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New twists came rapidly last week in the extraordinary tussle among Volkswagen, MAN and Scania last week. VW chief executive Bernd Pischetsrieder suddenly resigned from the company, prompting renewed speculation about VW's rejection last month of MAN's bid for Scania. VW holds 34% of the voting shares in Scania, in a deal done by Pischetsrieder's predecessor as CEO, Ferdinand Piech, currently VW chairman. Meanwhile, organisations linked to the influential Wallenberg family raised their combined  shareholding in Scania above 30%, giving them a blocking vote. The move is being investigated by Sweden's financial regulator but is completely proper, according to Investor, the Wallenberg's main investment company.

Taygroup's model of relying on a large volume of small haulage sub-contractors is working well, says chairman Nick Taylor. The firm has added 100 trailers to its fleet, which now stands at 345 trailers and 75 of its own tractor units around 150 trucks provide traction on sub-contract, mostly from firms with four or five trucks. Taygroup's results, available from Companies House, reveal solid growth. The company features in the Motor Transport Top 100, published this week.