Note to all transporter’s – don’t take advice from this man and van team!
Have a great weekend everyone!
USER
Toy truck from UPS
UPS is going from iconic brown to green with its new truck model made of a lightweight composite plastic. Dubbed the CV-23, the new truck’s mileage is an improvement of 40% over older models, due to it being 1,000 pounds lighter.
Unlike alternative fuels, which require a shake up of the core infrastructure, the CV-23 does not require a radical change whilst still delivering obvious improvements. Unlike its older counterparts this greener truck a much more efficient manufacturing process and does not require polluting paints.
UPS clearly envisions alternative modes of transportation as a long term plan when it comes to the companies future business model. Dale Spencer, director of automotive engineering at UPS, stated that research into composite materials and new technologies was spurred by rising fuel costs.
“We’ve all been on this roller coaster ride on the price of fuel. Every time we get excited to do a project like this, the price of fuel drops down to $2 and you lose your zip,” he said.
“But we’ve seen the writing on the wall and we need to delve into alternative designs that are readily available.”
Carbon emissions on the agenda
A “radical” carbon budget is to be announced by the Prime Minister later this week. Environmentalists have celebrated tentatively after expectations that David Cameron would backtrack on his campaign trail promise to lead the “greenest government ever.”
Currently the plans will lock the UK into two decades of serious carbon emissions reductions, which will also be legally binding. Such a commitment will propel the UK as a leading country of carbon reductions.
Windfarm founder Adam Twine told Sky News: “It’s very exciting. If the Energy Secretary can pull this off it will be a real coup…It is what we need if we are to have any real commitment to decrease our impact on climate change. We need really robust and assertive policies to be pushed through”.
However, the news has caused in-fighting within the Cabinet, with Chancellor George Osborne and Business Secretary Vince Cable arguing that the drain on the UK’s economic recovery may be too damaging.
Phillip Inman, economic correspondent at The Guardian, said: “Businesses will be up in arms. They will think it is an extra cost and to some extent they will be right. There are going to be extra costs to bear.
“And they have had a bit of a free ride for a long time. And we are going to have to knuckle down and pay for this investment…But it is an investment and it is going to come good for us in the end.”
Falling with style
Is it a bird, is it a plane?
No, it’s Yves Rossy aka Jet Man, successfully flying over the Grand Canyon in Arizona!
80mph speed limit proposal
The national speed limit on motorways could be raised from 70mph to 80mph as Mininsters look to address speed limits later this year. The Transport Secretary, Phillip Hammond, has made strides towards a new strategic framework for road safety and regulation.
When it comes to speed limits the UK is relatively conservative. Mainland Europe for example has either equal or slightly higher limits whilst Germany famously has no speed limit at all. Going further afield, Abu Dhabi reduced its speed limit from 99mph to 87mph in 2010.
Stephen Glaister, the director of the RAC Foundation, welcomed the proposal, “We should not be prescriptive about speed limits. The existing limits are not right just because they’ve been around for years.
“Traffic conditions change over time as do policy priorities. If there is good evidence to support a case for putting limits up – or down – then we should do so.”
The Association of Chief Police Officers has all but conceded the presence of “10% plus 2mph” guidelines that mean drivers will not be prosecuted as long as they driving under 79mph. The reality is that on the motorways there are many driving above 70mph, despite the fact that most cars become increasingly fuel inefficient at high speeds.
Hearse past the post
In what is surely an under contested category in the Guinness World Records, the Reverend Ray Biddis has set the record for the world’s fastest motorbike hearse – going at a speed of 114mph.
Injecting a bit of rock ‘n’ roll into the standard hearse design, the Baptist Minister decided to customise his 2.3 litre Triumph III to the tune of £20,000.
He said: “I nearly got wiped out on a ride and realised if I had done I would have to be carried to my funeral in a car and I didn’t want that. I know some people get taken in a motorbike sidecar but a true biker wouldn’t be seen dead in one of those, so I came up with the idea of an all-in-one hearse.”
He went on to joke, “I’d like to have another go and get faster but I don’t think I would get away with it with my wife.”
The worst car in the world?
A young Jeremy Clarkson seems to think so! Step back in time as Clarkson road tests the UAZ in Vietnam with a full head of hair and a spring in his step.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Royal fail
The Royal Mail was dealt two damning blows over the past week as its first class service came under scrutiny, whilst the fate of over 9,000 post offices could be on the line when it is to be sold to a private company.
Under its current universal legal obligations, The Royal Mail should have the birthday card you posted to Gran on Monday morning delivered by Tuesday if sent first class. However, there have been reports that first class post is slowly being changed to an alternate day service. Next day delivery for first class post could become a thing of the past as the Royal Mail struggles to cover days off and refuses to pay overtime to employees who extend their routes.
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “There’s no truth in that whatsoever. It’s a short-term situation in a very small number of areas…We are delivering the Universal Service apart from in certain cases which we are trying to resolve.”
A spokesman for the Communication Workers Union, which represents Royal Mail staff, said: “It won’t admit to it but it’s attempting to cut costs by not providing cover. Royal Mail is not coming clean but it’s trying to introduce this “under the radar” in rural areas and it’s only going to spread unless action is taken.”
The bad news continues over fears that the Royal Mail sell-off could result in the closing of over 9,000 post offices. Again, it appears that is the country folk who will suffer the most, especially in areas where there is only one post office.
On Tuesday Edward Davey, Postal Affairs Minister, said the Government is doing everything it can to protect post offices. It has signed a £1.34billion funding deal over the next four years, equal to more than £330million a year.
Longer lorries means fewer empty vehicles
That’s the UK government’s argument when they announced plans to allow longer lorries of up to 17% longer than existing ones.
Whilst this sounds fine in theory, since the last increase in lorry dimensions, on average, one in four HGVs is still driving around empty. This means there has not been any direct evidence of longer lorries leading to reduction in empty running vehicles.
With 70% of UK registered HGVs at the top limit, statistics show that hauliers tend to buy the largest vehicles permitted by law and use them to carry out both large and small loads.
Therefore, the problem is probably not which vehicles are being used but the efficiency of using them. In Germany, their Maut lorry road-user charging system has resulted in 11% reduction in empty running lorries in a five year period up to 2009.
Another potential risk with longer HGVs is the increase in road injuries as the proposed HGV will be even longer than the 18 metres bendy bus, which is being phased out by the Mayor of London due to twice as many injuries caused compared to other buses.
What do you think about these proposed plans? Please share your thoughts with others below.
Ironing out the M1
Turning tragedy into triumph, this extreme house husband used the empty lanes of the M1 to get his Sunday best ironed to perfection.
Looking the part in a fetching dressing gown, the mystery man was recorded by a cameraman covering the recent M1 closure on Monday morning
The M1 has been closed since last Friday due to a scrapyard fire that took firemen hours to put out.
A Highways Agency spokesman said: “We are working as fast as we can to reopen the road as soon as it is safe to do so.” However, structural analysts have reported that parts of the M1 are simply beyond repair.