractual relationship such as work rules, disciplinary rules, terms in collective agreements, verbal agreements, etc.

The first sighting of one of the new arrivals is at the Methley Lafarge site near Rothwell. It's on the weighbridge carrying mud from a construction site in Leeds, and driver Michael 'Chuffa' Nicholson is bantering with the weighbridge officials as we wait to hop in and travel further into the table-top quarry to tip.

An owner-driver who was stopped at a roadside check claimed he had applied for an O-licence more than a month before. The offence of using a vehicle without the authority of an O-licence cost him 898 in fines and costs. Danny Wenham, trading as DW Haulage, of Meopham, Kent, pleaded guilty to the offence when he faced Marylebone magistrates. Anthony Ostrin, prosecuting for Vosa, said traffic examiner Robert Bennett had been on duty when an ERF 26-tonner driven by Wenham was stopped at a check site. Wenham was en route from Medway City to Silvertown loaded with a generator.

A Scottish operator had its five-vehicle licence curtailed to three vehicles after attracting several prohibitions and demonstrating a poor pass rate over a two-year period. John and William Noble, trading as Noble Brothers Contractors, of Beauly, were called before the Scottish Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken at an Inverness disciplinary inquiry because of concern over their maintenance record. The licence was curtailed to two vehicles for three weeks and to three vehicles thereafter. The firm currently operates three vehicles and three trailers.

 Twenty drivers convicted of drivers hours and tachograph offences, including the falsification of records, must wait to learn what action will be taken against their licences. All 20 had been employed by Garforth-based Whitkirk Produce; they had been called before North Eastern Traffic Commissioner Tom Macartney at a Leeds disciplinary inquiry.Whitkirk Produce had been fined 30,000 with 100,000 costs at Leeds Crown Court in March (CM 9 March).