We are too reliant on delivery by road in the U.K.
Too many journeys are carried on the road, if a greater proportion of the long distance work were carried on the railways then there would be an improvement with traffic flow.
In other parts of Europe the trailer with, or without the tractor unit is put on the trains to free up the road network, to get around the truck driving ban at weekends which some countries have, and because it's more economical over long distances.
If only we could do the same here!
Fact is though, we cannot do the same on our train network !
The bridges are too low to accomodate the trucks on trains, yes it's true even with train wagons with dropped down wheel wells etc to accomodate the freight it still will not fit.
Yes, freight is carried by rail when containerised, but it's too difficult, and expensive to rebuild the whole network to accomodate trucks as they are in a drive on drive off way.
We are stuck with an old system, with insufficient height at every bridge on route. Granted the train was invented here in the U.K. but with the extra height designed into the system in many other countries they carry the trucks easily, carry extra passengers by running double deck passenger carriages, and actually run their trains on time.
Note :- The channel tunnel was built with sufficient height, to accomodate trains that have extra height on their truck carrying carriages.
No, I'm not a train spotter, and I have many years experience as a commercial vehicle technician.
Sure we want our deliveries at the supermarkets, but certain companies also compound problems by using just in time delivery services, and if the driver is late turning him away, sending him back to the warehouse.
Although for example the traffic originally made the truck late, now he/she will make an extra journey causing congestion, when they head back to base, and when they return on another journey. Now, also on the way back they could run out of hours on the tachograph, and not even make it back to base, requiring an overnight stay somewhere.
The roads are just too busy, unnecessary journeys especially by trucks should be avoided. Fact is congestion is very bad now, and it will get worse, in the years to come. There needs to be some type of solution to the congestion problem.
If you rationalize what actually really needs to go by road, then you will improve the situation on our overcrowded roads.
C.L.O.D.S.
Moderator: RichardW
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Following nose to tail in a slipstream is a truck thing. Not for car drivers to try at home!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Which is the point I was making- truckers think they can safely do it because they are 'professional'- they do it so often that they seem to have lost the ability to comprehend how stupid and dangerous it is!! This is what wiped out a local recovery truck driver and his 2 kids on the M25 a couple of years ago.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Yes because they do a high mileage<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
No, its because they have the most accidents- I do what is considered a highish mileage, about 25000 a year but I don't pay a lot of insurance-why? because I don't have accidents- I look where I am going, pay attention, and don't try and eat my lunch, drink a cup coffee and send a text all at the same time as driving an artic 5ft behind the one in front!
Sorry to be raging, but I commute by motorway every day and see this all the time.
I remember Reginald Molehusband- wasn't he in an Austin 1300?
Which is the point I was making- truckers think they can safely do it because they are 'professional'- they do it so often that they seem to have lost the ability to comprehend how stupid and dangerous it is!! This is what wiped out a local recovery truck driver and his 2 kids on the M25 a couple of years ago.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Yes because they do a high mileage<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
No, its because they have the most accidents- I do what is considered a highish mileage, about 25000 a year but I don't pay a lot of insurance-why? because I don't have accidents- I look where I am going, pay attention, and don't try and eat my lunch, drink a cup coffee and send a text all at the same time as driving an artic 5ft behind the one in front!
Sorry to be raging, but I commute by motorway every day and see this all the time.
I remember Reginald Molehusband- wasn't he in an Austin 1300?
Statistics show otherwise BXbodger. Most accidents involve cars not trucks.
When I drove trucks my average annual mileage was 98000. I wasn't considered a long distance driver either.
I am intrigued as to how you can see if a truck driver is eating lunch on the move. Do you have a periscope in your BX?
When I drove trucks my average annual mileage was 98000. I wasn't considered a long distance driver either.
I am intrigued as to how you can see if a truck driver is eating lunch on the move. Do you have a periscope in your BX?
Ah O.K. thanks for the explanation.
So, is driving where you are easier, and with less congestion more stress free ? [:)]
Originally posted by beezer
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> I am intrigued as to how you can see if a truck driver is eating lunch on the move. Do you have a periscope in your BX? <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Maybe he puts the suspension on high ! [:D]
So, is driving where you are easier, and with less congestion more stress free ? [:)]
Originally posted by beezer
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> I am intrigued as to how you can see if a truck driver is eating lunch on the move. Do you have a periscope in your BX? <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Maybe he puts the suspension on high ! [:D]
Aberdeen city is pretty busy but generally things are less congested here. Most of the moaning about other drivers is directed at tractors. People don't realise they have a right to be on the roads and yes, they do go slowly.
