When is a red traffic light not a stop light!!!!!

[Steve L]

The answer appears to be when it's snowing!
I was in Hereford Hospital yesterday afternoon and when we left there there had been 5 cm or 2" of snow fall. You guessed it! Total gridlock.
But why?
Quite simply because at every set of traffic lights car,van and bus drivers would cross the point at ahich the traffic lights stood with blatently nowhere to go as the other side of the junction was full of vehicles already, because further up the street the same had been done by other inconsiderate drivers. Result, total gridlock.
Unless you are totally thick which I'm sure 75% of drivers are not. Every set of traffic lights has a white solid line about 3 metres before the pole holding the traffic lights up.
The highway code states that you should not enter a traffic light controlled junction without room for you to enter the flow of traffic in the road you are driving into be it straight ahead or a left/right turn.
Of cause there were no sign of a policeman on foot who could of stepped in to bring back normal comliance with traffic lights.
The best bit though is, the very same people who commit these offences are actually local people with full knowledge of the roads in the city. but when a drop of snow comes down they leave common sense and consideration behind and resort to "neadothol man (fred flintstone) attitude" instead of behaving as if there was no snow and complying with the traffic signals.
It took 4 hours to do a 25 min journey just because of the attitude of drivers and one articulated lorry driver who had near bald tyres causing him to loose grip on Dimore hill, because he skewed across the hill while going uphill.

So I guess it's SSDD all this week with a flake or two of snow forcast!

 

[602]

Hi,
For some reason, my wife listened to Jeremy Vine yesterday (she said it was just background noise) and later told me about an argument between a truck driver and a woman 4x4 driver. Yorkie claimed to be the savior of the nation, getting food to the shops. Madam said there was no point in him getting food to the shops if she couldn't get there to buy it. My wife reported that there seems to be a lot of hate on the roads.
Another Truck driver claimed that he had to follow cars up hills at 12mph, and his HGV was incapable of climbing hills that slowly. That doesn't make me very happy - it implies that truck has to take a run at the hill, to overcome lack of traction. So where does the traction come from if he suddenly has to slam on his brakes? And why doesn't an HGV not have any traction? Could it be that all the weight is over the trailer wheels, when it is needed over the driving wheels?
OK, I don't envy HGV drivers their job, but I presume its a job they want to do. ??? I am not happy that one class of road-user considers themselves to be an elite. Does anybody know how many HGVs there are in the UK? It was suggested that goods should go back onto the railways. I suggest that every town should have a huge lorry park, where their cargos can be decanted onto smaller trucks for the final leg of its journey to the shops.
602

 

[JonnyG]

Hi,
For some reason, my wife listened to Jeremy Vine yesterday (she said it was just background noise) and later told me about an argument between a truck driver and a woman 4x4 driver. Yorkie claimed to be the savior of the nation, getting food to the shops. Madam said there was no point in him getting food to the shops if she couldn't get there to buy it. My wife reported that there seems to be a lot of hate on the roads.
Another Truck driver claimed that he had to follow cars up hills at 12mph, and his HGV was incapable of climbing hills that slowly. That doesn't make me very happy - it implies that truck has to take a run at the hill, to overcome lack of traction. So where does the traction come from if he suddenly has to slam on his brakes? And why doesn't an HGV not have any traction? Could it be that all the weight is over the trailer wheels, when it is needed over the driving wheels?
OK, I don't envy HGV drivers their job, but I presume its a job they want to do. ??? I am not happy that one class of road-user considers themselves to be an elite. Does anybody know how many HGVs there are in the UK? It was suggested that goods should go back onto the railways. I suggest that every town should have a huge lorry park, where their cargos can be decanted onto smaller trucks for the final leg of its journey to the shops.
602

