Several inconsistencies in this report. It’s not even really clear about what sort of vehicle was involved. A Cantor would need to be on an O licence, but it not a 3.5t vehicle. The Sheriff’s observations are just unbelievable.
other than the simple spelling mistake it seems clear to me that it was a 3.5t Mitsubishi canter? No?
cav551:
Several inconsistencies in this report. It’s not even really clear about what sort of vehicle was involved. A Cantor would need to be on an O licence, but it not a 3.5t vehicle. The Sheriff’s observations are just unbelievable.
Why would a 3.5 ton Cantor need to be on a O licence■■?
First thing I drove was a 7.5 canter good truck to learn in cause it doesn’t take a lot to lock em up, they have a fear of driving in a straight line and with any ammount of weight on needs half a mile to stop. I had to learn to plan ahead and pay attention there weapons.
All seems a bit muddled. If a vehicle isn’t safe for use on UK roads then surely it’s up to the various government bodies involved in their approval. In this case it sounds like some sort of trumped up effort of responsibility being pushed on to the employer that they should have retrofitted ABS despite being under no legal obligation to do so.
Would be interesting to see if they could find any other cantor operators that have taken it on themselves to retrofit ABS or indeed are performing walkaround checks on 3.5t vehicles.
Karl86:
First thing I drove was a 7.5 canter good truck to learn in cause it doesn’t take a lot to lock em up, they have a fear of driving in a straight line and with any ammount of weight on needs half a mile to stop. I had to learn to plan ahead and pay attention there weapons.
In 7.5 form one of the most dangerous trucks ever made apparently commercialmotor.com/latest-news/ … -ever-made
Japanese small trucks are dreadful, and if we had decent unions in this industry they would be “blacked” (boycotted). They have flimsy and cramped van cabs and equally flimsy controls, and they are usually nowhere near as manoeuvrable as any European truck, even those available in 2000. Driving Canters, Deathtrapsus etc., I’ve never felt safe, partly because the cab is lower to the ground (and therefore to more fronts of other vehicles) than on a proper truck. If those companies are going to sell trucks here they should make them to the same standard as European makes. Of course employers love them because they’re cheap.
AFAIK the smallest Canter is 5 1/2 t.I’ve worked one a few in the past - simply dreadful vehicles.
We had some on demo (7.5s) lads that took them out said they’d be going back on vans if he replaced the MANs with them. Scary that they have a payload around the 4t mark.
NOVE:
Scary that they have a payload around the 4t mark.
That, and the fact they are cheap is why the gaffers love em! good on juice by all accounts aswell!! as far as a company buyer is concerned, all of the above will go along way to earning them a nice Bonus 
B…
Any modern truck that doesn’t have air brakes or a handbrake on the wheels is totally unsuitable for anything.
cav551:
AFAIK the smallest Canter is 5 1/2 t.I’ve worked one a few in the past - simply dreadful vehicles.
They do and always have done a 3.5t / 5.5t /6.5t & 7.5t all horrible ■■■■■■■ things!
The rear brakes are notoriously bad!
I bought a new 7.5t in 1999, it was in & out of the dealers for the rear brakes locking up all the time!
if you were facing up hill the handbrake would be next to useless so we have a block of wood you had to jam between the brake pedal & seat base!! 
& that was the official Volvo fix (now Mercedes maintained)
the thing passed the MOT & 6 weekly’s every time as “the brakes always locked out on the brake rollers & you cant get much better than that”
As Volvo used to tell me