Dear Reader

Welcome to the Mercedes-Benz-sponsored Motor Transport Executive Brief.

This is a completely free service that aims to get the week's big stories to you before they break in the road transport press. You can use the links to the right to pass this message on to colleagues and to unsubscribe should you wish to.

You can also find fresh news at our website every day: just go to www.roadtransport.com

VOSA’s decision to consider including foreign trucks in its Operator Compliance Risk Score (OCRS) system has been welcomed by the UK’s road transport industry.

The proposed change is expected to coincide with the new Graduated Fixed Penalties (GFP) legislation, due to come into force in April 2009. Details of how such a scheme would work remain sketchy and a VOSA spokeswoman says it is too early in the process to say how it would apply OCRS to foreign hauliers.

The FTA has previously suggested a similar policy and even mooted banning foreign firms that are frequently found flouting the law from entering the UK on road safety grounds.

DHL Excel Supply Chain and Wincanton may be affected after retail giants MFI and Woolworths collapsed into administration on the same day last week.

Logistics firm Wincanton confirms that it has started redundancy consultations with 188 drivers employed on the Woolworths contract.

The drivers work at two main sites in Castleton, near Rochdale, Lancs. and Swindon, Wilts plus associated outgases.

Wincanton says that while it hopes to redeploy as many drivers as possible across its network, it adds: “Sadly we anticipate that there are likely to be redundancies across the operation and, subject to full consultation with the affected employees and their trade unions, this may result in a redundancy situation for some or all of our employees at the affected sites.”

Read more...

Seven new Mercedes Axor gritters are helping to keep Staffordshire’s roads free of snow and ice this winter.

Staffordshire County Council has added the trucks to its winter road maintenance fleet, in which Mercedes-Benz already plays a leading role.

All are four-wheel drive Axor 1824AK models, fitted with Econ gritting bodies and mountings for snow plough blades, and were supplied by Enza, Stoke-on-Trent.

The new arrivals are replacements for older Mercedes 4x4 trucks which have now been stood down, explains Technical Officer Barry Pearson. “Keeping the roads clear and safe in winter is such an important job and it demands a modern fleet dedicated to the task,” he says.

Palletline has launched a city freight consolidation centre service, branded City 24, for its members to offer to their customers.

The initiative is based on Palletline member Foulger Transport’s consolidation centre contract with Norfolk County Council, which started in summer 2007.

However, Palletline has not designed City 24 to operate on so formal a basis. MD Kevin Buchanan explains: “We’re doing a mail-shot to local authorities [to promote City 24], saying you don’t have to go into a tendered, single-source provision that you have to manage.”

Palletline members will also be able to pitch the service (comprising stockholding for seasonal demand, break-bulk, pick-and-pack, pre-retail and dealing with dry packaging waste) directly to private sector customers as well.

Read more...

The RHA has asked the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to launch an inquiry into why diesel remains so much more expensive than petrol.

RHA chief executive Roger King says: “We were told earlier this year that the reason diesel prices were then some 14p/litre or 15p/litre more than the equivalent petrol price was due to world demand and a shortage of refining capacity.

“Perhaps this was understandable when oil prices reached $143/barrel, but now that we are talking $50/barrel, it must be because demand has reduced as a result of a slowdown in global activity.

“Our question to the OFT and to the oil producers is why this hasn’t been reflected in the diesel premium we are still paying?”

Read more...

Dodd’s Group says it may have may cut jobs and trim its fleet following the loss of a long-standing contract with paper firm M-real to DHL.

Dodd’s has held the contract for the past 12 years, but will make its last deliveries for M-real when the contract expires on 1 March next year.

David Pink, the firm’s MD, says that up to 50 redundancies may follow and it will sell the 13 trucks dedicated to the contract.
DHL was not available for comment.

Read more...

Two tough and durable 3.5-tonne Mitsubishi Fuso Canters have added extra mettle to Wigan business Jim Bennett Stainless.

The family-run firm supplies packages of pipes, fittings and flanges in stainless steel and high-nickel alloys to customers in the oil and gas industry.

Its Canters arrived via Bolton Mercedes-Benz dealer Ciceley Commercials. Both trucks have dropside bodies. The first, a 3.5-tonne 3C11, was supplied, ready-to-work by Ciceley. The second, a more powerful, 125hp 3C13, has a 20ft body taken from a previous vehicle – this allows it to carry pipes up to seven metres long.

Proprietor Jim Bennett, who founded his business in 1999, says: “The Canter offers extremely good value for money. It’s competitively priced ‘up front’, which is obviously important, but is also renowned for being very cost-effective to operate, not least because it is so reliable.“

Shropshire-based RHP Telford has made 45 staff redundant after calling in administrator BDO Stoy Hayward.

The company, founded in 1977, will continue to operate with the remaining 27 employees, but the fate of the business depends on the administrator’s ability to find a buyer.

Joint administrator Kim Rayment says: “The company will continue to trade in a limited capacity and the remaining 27 staff have been kept on while we try to find a buyer.”

RHP was a Pall-Ex member and although the network was unavailable to comment, we understand that RHP is still working for Pall-Ex.

Read more...

Refrigeration unit manufacturer ecoFridge says that its nitrogen-powered fridge unit is almost 6% cheaper to run than a diesel-fuelled equivalent, according to independent tests.

The tests were carried out by Cambridge Refrigeration Technology (CRT) earlier this year on two identical Schmitz dual-compartment trailers belonging to retailer Asda. One was fitted with an ecoFridge unit and the other with a regular diesel fridge from a major manufacturer.

Based on a nitrogen cost of 8p/litre and red diesel at 55p/litre, CRT’s results show that the ecoFridge was some 11.5p/hour cheaper to run than the diesel unit – a saving of more than £1,000 over the course of a year.

Read more...