News

An Essex truck driver has been jailed for 15 years by Canterbury Crown Court for smuggling more than a million ecstasy tablets and 45kg of amphetamines into the UK. The court heard that Alan Philpot, 52, from Romford, was stopped by Customs officers at Dover's Eastern Docks on 6 October 2005.

Wincanton has confirmed that 180 drivers are set to lose their jobs when its depots at Tewkesbury, Glos, and Ross-on-Wye, Hereford close next month. The closures, which were first revealed earlier this year, are due to a re-organisation of distribution for supermarket chain Somerfield.

By Sally Nash In what is being seen as a possible test case on cabotage rules, VOSA has stated that foreign operators cannot "carry out operations in Great Britain on a permanent basis". This was made clear at a hearing where Philip Brown, deputy traffic commissioner for the Eastern traffic area, refused to return seven impounded vehicles run by Belgian operators Romantiek Transport LO Transport and JB Trans and nine trailers operated by Gary Banham, trading as Mendlesham Group Car and Commercial. Acting senior traffic examiner Alison Armitage told a hearing that she ha

Ceva Logistics says it has made an offer to buy US-based Eagle Global Logistics (EGL) for $1.8bn in order to boost its global scale and product offerings. If the deal goes through the former TNT Logistics, which was sold to Apollo Management in August 2006, hopes to have completed the merger by the summer.

Parcels firm City Link has taken a massive step towards full integration of Target Express with an extensive rebranding of all Target's fleet. It bought Target for £210m in December last year and the merged company has been trading solely as City Link since the beginning of this month and the City Link brand is now on all the group's 4,350 vehicles. "There was only a 2% overlap of customers, so it was a very good fit," says Michael Cooke, City Link managing director.

The owners of a popular Suffolk truck park were fighting to save their business last week when they appeared before a public inquiry in a bid to lift a ban on serving the public.A decision on whether the Orwell Crossing Lorry Park on the A14 can serve food and drink to the general public as well as to truck drivers will be made in the next six weeks. Park boss Karl Rout says that if it loses the appeal, the truckers' restaurant will have to close.

A Cardiff haulage firm is fighting a compensation claim for racial discrimination by a man who alleges he was refused a job as a truck driver because of his Asian origin. Abdul Sattar had applied to Taff's Well-based Rhys Davies & Sons for an advertised vacancy at its Tividale depot in the West Midlands - one of the firm's nine branches in the UK, a Birmingham Employment Tribunal was told. Sattar, formerly a bread delivery driver, said he had a 10-minute interview but was later told that the vacancy had been filled.

Truck rental and leasing giant Ryder plans to spend £15.7m on 671 new vehicles for delivery during 2007. They will range from 3.5-tonne vans to 18-tonne trucks all will feature digitachs and Euro-4 engines. Ryder currently runs 2,500 vehicles across 20 depots. "We've seen a significant upturn in our truck and van rental business during the second half of 2006," says Peter Backhouse, vice president and MD of Ryder Europe. "This has increased our appetite to invest in our business and highlights the positive outlook we have for the future.

Falkirk-based Ian Craig (Haulage) is moving to a former waste disposal plant after fears of contamination proved groundless. The Re-Chem incinerator plant at Roughmute, near Bonnybridge, was closed down about 20 years ago in response to environmental concerns about the after-effects of the potentially lethal waste that had been handled at the site. But Ian Craig has now bought the site from waste management firm Shanks & McEwen, and Falkirk Council has granted planning permission to develop the land.

The director of haulage and warehousing firm Wyvern Cargo says its latest financial results are better than they might have been, thanks to the introduction of fuel escalators into its contracts. John Probert says the first six months' trading of its latest financial year at the Poole, Dorset-based firm produced figures that were below expectations, but stresses it has "reversed the trend" to boost turnover by 10% over the corresponding period last year.