Bedford Vehicles

Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a brand of vehicle produced by Vauxhall Motors, which was ultimately owned by General Motors (GM). Established in 1930 and constructing commercial vehicles, Bedford Vehicles was a leading international truck brand, with substantial export sales of light, medium, and heavy trucks throughout the world. It was GM Europe's most profitable venture for several years.

Bedford's core heavy trucks business was divested by GM as AWD Ltd in 1987, whilst the Bedford brand continued to be used on light commercial vehicles and car-derived vans based on Vauxhall/Opel, Isuzu and Suzuki designs. The brand was retired in 1991; subsequent GM Europe light commercials would be branded as either Vauxhall or Opel depending on market.

History

Until 1925, General Motors (GM) assembled trucks in Brazil from parts manufactured at their Canadian works. This enabled them to import vehicles into Britain under Imperial Preference, which favoured products from the British Empire as far as import duties were concerned. Such trucks were marketed as "British Chevrolet".

AWD

AWD may refer to:

AWD (vehicle)

An AWD vehicle (short for All-wheel drive vehicle) is one with a powertrain capable of providing power to all its wheels, whether full-time or on-demand.

The most common forms of AWD are:

Vehicles may be either part-time all-wheel drive or full-time:

Usage of the terminology

Today, the designation AWD is becoming narrowed, particularly in the US, to apply to vehicles with drive train systems that have permanent drive and usually include a differential between the front and rear drive shafts. However, the designations AWD and "all-wheel drive" long predated the trend, Associated Equipment Company (AED) building AWD trucks in conjunction with FWD (UK) in 1929, and General Motors manufacturing a line as "all-wheel drive" as early as the late 1930s. This distinction in terminology is not generally used outside the USA.

Temporary Agency Work Directive

The Temporary Agency Work Directive 2008/104/EC is an EU Directive agreed in November 2008 which seeks to guarantee those working through employment agencies equal pay and conditions with employees in the same business who do the same work. It is the third piece of legislation in the European Union's employment law package to protect atypical working (the others being for part-time workers and fixed-term workers). Though it was proposed in 2002, the British, German, Danish and Irish governments blocked its enactment until 2008.

Provisions

The Directive on temporary agency work includes two main principles, which are at the same time at the centre of a balanced approach to regulation on temporary agency work:

Article 4 sets clear limits to prohibitions and restrictions that may be imposed on the use of temporary agency work. These are only justified on grounds related to the protection of temporary agency workers, to ensure that the labour market functions properly and that abuses are prevented. EU Member States are obliged to review prohbitions and restrictions on temporary agency work until and to report to the European Commission.

Trucks!

Trucks! is an American television program that airs weekends as a part of Spike TV's Powerblock. It is hosted by Kevin Neils Tetz and Ryan Shand. The program focuses on automotive mechanics involving trucks and SUVs, ranging from improvement, to customizing, to creative works.

The show is involved with racing and/or customizing trucks, and in the past the show included segments called "How It Works" where the host would visit with various technical instructors at Wyotech to discuss automotive related topics such as how a particular mechanical device operated or the specialized equipment it takes to diagnose or repair a vehicle.

The show was originally hosted by Stacey David and Mel Fair, who was also the program's director, writer, and producer. Fair left the show at the end of the first season to pursue an acting career leaving David as the show's only host. In 2005, David left the show to pursue another automotive show concept entitled "Stacey David's GearZ" which debuted on ESPN2 in March 2007.

Truck

A truck (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, also called a lorry in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, and Indian Subcontinent) is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile. Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful, and may be configured to mount specialized equipment, such as in the case of fire trucks and concrete mixers and suction excavators.

Modern trucks are largely powered by diesel engines, although small to medium size trucks with gasoline engines exist in the US. In the European Union, vehicles with a gross combination mass of up to 3,500 kilograms (7,716 lb) are known as light commercial vehicles, and those over as large goods vehicles.

History

Steam trucks

Trucks and cars have a common ancestor: the steam-powered fardier Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built in 1769. However, steam trucks were not common until the mid-1800s. The roads of the time, built for horse and carriages, limited these vehicles to very short hauls, usually from a factory to the nearest railway station. The first semi-trailer appeared in 1881, towed by a steam tractor manufactured by De Dion-Bouton. Steam-powered trucks were sold in France and the United States until the eve of World War I, and the beginning of World War II in the United Kingdom, where they were known as steam wagons.

Trucks (short story)

"Trucks" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the June 1973 issue of Cavalier magazine, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.

Setting

"Trucks" takes place in a truck stop in the United States. The truck stop is located off a freeway and it features a diner, a gas station, and a convenience store.

Plot summary

The story's narrator and a handful of strangers find themselves trapped together in a freeway truck stop diner after semi-trailers and other large vehicles are suddenly brought to independent life by an unknown force and proceed to gruesomely kill every human in sight. The six survivors hiding in the diner include the narrator, as well as an elderly counterman, a trucker, a young man named Jerry, his girlfriend, and a salesman named Snodgrass.

As the story begins, the counterman and the trucker attempt to radio any other survivors, but the two-way radio fails for unknown reasons. Snodgrass, cracking under the strain, attempts to flee across the stop's parking lot and is hit by a truck. Snodgrass gets propelled into a drainage ditch, taking hours to die from internal bleeding. The situation worsens when the diner's power goes out. The counterman instructs the survivors that they will need to consume the perishable meats and collect good potable water from the restrooms. While the employee's restroom is inside the diner, the men's and ladies' room are by the outdoor gas station, and the narrator's attempt to gather fresh water from those places nearly costs him his life when the trucks realize what he is trying to do.