UK recovery operators have to accommodate increasing Highways Agency and police requirements in order to be approved for motorway breakdown contracts. One of these is the need to spread axle weights, as the specification of a new £280,000 Volvo FM 8x4 chassis with Roger Dyson equipment handed over to McAllister Recovery at the recent European Tow Show in Telford illustrates.
With a 60-tonne, 360-degree rotating crane and 100-tonne GTW capacity, the Volvo T-ride rear bogies and hub reduction
axles have an axle weight of 25-tonnes. This can be augmented by a detachable 12.5-tonne small-wheel single-bogie axle providing, says Dyson, a more flexible alternative to the triple-axle layout.
When the Highways Agency takes over non-fatal motorway accident responses from the police in September 2007, approved contractors will have to employ staff trained by a competent and accredited person in Institute of Vehicle Recovery health & safety modules 1-3 without the requisite ID card they can be barred from motorway work. Recovery operators are now required to use tachos when operating beyond a 60-mile radius of base and this is also creating a need for training, said RHA Road Recovery Group representatives.
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