Truckfest has grown in popularity and this year’s South West and Wales event had a record number of visitors made up of families and truck enthusiasts. This years featured more manufacturer stands than ever before alongside hundreds of types of trucks for visitors to view. There was the celebrity appeal with Lisa and Alex from the hit programme Ice Road Truckers. The crowds were entertained with car crushing by the Monster Truck Bigfoot 17 and Slingshot, as well as Motorcycle team Broke FMX providing daring and jaw dropping displays. Other attractions included the new Renault Euro VI ranger, the Bloodhound Super Sonic Car from Arthur Spriggs, Scania dealer Keltruck with Commercial Motor’s Media team and Iveco’s International Truck of the year: the Stralis Hi-Way tractor unit. For more information on Truckfest visit Iveco.com .

 Drivers and haulier faced hours of delay on Sunday 14th July when part of the M25 crumbled in the heat that was over 30 degree Celcius. The Highways Agency was forced to close the road to resurface the motorway at junction 23 (Potters Bar) at 3pm on the Sunday afternoon. The closure came just days after Stephen Hammond, the roads minister admitted that government underinvested in roads for the last few decades, which has resulted in costing the economy around £2bn a year in time lost to congestion. Hammond claimed in a speech to Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport forum last week that 80% of UK roads were going to be resurfaced with this new promise from the government. The motorway was reopened at 5:30am on Monday morning. For more information on new road improvements visit the Highways Agency.co.uk .

The FTA (Freight Transport Association) is backing the Europeans Commissions call to address the issue of extortionate Channel tunnel rail freight charges. As a result of the rail freight charges more freight is being carried by Lorries and generating more traffic as well as harmful emissions according the EC vice president Siim Kallas. He also said that “the tunnel was not being used to full capacity due to high track access charges and the tunnel regulator, the Intergovernmental Commission did not have sufficient powers to act on its own initiative”. 2,325 freight trains passed through the Channel tunnel in 2012 (excluding Eurotunnel- operated shuttle services) compared to 2,718 in 2008. The charges are at least €3,645 one way to use the tunnel and the EC feels that these prices need revising and eventually lowered. Chris Welch, the general manager for the FTA said that the prices need to change to promote the use of rail freight. A report conducted by the FTA in ...

The total consumption of transport fuels in the UK has decreased by 4.5% in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the first quarter of 2012 according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have shown. According to the statistics, unleaded petrol deliveries fell 9.8% and diesel deliveries have increased just 0.6% compared to the same quarter in 2012. It is thought that the reduction of deliveries in the first part of this year was due to the threatened tanker drivers’ strike in March last year, leading to a higher demand than normal in 2012. The total deliveries of diesel in 2013’s first quarter was just over 6.25 billion litres, and of that 3.86 billion litres were supplied to retail forecourts and 2.38 billion litres were bulk fuel deliveries . For more information on the results from the first quarter visit DECC.co.uk .

RHA chief executive Geoff Dunning has said that the government must keep and act immediately on their promise to push £28bn into road management and repair to let operators deliver a better economic future for the UK. The Treasury has stated that the promised funds will be delivered between 2015 and 2021, but RHA is stating that work needs to be started straight away to have any effect. This is the largest sum of money to be invested in UK roads since the 1970s, as well as planning to make the Highway Agency a publicly owned corporation. The chief secretary of the Treasury Danny Alexander said that they are hoping to create “an organisation that will have the long-term funding certainty and flexibility to deliver the best possible road network”. £10bn has been assigned to road repairs that will be vital to improve access for all hauliers to industrial sites and depots. For more information visit RHA.co.uk.

The privatisation of Royal Mail has faced a large amount of opposition for the government’s plan to sell the shares in the company from a vote that saw 96% of their employees against the decision. The ballot run by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) saw 74% of 112,000 employees’ voice their opinions on the proposal, of which 92% said that they supported a boycott in handling other competitor’s mail. Royal Mail responded to this by saying that “the refusal to handle other companies mail would be unlawful and could jeopardise its relationship with other carriers who rely on its final mile offer’. The CWU also stated that Royal Mail did not need to be privatised as they had become profitable again without the need to privatise. A spokeswoman from competitors TNT Post, which is planning to carry out a nationwide final mile service over the next five years, said that they ‘would be working closely with Royal Mail to ensure that any potential disruption to deliveries wou...

Hercules Hydraulics has been continuously growing and developing as a company alongside their products and has worked closely with Commercial Fuel Solutions Ltd to satisfy commercial and domestic customers with hydraulic systems. Hercules Hydraulics is currently expanding to a new East Coast depot, particularly focusing on the wind farm support vessel sector, as well as inland waterway vessels based in the East Coast area. With high levels of customer service and focusing on the business of designing, installing and maintaining complete hydraulic systems, as well as developing a specific and specialised range of marine hydraulics products. Hercules Hydraulics has also been appointed the sole UK Marine Agents and partner of the Logan Clutch Corporation. For more information on Hercules products visit the Hercules Hydraulics.co.uk .

Mark Garnier has granted the new law to make foreign HGVs pay a levy to use British roads. The law passed in March has created more fairness for British HGVs as before now, foreign registered HGVs did not have to pay to use our road network, in comparison to British registered HGVs having to pay tolls or charges in most European countries. Garnier said about the new law that “This is good news for local haulage companies, which will now be on equal footing with foreign companies. A large British HGV driving abroad pays between €25 and €46 for a 100 mile autobahn journey in Germany.” It has also been revealed that with this extra income from the levy, around £23 million a year will be added to the British economy. Roads Minister Stephen Hammond said: 'Every year there are around 1.5 million trips to the UK by foreign registered lorries but none of them pays to use our roads, leaving UK businesses and taxpayers to foot the bill”. This new act will help the UK logisti...