- Innovation, sustainability, skills and safety are key themes
- Panellists include: Rob Flello MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Freight Group and Robert Gifford, Executive Director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS)
- Broadcaster and financial journalist Simon Jack to Chair
With more than 90% of all raw materials and finished goods reaching the factory, supermarket shelf or the home in a truck or van, there is no other mode of delivery to match road transport for efficiency and cost effectiveness now or in the foreseeable future.
Making Britain’s four million vans and trucks more efficient, cleaner and safer is important to every business and home in the land. And while uncertainty remains around when and at what pace the UK economic recovery will take place, the road transport sector continues to make substantial improvements to its performance.
The Commercial Vehicle Forum 2012, which takes place in central London next month, will review how manufacturers continue to rise to the challenges of new legislation, how they are improving skill levels and creating job opportunities and how truck and van operators are using technology to provide more cost-effective services to hard-pressed businesses.
How the sector is doing this and how it aims to continue delivering significant efficiency, productivity, skills and safety gains will be the subject of a top-level Forum organised by three of the UK’s leading transport and automotive industry trade associations.
With over 35 million vehicles on Britain’s increasingly crowded roads, the Forum will also address the issue of the contribution that the country’s professional drivers can make to improving road safety. Statistics already show how safe these drivers are and how, with the aid of new technologies to be discussed at the Forum, they are becoming even safer.
Panellists at the event include Ray Ashworth, Managing Director of DAF Trucks UK; David Cebon, professor of mechanical engineering at Cambridge University and research director at Cambridge Vehicle Dynamics Consortium; Des Evans, Chief Executive of MAN UK; Rob Flello MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Freight Group; Robert Gifford, Executive Director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety; Neil Ridley, Director of the Transport Knowledge Transfer Network; Dave Rowlands, Technical Services Director, Wincanton Group and Iain Speak, Chief Executive, Bibby Distribution.
The Commercial Vehicle Forum 2012 is supported by AA Drivetech, Bridgestone UK, Brigade Electronics, Greenchem Solutions, Isuzu Truck (UK) and Squarell Technology.
The Commercial Vehicle Forum has been organised jointly by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, IRTE Services Ltd and The Road Haulage Association.
It will take place at the headquarters of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in Westminster, London, on Thursday 15 November. Further details can be obtained by e-mailing cvforum@automotivepr.com.
