Here we are with this week’s View From The Cab. Once again the Tachoblog Tribe have been sending in their Views for which Tachoblog is very grateful – after all, without their Views this post would be a non-starter!
Tachoblog’s also delighted to say – and you’ll be able to see – that several long-standing members of the Tribe have sent in Views this week. We’re really pleased to have them back.
Let’s start with DriverGeoff who sent this ‘from the captains chair of my big White Volvo Travel Centers of America’ on State Highway 33 in Gustine, California.
Time now for the first of Tachoblog’s latest video series.
This time we’ll be looking at the history of Volvo Trucks, starting here in the 1930’s. After a modest start in the 1920s, by the mid 30s, Volvo had become the dominant truck manufacturer in the Nordic countries…
…And before anyone says it, we know that Volvo as a company is older than 80, the title of these posts is such as this series will cover 80 years of their history!
Plants on Tachoblog, so what’s this all about then..?
Well, this is the news that Daimler AG has started a new project for the cultivation of the biodiesel raw material jatropha in the south of India and the seedlings for the first 100 hectares (250 acres) have been planted.
Tachoblog’s favourite automatic gearbox manufacturer Allison Transmission is helping the city of Barcelona with its firm commitment to a sustainable future.
The city has placed Spain’s largest ever order for CNG trucks and all of the 300 natural gas vehicles, which will work for the environmental services department carrying out duties such as refuse collection and street cleaning, are fitted with Allison fully automatic transmissions. The public sector in Spain is increasingly opting for CNG vehicles due to their lower carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions.
Will Shiers, the editor of Truck & Driver, the UK’s best-selling truck magazine is about to try his hand at pimping – truck pimping that is!
According to Will, ‘the idea is simple. First we get hold of a truck, then we customise it, and finally we auction it off and give all the profit to the Help for Heroes charity.’
Click below to find out more, including what truck Will’s managed to get…
High time we kicked back a bit with another video…
Ghardaia lies on the border of the Sahara, 600 kilometres from Algiers. An oasis and ancient trading place for nomads of all tribes and nations Ghardaia is most famous for its Carpet Festival, which attracts thousands of visitors from near and far. To transport the carpets here, both traditional methods and modern trucks are used – such as this Volvo FH truck.
Organised by the Australian Trucking Association, the Aussie equivilent of the UK’s Road Haulage Association and Freight Transport Association the aim is, according to the ATA, to ‘bring the trucking industry together to inform the community and politicians about the importance of the trucking industry, the issues the industry will face in the coming years, how to drive safely around trucks, and the great careers that are now available.’
It’s no secret that Tachoblog is a massive Unimog fan, so we’re not that surprised to hear that readers of Germany’s ‘Off Road’ magazine agree with us.
But we are delighted to learn that in agreeing, Off Road’s readers have voted the Unimog ‘2010 Cross-Country Vehicle of the Year’ in the Special-Purpose Vehicles Category. This achievement is all the better when you learn that this is the sixth year in a row that the Mog has picked up this title.
Tachoblog can report that the fleet of 35 new Volkswagen Amarok pick-ups successfully fulfilled their role as support vehicles to the winning Volkswagen motorsport team and the official organisers, ASO, in the gruelling long-distance Dakar Rally enduring extreme temperatures, altitudes and terrains with no problems at all.
Volkswagen successfully defended the Dakar title with a 1-2-3 finish at this year’s Rally, known as one of the world’s toughest endurance tests.
In what, Tachoblog hopes, will become a regular irregular series of posts, we bring you the first of our Unusual Loads.
We were tipped off on this one by the Logistical Challenge website but they only know that they received it by email from a friend and nothing more.
If you know anything about this then please let Tachoblog know and, equally importantly, if you have any pictures of unusual loads then please send them in.
