[asset_ref id=”1298″]Tyne for a run
The Port of Tyne backed nine of its staff competing in the Great North Run to the tune of £100 each. Ian Blake, Kevin Emmett, Jim Barker, Paul Johnson, Stephen Goodwin, Trevor Towns, Michael Pearce, Richard Mackay and Kris Reburn all opted to compete. The 13 mile Great North Run is recognised as the world’s most popular half marathon travelling through Newcastle and Gateshead along the River Tyne and ending in South Shields.
What the papers say…
Parallel parking
Residents and office workers watched in disbelief as building workers in Darwin, Australia used a forklift to move parked cars. A witness said the men moved two legally parked cars however the developer Michael Anthony refuted this saying that the cars were already illegally parked. (Northern Territory News, 15th September)
Seeing Rosso
A lorry collided with the rear of a Toro Rosso transporter which was carrying minibuses used by team staff to the Belgian Grand Prix. Police estimated the cost at £105,000. However, the incident did not impact on Toro Rosso’s preparations for the Grand Prix. (ESPN, 25th August)
Bagmen busted
The Philippines Bureau of Customs has raided a warehouse in Binondo, Manila that was allegedly being used by counterfeit smugglers to store imitations of expensive brands of handbags. Customs commissioner Angelito Alvarez, who personally led the raid, said the confiscated goods bore the trademarks of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and Burberry, and had a retail value of at least P700 million (£10m). (The Manila Standard, 25th August)
Crate balls of fire
Staff at an Old Trafford warehouse had to be evacuated when a forklift truck caught fire. Firefighters from Stretford and Eccles stations were called to the Northern Crates site but were unable to save the forklift truck. (Manchester Evening News, 12th September)
Can-do thieves
Hundreds of cans of lager have been stolen from a lorry parked up alongside a Kent road. Police caught up with the thieves on the M2 and recovered around 400 cans. (KentOnline, 13th September)
First floor mix up
Three people were injured after a lorry fell down from the first floor of a building in Bangalore, India. The concrete mixer had been parked on the first floor of a building under construction but fell due to heavy rain. (IBNLive, 13th September)
Cultural exchange
The US Labour Department has opened two investigations into working conditions for foreign cultural-exchange students employed at a Hershey candy warehouse in central Pennsylvania.
The students said that they were assigned manual labour for low wages in the warehouse and that they hadn’t had the time or money to learn about American culture the main reason they participated in the programme, which costs each student several thousand dollars. (The Philadelphia Inquirer, 25th August)
Fowl play
Thiruvananthapuram zoo, in southern India, was left in a quandary by a lorry strike in neighbouring Karnataka after a three-member team, which left for Mysore to acquire two Indian buffaloes and two rare Red Jungle Fowl, had to return empty handed. The team decided to return and wait for the strike, called by lorry operators demanding reduction in toll rates and fuel prices, to be called off. (IBNLive, 24th August)
No tonic
A lorry driver who downed 20 measures of vodka in just 90 minutes as he drove along one of Scotland’s most dangerous roads has been jailed for four months and banned from driving for six years. (The Scotsman, 8th September)
Good stuff
While many things have changed in America over the past ten years, one thing has remained constant: the American truck driver, wrote Gerald R Krog, owner of Golden Ring Trucking, in the Fergus Falls Journal. “I am proud to work with these fine men and women. During National Truck Driver Appreciation Week on 11th-17th September, please join me in thanking them for delivering all the good stuff.” (Fergus Falls Journal,12th September)
