Learning how people work requires a different set of skills to learning how a vehicle works. However, that is an essential requirement of a management role in engineering, finds Will Dalrymple
Workshop
After a year’s enforced break, the IRTE Skills Challenge returns for its tenth year of testing bus and coach technicians
Apprenticeships
The transport sector has had some major issues to cope with in recent times, but nothing could have prepared operators for what 2020 had in store. John Challen counts the costs of a global pandemic for fleets
Fleet Operating Costs
Lucy Radley gets behind the wheel of a right-hand drive New Truck Generation MAN tractor
Tractor Units
Kent Frozen Foods (KFF) has taken delivery of 31 new IVECO vehicles, 13 Eurocargo rigids and 18 Daily box vans from Kent dealer Haynes Trucks.
Light Commercial Vehicles
Scania (Great Britain) has won an order for a minimum of 2,250 trucks from Consortium Purchasing, an operation led by William Stobart, executive chairman of GreenWhiteStar Acquisitions, which owns Eddie Stobart, The Pallet Network, and iForce, and Allan Jenkinson, owner of A. W. Jenkinson Forest Products.
Tractor Units
MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd has purchased the HRVS Group and, in so doing, has acquired five dealerships located in Ripley, Stoke-on-Trent, Sheffield, Scunthorpe and Sleaford, and a customer workshop in Burton-upon-Trent.
Dealerships
In December, DVSA announced that tyres aged over 10 years will be banned on the front axles of lorries, buses, coaches and all single wheels of minibuses (9 to 16 passenger seats).
Road Safety
Newcastle-headquartered Mandata (Management and Data Services) Ltd has acquired transport software provider Stirling Solutions.
Telematics
Automotive testing organisations Millbrook and UTAC CERAM of France have reached an agreement to merge their operations to create a market leading group in vehicle testing, homologation and emerging technologies for autonomous, connected and electric vehicles.
Road Tests
TIP Trailer Services has launched BrakePlus, which it says will provide fleet operators with an alternative to carrying out physical roller brake tests throughout the year.
Braking Systems
MAXUS's eDELIVER 9 follows the eDELIVER 3, which launched in summer 2020. Two sizes are available: the 5.5m-long medium wheelbase (MH) offering 9.7m3 cargo volume and 5.94m-long long wheelbase (LH) offering 11m3.
Electric Vehicles