Keynote speakers at this major transport industry event are now confirmed as Minister for Transport Andrew Jones and Andy Eastlake, managing director of the government-backed Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership.
The minister is due to explain the government’s latest strategy around infrastructure investment, skills support, emissions management and driverless vehicles, following on from yesterday’s Queen’s Speech.
Meanwhile, Eastlake will examine the real world implications of technologies ranging from multi-fuel engines to hydrogen power, hybrids, range extenders, platoons and autonomous vehicles – as well as smart logistics.
New for the IRTE Conference will be a special session with major truck manufacturers – including DAF, Iveco, Renault and Volvo – revealing new fuel-saving and CLOCS-centric safety technologies, as well as innovative driveline configurations, and their implications for specifying more efficient tractor units and rgids.
Other hot topics include: Euro 7, with Andy Noble, Ricardo’s head of heavy-duty engines, examining the implications; CLOCS, with a panel of speakers from TfL, FORS, Travis Perkins and others chaired by Brian Weatherley; and sustainable trucks and logistics, with Dr Phil Greening, of the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight, and Professor David Cebon, who heads the Cambridge Vehicle Dynamics Consortium.
Delegates will also hear from: Carlsberg’s head of fleet Phil Thompson on the company’s transformational telematics and driver management programme – so successful that it is now being rolled out Europe wide; and Lionel Curtis, of Cartwright, with Richard Owens, of Don-Bur, on fuel efficiency and the aerodynamics versus weight and profile debate.
The afternoon will feature three streams – one covering legal and regulatory updates, another operational excellence and the third technology updates. As in the past, delegates will be free to move between streams to suit their own learning agendas.
For the legal stream, delegates can expect to hear from: senior traffic commissioner Beverley Bell (now patron of the IRTE); Gareth Llewellyn, new chief executive at DVSA; and Ian Jones of Backhouse Jones, the transport law specialist.
The operations stream will cover: how to use the irtec technician licensing scheme and IRTE’s Workshop Accreditation scheme to revitalise uptime and compliance; and green bus and coach technology and implementation developments that are being proven in service.
Finally, the technology stream will examine: braking and stability systems, with Thatcham Research, Volvo Trucks and Knorr-Bremse; tyres and fleet husbandry, with Michelin, Pirelli and Sigmavision; and the latest in heavy-duty engine oils and ultra-refined fuels, with lead engineers from Shell.
For more information and to register for the IRTE conference 2016, go to: www.irte-conference.co.uk/bookings/