30 Years Ago

A LOOK BACK AT DECEMBER 1987

The December 1987 issue of HCB featured a number of firsts. It was, we think, the first time the cover had led with developments in the air gas supply chain, illustrated with an impressive picture of M1 Engineering’s new M1CROAN tank. It was also, as far as we can tell, that the concept of in-cab phones featured in an advertisement – in this case, a full page ad for The Truckfone Company, a UK operation promising to keep drivers in touch with the office, wherever they were on the road (the Scottish highlands, to judge by the picture).

Information technology was certainly forging ahead at the time – those of you who were around in the 80s will certainly remember the arrival of brick-sized mobile phones – and a small item in the December 1987 issue reported the arrival of in-cab invoicing for fuel delivery vehicles, an advance that promised to save operators a lot of money. There was no GPS at the time so Sam-Link, as it was called, was eventually superseded by more intelligent machines.

Another significant change for fuel tankers was the arrival in the UK of the bottom-loading concept, which we noted at the time had been in use in the US for many years. A new set of vehicles built by M&G Tankers for Esso Petroleum not only used the idea but also featured tanks made of fibre-reinforced plastics.

Somewhat more prosaically, HJK’s regular contribution summarised the August 1987 meeting of the Group of Rapporteurs of the UN Committee of Experts, which was chaired by the late Lance Grainger from the UK Department of Transport. The Group had on its agenda a review of the draft fifth edition of the UN Orange Book as well as Part III of the Manual of Tests & Criteria, which included some changes to the provisions for organic peroxides.

Thirty years ago, the UN experts were planning to take steps to “eliminate those dreadful organic peroxide shipping names” ahead of a planned overhaul of the provisions for Division 5.2 substances. Sadly, three decades later, they have still not been eliminated, much to the frustration of at least one recent chairman of the Sub-committee.

In December 1987 ICAO had already settled on the changes that would appear in the Technical Instructions for 1989-1990. Included in those amendments was a change of the name of ‘small quantities’ to ‘excepted quantities’, a bright idea that other modes were eventually to take onboard as well – though it will be some time before this column gets around to reporting on that.

Another item in the regulatory coverage in December 1987 noted that progress was slow in the US with the ‘Superdocket’ rulemaking, HM-181. This was also known as the ‘Phantom’ docket sine five years had passed between its initial proposal and the publication of a formal notice of proposed rulemaking. The aim of HM-181 was to align US domestic rules more closely with the UN system of packaging, marking, labelling, classification and so on.

Indeed, another three years were to pass before the Research and Special Programs Administration – the forerunner of PHMSA – was able to publish it as a final rule. It was followed up four years later by HM-215A and then at roughly biennial periods up to HM-215N, which took effect at the start of 2017.