Van Guard News

Once again the Freight Transport Association has called for the A14 to be improved to motorway standard as soon as possible. “There is congestion every day of the week, while during the rush hour it looks more like the largest car park in East Anglia than a road,” says FTA regional policy manager, Louisa Bellee.

In a £350,000 deal Lancashire-based Etiquette Formal Hire has acquired a dozen Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 313CDI chassis cabs with bespoke box bodies to deliver wedding and formal wear nationwide.

The bodies feature an internal racking system that connects directly to the handling system in Etiquette’s despatch area.

Volkswagen has decided to add another model to its UK Caddy model Range, fitted with its innovative semi-automatic Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG).

Already available in its passenger car ranges, the DSG transmission features two clutches and is VW’s take on an automated manual transmission; there is no clutch pedal.

LDV

Big names set to bring their vehicles along for you to sample include LDV. The Birmingham-based manufacturer launched its long-awaited front-wheel drive Maxus van at the British Commercial Vehicle Show earlier this year and it’s quickly found favour with a broad assortment of operators.

One hundred Citroëns have joined Interserve, one of the UK’s biggest facilities management companies. The line-up includes over 80 Berlingo 1.9D 600 LX vans as well as a dozen specially converted tri-axle Relay 1800 2.8HDi low floor wheelchair accessible minibuses.

LDV is offering ABS with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD) as an option on Maxus for £458, excluding VAT.

EBD balances the braking effort between the front and rear wheels depending on the vehicle’s load to give the driver more control in an emergency. Other features include State Detection to minimise wheel locking on slippery surfaces, Yaw Moment Control to minimise vehicle yawing and Cornering Stability Control, to regulate the brake force between the inner and outer wheels when braking and turning simultaneously.

Cobasys and Motorola, Inc. have announced an agreement to cooperate in the development and manufacture of battery control system components for hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) battery systems.

The hybrid battery pack controller, which integrates Motorola-designed hardware with Cobasys’ patent-pending software, will monitor and control the hybrid battery pack and also perform diagnostics for Cobasys’ advanced Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery system.

Rolling year UK CV registrations to end July 2005 are up 4.2 per cent to 394,261; year-to-date registrations are up 1.9 per cent to 227,795 units as the strong growth trend for truck sales continues.

In collaboration with the Nippon Paint Company, Mazda Motor Corporation has developed a new electrodeposition basecoat, known as e-coating, that substantially reduces both volatile organic compounds (VOC) and carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions. The launch of this new painting technology began in May 2005 at the Ujina No.2 Plant at Mazda’s global headquarters in Hiroshima, and will be extended to all of its main production facilities in Japan by the end of 2005.