Apologies to all for posting two videos in a row, however this one hit my inbox this morning and it shocking.

A Romanian Lorry driver is being hunted by police after releasing this shocking video which he originally took to show friends.

He apparently works in Romania and across Europe and UK.

Copies of the tape are now being viewed by traffic police officers throughout Europe as they try to track down the driver.

“He doesn’t seem to be driving in Romania so what we can do is limited but we certainly want to talk to him,” said a Romanian senior police officer.

How this man survived this colision with a train and truck in Turkey, we will never know!

The 32-year old apparently only suffered minor injuries!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqJLQjJro6c]

There are so many things which can be improved on vehicles themselves to improve fuel efficiency. However, one important area which is often overlooked is the driver themselves. If you fleet is driven efficiently you can expect substantial savings not only on fuel but also insurance and the safety of your staff.

Here is a handy checklist for drivers:

• Nobody is perfect, no matter how experienced, always be prepared to learn and take new advice on board
• Follow your individual vehicle manufacturers recommendations
• Read the vehicle handbook
• Know your average MPG and record this over time
• Use tachometer green zone
• Always carry out systematic pre-driving vehicle checks and record these checks
• Report defects promptly
• Deal with these quickly
• Skip-shift (block shift) gears when safe to do so
• Try not to fill fuel tanks to the brim
• Pull away in correct gear
• When parking up at night, try to do so in a way that will allow for an easy exit in the morning with minimal maneuvering on a cold engine
• Make good use of cruise control
• Find out and use the optimal efficiency speed of your vehicle and try your best to stick to it

Government run organisation Freight Best Practice, has set up a free online benchmarking service.

As an industry first, it allows transport operators to externally and anonymously benchmark their operations.

We think the idea is fantastic, in a competitive industry like haulage it is so important to measure yourself up against the competition. However, traditionally being able to do this is tricky without being accused of spying!

The new system allows thousands of operators nationwide to specify and measure their operational efficiency and then benchmark themselves with trends across the industry.

Measuring your own performance is an essential process for any modern day operator, particularly during the current tough economic climate, but to fully understand how your operation compares to that of your peers, benchmarking is essential.

Many of us will simply stick with the petrol station that’s closest to us or the one we’ve got into the habit of going to. However, prices between stations do fluctuate and you can make significant savings over time by using the petrol station offering the cheapest fuel locally.

Easier said that done, you may say. By the time I’ve driven around looking for the cheapest petrol price I will have undone any savings I could have made and also hindered the environment!

That’s where petrolprices.com comes in, they independently check petrol station’s prices across the country so you don’t have to. The site is free to use and they’ll even drop you email alerts as and when your cheapest local petrol station changes, so you’re never left out of the loop.

To make things even easier for our transport providers, we have also added a live feed of petrol prices in you local area to your “My Shiply” section. We hope this helps with keeping costs to a minimum in these especially trying economic times.

It’s finally here, the Shiply eBay widget. eBay sellers can insert our free widget into their eBay auction listings. This will give prospective bidders on those larger “local collect only” items the option to use Shiply and get ebay courier quotes from thousands of transport providers already making similar trips.

Did you know that at any time there are over 930,000 items on eBay which are listed as local collect only. This really does restrict the majority of eBay buyers who do not live locally. The hassle and expense of arranging an independent courier, is often enough to put off the majority of eBay bidders.

The Shiply widget allows eBay buyers to simply enter their delivery post code directly from the eBay listing page and Shiply does the leg work, importing photos, descriptions, pickup post code and more…

So, if you are an eBay seller who has large items to sell on eBay, then the Shiply widget is for you. It is just a small piece of HTML code which you copy/paste into your auctions and then it is all ready for your eBay bidders to use.

Once eBay bidders have secured a cheap price for ebay delivery of their auction items they are far more likely to bid on your auction and indeed bid more aggressively, so you can expect a higher auction selling price!

Happy eBay-ing & enjoy the widget!