4x4 blurb:http://www.sundayherald.com/38681
www.normanbaker.org.uk/downloads/4x4Report.doc
A little something to make you hotter under the collar Bodger!
http://www.hgvweb.co.uk/crash.htm
4x4 blurb:http://www.sundayherald.com/38681
www.normanbaker.org.uk/downloads/4x4Report.doc
A little something to make you hotter under the collar Bodger!
http://www.hgvweb.co.uk/crash.htm
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I am intrigued as to how you can see if a truck driver is eating lunch on the move<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Survival instinct from biking days- always try to make eye contact with the other person before comitting to the manouvere,to make sure they know whats going on!!!
Beezer, I like your crash web site. A good spot to get these pictures on a more or less weekly guaranteed basis would be the M25 anticlockwise slip on to the M11 at J6- theres a very sharp bend with a 30 limit, cars going too fast, up to about 60, can usually just make it, but a HGV going anything above 40 ends up on its side- as I am held up here with monotonous regularity because of this I do tend too rage at truckers: maybe they're too busy munching when they go past the signs!!!!
Survival instinct from biking days- always try to make eye contact with the other person before comitting to the manouvere,to make sure they know whats going on!!!
Beezer, I like your crash web site. A good spot to get these pictures on a more or less weekly guaranteed basis would be the M25 anticlockwise slip on to the M11 at J6- theres a very sharp bend with a 30 limit, cars going too fast, up to about 60, can usually just make it, but a HGV going anything above 40 ends up on its side- as I am held up here with monotonous regularity because of this I do tend too rage at truckers: maybe they're too busy munching when they go past the signs!!!!
So, it would seem the C.L.O.D. type actually comes in many forms, and drives many different types of vehicle, and not just the Victor Meldrew type in his Austin <font color="red"> [creating] </font id="red"> A(lle)gro. Yes, I know they had a different car in the programme, but I would not be able to make the same pun with a Rover 216.
One of my experiences of bad lane discipline happened on the motorway, during winter.
The traffic was moving along, and despite the fact we were all making good progress, on a day where it had been snowing earlier.
Fresh snow was falling, and the earlier snowfall had deposited quite a lot of snow on the road surface. Although because of the constantly moving traffic it did not impeed any driver, as the vehicle wheels had kept the snow from settling, and compacting around the area of our wheel tracks.
Snow continued to fall, and we all procceded cautiously. So all was fine until an idiot appeared. Problem was that the idiot decided not to take the weather conditions fully into consideration, and drive appropriately, and safely.
Now, the vehicle he was driving in with passengers was a coach, and he proceeded to overtake my car, and the other cars around me. The problem was he in a full size coach, and he went into the outer lane. Note, this happened during the winter of 1990, and certainly a coach should not have been in the outside lane, especially when you consider this.
Due to the cars that had travelled in that lane previously, the snow had been kept from settling around the area of their wheel tracks. So, if a muppet drives his coach with its much wider wheel tracks with a couldn't give a T**S attitude in the wrong lane what's the result ?
Well the wheels of the coach threw up the snow, that had gathered at the edge of the motorway lanes. Now I am faced with a white out, as a considerable amount of fallen dense snow struck my windscreen. Yes for a few moments until the wipers, which had been on at the time managed to eventually clear the screen I had been blinded. Luckily despite all that extra snow the wipers did not fail. Excessive extra loadings on wiper arms, can in actual fact break wiper arms, etc believe me I have seen the end result many a time.
At that moment with my father in the car, I am glad I kept my cool, didn't panic, and that the end result wasn't an accident. Now that coach driver is meant to be a professional driver, but he certainly didn't exhibit any professional standards by driving like that, and I am sure we wouldn't have been in the only car that he showered in snow, whited out and blinded. Also the coach did not make any better progess in the outer lane, ultimately there was no point for him to be in that lane, and he did raise safety issues for other drivers.
So since then I have been even more cautious with professional drivers.
Familarity, over confidence, disregard for the traffic regulations, and what came across as contempt for other drivers by the coach driver, meant that it was even more unpleasant, and difficult than it should have been on that particular day of bad weather. The driver of the coach was obviously still trying to keep to a schedule which he might achieve in good weather, but attempting to do so in bad weather, just made him come across as a dangerous ignorant T****R.
