Andrew is an editor for WhatTyre, Tyrepress, and Tyres & Accessories magazine. He has more than a decade of experience in editing, writing, and journalism.
Hankook has been awarded an iF Design Award for its all-season truck tyre SmartFlex AH31. Incorporating advanced design and technology to improve performance, Hankook’s SmartFlex AH31 line-up will be extended significantly in 2015. The tyre will be displayed at the CV Show in April.
When we consider the truck and bus market it can be easy to downgrade the importance of the latter half of the equation. According to the latest Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Factbook, there were 89,374 buses (including coaches) on the UK’s roads last year, equating to 13.6 per cent of the UK heavy commercial vehicle parc (i.e. not including van-sized vehicles) and 0.2 per cent of the total vehicle parc. Compared with 568,993 trucks (86.4 per cent of the CV parc), the people transportation segment of the CV market is clearly the junior partner. New bus registrations have made a strong start to 2015 (see textbox), but are still relatively small beer.
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Sailun has announced that it has become the exclusive automotive sponsor of global charity World Child Cancer. The charity is dedicated solely to addressing the global inequality in diagnosing and treating children with cancer. Of the more than 200,000 children who develop cancer worldwide each year, 80 per cent are from low or middle income countries where fewer than five per cent will survive. The survival rate in high income countries is 80 per cent.
Tea company Ringtons, a proud family business steeped in history, is adapting its tyre policy to ensure it can continue to deliver to customers across the UK on time, every time. The Newcastle-based firm will progressively roll out a Michelin winter tyre policy for its fleet of 220 VW Caddy commercials, following a trial during winter 2014/15 which demonstrated a clear improvement in mobility throughout the colder weather.
Lancaster Insurance will attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the “largest parade of MGs” with the help of the MG Owners’ Club (MGOC). Taking place on Saturday 11 April at Rockingham Circuit in Corby, Northamptonshire; all MG owners and lovers are being encouraged to unite and get involved in what will be a world first. To set a new World Record there must be more than 100 cars in the parade.
Following news that the government has the green-light for trials of driverless cars in the UK, Venson Automotive Solutions’ says fleet managers could benefit from considering the future of their fleet. Results from its latest survey suggest drivers would welcome these cars as an option; 62 per cent of respondents said they be happy to sit-back and let their company car do the driving, with many saying it would remove some of the stress from their working day.
The Government’s Road Conditions in England Report brings a mixed bag of results with some minor improvements on certain road categories and deteriorating roads elsewhere. Generally the AA believes that a great proportion of motoring taxation should be ring-fenced for road improvements.
The British-made Jaguar E-Type sports car secured 14 per cent of the votes in a nationwide independent survey conducted by The Car Buying Service. Following close behind with 9 per cent of the vote was the Mini Cooper 1275, while the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow came in third with 7 per cent. Also amongst the ‘top 10’ favourite classic cars were the VW Beetle oval window, 67 Ford Mustang and Porsche 356 – the full rundown can be found below.
Motor industry professional body IMI has called on employers to consider increasing the starting salary for apprentices by more than 70 per cent to compete with academic career paths. Steve Nash, CEO of the Institute of the Motor Industry, will explain that return on investment research demonstrates that most companies could increase starting salaries from the legal minimum set by Government of £2.73 to £4.73 per hour without loss of profitability. The IMI has launched an “apprentice calculator” to help demonstrated its point to businesses.
“It is encouraging to see that the commercial vehicle market continued to grow in February with registrations up 19.5 per cent”, said Sue Robinson, director of the National Franchised Dealers Association. February marked the tenth consecutive month of growth in the CV market – up to 40,491 units. Van demand sustained its upward trend and grew 17.9 per cent, and for the second month running, truck registrations increased 31.7 per cent to 2,518 units.
First Line Group has rewarded Dominic Cox from DC Car Repairs, Oxford, and Alan Hurdley from CRM Express, Cowley, in its sales promotion for its comprehensive range of First Line branded turbo hoses. The former received a £500 Snap-on professional tools voucher, and the latter a Bose SoundLink Air digital music system after they supplied the winning turbo hoses.
A Jedburgh-based farmer is fitting Michelin’s BibSteel Hard Surface tyres to his Mustang skid steer. Scott Barbour, partner in RG Barbour & Sons says the robust tyres excel when working in some of the toughest farm conditions.
Micheldever Protyre has used CAM’s UniSerV software technology to manage its growing truck business over the past four years. Now it plans to integrate e-jobsheet, CAM’s digital tablet-based service work platform for truck, bus and van. The software will allow it to capture job data accurately, increase its business development opportunities and process transactions speedily and accurately, CAM says.
The Kings Road Tyres Group will give a CV Show debut to its fleet tyre management specialist, Tyre Business Solutions (TBS) at stand 3F115. The Southampton based business delivers bespoke tyre repair and fitting solutions to owned, managed, contract hire and rental fleets of all sizes through a network of more than 850 independent tyre retailers in the UK and Ireland. The company provides a full passenger, 4×4/SUV, Commercial Van and TBR tyre management system.
Aeolus will exhibit its truck, bus, coach and van tyres alongside UK and Ireland distributor Kings Road Tyres at this year’s CV Show. The ChemChina brand states that it will demonstrate the value/performance proposition it offers to commercial tyre buyers.
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