LEGISLATION
The president of Michelin Canada, Dana LeBlanc, has spoken out against legislation being introduced by the Province of Nova Scotia. The legislation LeBlanc opposes is Bill 102, an amendment to Nova Scotia’s Trade Union Act. This amendment will introduce first contract arbitration in Nova Scotia. Critics of Bill 102 claim it is a job killer that will give unions a foothold in non-union workplaces.
Just under a year before its mandatory introduction, the European Commission has published its second regulation (1235/2011) paving the way for the implementation of tyre labelling requirements. Regulation 1222/2009 introduces labelling requirements detailing the display of information on fuel efficiency, wet grip and external rolling noise of tyres. According to the ETRMA, which has been involved in consultation on the legislation, the regulation aims to “increase the safety and the environmental and economic efficiency of road transport by promoting fuel-efficient and safe tyres with low noise levels.”
An agreement between Huf Hülsbeck & Fürst GmbH & Co. KG and BorgWarner Beru Systems GmbH has been reached regarding Huf Electronics’ take over of BorgWarner Beru’s tyre pressure monitoring system business and acquisition of all shares in its Beru Electronics GmbH subsidiary. Subject to approval by the antitrust authorities the acquisition and merger of the Bretten, Germany based subsidiary, which employs some 230 people, will take place at the end of this year or early in 2012.
Cam Systems has announced that its third party integration module for the commercial vehicle market – 3PI – is being adopted by All Fleet Services, provider of the Goodyear Dunlop ActionLine. After implementation, the AFS call centre will be able to take an inbound call, issue the SMR job via 3PI directly into Cam’s UniSerV Call Logging module, creating a service record and reducing double handling in log management between AFS and Actionline service providers.
New European requirements on roadworthiness testing will mean that there will be changes to the content of annual vehicle tests from January next year. From 1st January 2012, revised European legislation will introduce new requirements to annual vehicle tests to reflect advances in technology. The changes include additional checks for some of the vehicle systems already examined such as brakes, steering suspension and lighting.
The ears of the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers Association must have been rather warm as Ashley Croft, chairman of the Tyre Wholesalers Group of the NTDA, gave his speech at the group's annual lunch. Around 75 people – customers and suppliers – attended the event on 22 November at the National Motorcycle Museum and, as well as lunch, there was plenty of food for thought, particularly for manufacturers of premium brands.
The 2011 edition of Bridgestone Europe’s “Environmental Commitment and Performance” report has been released, and in addition to updating consumption and emissions data for European manufacturing operations, the company has introduced this latest report with an overview of its environmental strategies. These, according to the report, centre on three main objectives – being in harmony with nature, valuing natural resources and reducing CO2 emissions. The report also explains that Bridgestone Europe intends to implement its environmental mission through two core strategies, namely a commitment to open environmental communication and the implementation of TEAMS, a Total Environmental Advanced Management System.
Devon based IT specialists TEAM Systems is offering a range of systems and services designed to incorporate November 2012's forthcoming tyre labelling legislative requirements. TEAM explained that a graphic (pictogram) is displayed at the point of sale so retail customers can view and be sure the tyre they are buying conforms to the new directive, plus they will receive the relevant information on their printed sales invoice.
Independent tyre dealer software provider, Cam Systems has introduced its new VMware component, part of its .NET development. VMware allows companies to invest in a robust virtualised processing environment that the company says is flexible and able to deliver greater scope for growth. VMware allows businesses to run multiple virtual machines, housing applications such as Cameo, CRM and UniSerV on as few as two physical units.
HiQ will celebrate its third anniversary as a fully franchised network at its “biggest ever” two day conference and business networking event. The conference will be held at Mercedes-Benz World venue in Surrey on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 of November, with more than 120 guests including all Franchise partners, a number of HiQ Centre managers and some key suppliers in attendance.
Do not pass Go…it’s straight to jail for the man the Environment Agency has dubbed the “million tyre man.” The agency reports that Carl David Steele, operator of Lincolnshire-based FCM Logistics (Tyres) Ltd, received a 15 month sentence on November 7 after pleading guilty to six offences and two further offences on behalf of his company, which is now in liquidation. All charges relate to the illegal storage of hundreds of thousands of tyres at environmentally sensitive locations in Essex, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Worcestershire and Lincolnshire.
Goodyear Dunlop hosted an event at its Innovation Centre in Luxembourg, showing the road safety benefits that it believes the European tyre labelling legislation will have when it is introduced on 1 November 2012. 140 guests from over 25 European countries attended Road Safety Days, during which Goodyear argued that the 7.5x11cm label could help reduce stopping distances of vehicles on wet roads by “up to four car lengths”, in addition to reducing fuel consumption “by 7.5 per cent and lessen CO2 emissions.” During her presentation Lie Junius, the company’s EMEA director of public affairs, hinted that the “game-changing” labels could be introduced early in a “six-month transaction period… depending on the [EU] legislature.” A full report will be published in Tyres & Accessories’ December issue.
After two consecutive terms as ETRMA president Pirelli CEO Dr. Francesco Gori is making way for Michelin’s Patrick Lepercq for a three-year presidential mandate set to run from 2012 to 2014. The news follows Lepercq’s election to the role by ETRMA’s board of directors who also appointed Contiental’s Christian Koetz vice–president for the same period.
Bridgestone has added its voice to the argument against the proposed changes to the MOT test schedule, suggesting that the potential 2012 change in the interval from one to two years could compromise road safety. Andy Dingley, communications manager at Bridgestone UK, said: “We know that a large proportion of motorists do not check their tyres regularly, and the MOT has proven to be very effective in highlighting tyre problems. The decision to change the MOT interval to two years throws up a lot of issues, primarily the inevitable increase in mileage between tyre checks.
On 16 October ETRMA (European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers' Association) announced the results of its second round of tyre testing examining REACH compliance of tyres found within Europe. ETRMA’s results show that roughly 10 per cent of the sample failed to comply with the clean oil legislation, around the same proportion as failed the last set of tests held earlier this year. However while ETRMA raised concerns about both compliance and enforcement of REACH regulations, some of the companies named in the report have already responded to accusations of compliance failure by raising questions of their own about the way in which the sample was selected.
ETRMA’s second testing campaign was carried out between April and September 2011 on a sample of 94 tyres available for sale to EU consumers in several of the largest national tyre markets. These tyres were all produced in late 2010 and 2011 in 50 factories located in 11 countries, and are being sold in the EU under 51 brand names (these include 31 brands not tested in the first round). The first round of tyre compliance tests the ETRMA conducted took place in March 2011 and followed a similar approach.
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