One of my experiences of bad lane discipline happened on the motorway, during winter.
The traffic was moving along, and despite the fact we were all making good progress, on a day where it had been snowing earlier.
Fresh snow was falling, and the earlier snowfall had deposited quite a lot of snow on the road surface. Although because of the constantly moving traffic it did not impeed any driver, as the vehicle wheels had kept the snow from settling, and compacting around the area of our wheel tracks.
Snow continued to fall, and we all procceded cautiously. So all was fine until an idiot appeared. Problem was that the idiot decided not to take the weather conditions fully into consideration, and drive appropriately, and safely.
Now, the vehicle he was driving in with passengers was a coach, and he proceeded to overtake my car, and the other cars around me. The problem was he in a full size coach, and he went into the outer lane. Note, this happened during the winter of 1990, and certainly a coach should not have been in the outside lane, especially when you consider this.
Due to the cars that had travelled in that lane previously, the snow had been kept from settling around the area of their wheel tracks. So, if a muppet drives his coach with its much wider wheel tracks with a couldn't give a T**S attitude in the wrong lane what's the result ?
Well the wheels of the coach threw up the snow, that had gathered at the edge of the motorway lanes. Now I am faced with a white out, as a considerable amount of fallen dense snow struck my windscreen. Yes for a few moments until the wipers, which had been on at the time managed to eventually clear the screen I had been blinded. Luckily despite all that extra snow the wipers did not fail. Excessive extra loadings on wiper arms, can in actual fact break wiper arms, etc believe me I have seen the end result many a time.
At that moment with my father in the car, I am glad I kept my cool, didn't panic, and that the end result wasn't an accident. Now that coach driver is meant to be a professional driver, but he certainly didn't exhibit any professional standards by driving like that, and I am sure we wouldn't have been in the only car that he showered in snow, whited out and blinded. Also the coach did not make any better progess in the outer lane, ultimately there was no point for him to be in that lane, and he did raise safety issues for other drivers.
So since then I have been even more cautious with professional drivers.
Familarity, over confidence, disregard for the traffic regulations, and what came across as contempt for other drivers by the coach driver, meant that it was even more unpleasant, and difficult than it should have been on that particular day of bad weather. The driver of the coach was obviously still trying to keep to a schedule which he might achieve in good weather, but attempting to do so in bad weather, just made him come across as a dangerous ignorant T****R.
I've just come back from a trip to Glasgow in very wild weather. 4x4s breaking the speed limit and driving nose to tail. Big cars doing the same. Every time I looked in my mirrors to overtake there was a car breaking the speed limit preventing me from pulling out. The trucks? Mostly keeping in the inside lane and speed kept well down. If a car was entering the dual carriageway trucks would pull out into the outside lane to let them in.
There are loony truckers and bus drivers but on average they are the most courteous. They ARE professionals because they do it for a living. As far as I am concerned today's t****ers were driving oversized lumps with silly names that probably never leave the tarmac but are supposedly designed to go off road. Wish they would do that and leave the roads to people that know how to use them.
There are loony truckers and bus drivers but on average they are the most courteous. They ARE professionals because they do it for a living. As far as I am concerned today's t****ers were driving oversized lumps with silly names that probably never leave the tarmac but are supposedly designed to go off road. Wish they would do that and leave the roads to people that know how to use them.
i do a lot of driving on car and bike and the most common accident i see is four or five cars in the outside lane with backs and fronts crumpled as the first one failed to stop in time and everybody followed them in to the crash.
On one short journey down the M1 from whipsnade (about five miles) just as it started raining there were three seperate outside lane accidents i passed and god knows how many going the other way.
i have only ever seen two accidents involving HGV's and both were caused by car drivers doing something so stupid the HGV couldnt avoid hitting them.
i agree with Beezer there will be some crap HGV drivers but as a rule i would trust them far more than the people driving at 80 in the outside lane gapped at around ten feet relying on their brakes to get them out of trouble
On one short journey down the M1 from whipsnade (about five miles) just as it started raining there were three seperate outside lane accidents i passed and god knows how many going the other way.
i have only ever seen two accidents involving HGV's and both were caused by car drivers doing something so stupid the HGV couldnt avoid hitting them.
i agree with Beezer there will be some crap HGV drivers but as a rule i would trust them far more than the people driving at 80 in the outside lane gapped at around ten feet relying on their brakes to get them out of trouble