i do like to read in partial threads! 602 are you actually being serious? On all your points! Firstly not all want to drive a HGV, but that's life , and there is no point in saying change jobs either.
like the idea of a nice 40 tonne lorry parking up with 22 tonnes on board and a forklift or it might be handball, taking place in a nice big lorry park and then loading up 8 or 9, 7.5 tonnes vehicles depending on the weight of items or maybe 22, 3.5 tonne vans. now times that by 2000 plus 40 tonnes hgvs that might need to use said lorry park! and of course the 16000 7.5 tonnes vehicles or the 44,000 3.5 tonne vans that will also need to use said park!What of the delays because of this massive amount of extra traffic this notion would put onto the road. Who will pay for all those extra vehicles that need to be bought?or the extra cost of loading and unloading [double handling] and I am sure with transportation cost doubling because of this notion, you and i will be happy with the added cost of materials and shop goods!
Just look at the logistics that would need sorting! deliveries could be delayed by days, or hub areas would become grid locked as would all the artery roads around them.
Its not a workable idea,
that silly person on the radio who put a leisure activity , [visiting friends] on par with keeping the country going! What a stupid and selfish person they were! and you don't always need a car to shop,but you do need good to buy, they clearly were unable to look at the bigger picture!

Trucks don't only bring food to shops, they take them to warehouses were smaller vehicles can indeed pick stuff up, they take fuel to petrol stations so people can actually have fuel in there cars!otherwise they wouldn't be going anywhere! They actually keep the railways going, cuzz the maintenance of the lines and the trains that maintain them need fresh supplies enroute, ie grinding stones oils water filters ect ect! They deliver supplies to hospitals, police and firemen, at some piont along the logistic line it will be your HGV lorry that does this!and make no mistake time means money, industries cannot afford to wait extra days because of a notion that will delay delievery of raw and finished goods.

As for your remarks concerning hills! clearly you have never been in the situation! but hang on just this morning i saw a car unable to get up an hill, due mainly to having to brake half way up the hill!, maybe one should ask if his car was loaded properly, or indeed ask every car that struggles the question why are you struggling! you will find HGVs "artics" have enough weight over their front axle, cuzz if it was all over the rear, it would be a nightmare to drive regardless of the conditions, and in this weather, they would not steer around a corner never mind tackle a hill.

Youre right there is a lot of hate on the road, mainly selfish people who put themselves above other road uses, the Jeremy vine show was asking "are one set of road users more important than another" Well if push comes to shove important? Maybe not, but more needed? Yes, and you know how needed the HAULAGE industry was? They relaxed the driving laws so supplies could be delivered.
And on that question, what moron would think a leisure journey held the same importance as NATIONAL supplies! Possibly the same type of moron who over shops or fills up with fuel unnecessary when they hear of a possible shortage...!

 

[seth1]

"so where does the traction come from if he has to slam on his brakes"
Well to answer that if the driver decides to slam on his brakes usually at 44t gross wieght the outfit will be on 6 axles,so that is 12 hubs braking as agaist 2 hubs driving.
As for the vehicle being incorrectly loaded,to put all the load over the rear would result in axle wieghts being wrong,plus if at full wieght would be imposible,when taking in to consideration trailer axles are rated at 8t each,multiply be 3 that gives 24t,but the average 6 axle outfit can carry a 30t payload,you would do well to put that on the back.
Im no lorry driver,although my family ran haulage as a by product of their business,but it would do some people whom seem to know it all good to sit behind the wheel and have ago just to see how hard it is,and see how poor, conditions are for some of these guys.
Perhaps if the rates were what they should be and fuel wasnt 70% of the price of the job truckers wouldnt be chasing their arses.

 

[forestgump]

602 the idea you are on about is called a hubb and they are in use in some places already.

 

[602]

Hi,
Well, that got a reaction.

And yes, you have your points. I am still concerned about HGVs (presumably artics) being unable to crawl up a hill. OK, you have reassured me that they can stop ...... but how do they start again? The obvious solution is to have the trailer wheels driven from a PTO on the tractor, but I accept that is financially unrealistic.
I still think that a "hub" (see, now I know the technical term) has got to be better than the same number of HGVs parked in the high street. I can name one supermarket where a big artic always parks on the pavement to unload, and another where the truck has to park in a side street that I would rather avoid, even when driving a small car (two way traffic, but only room for one way). I understand that the Whitgift Centre in Croydon has underground parking for delivery lorries. I am not anti-Yorkie but in return I expect Yorkie not to claim precedence over car drivers. I'm guessing that Yorkie has a car too? And that he walks occasionally. Yes, his delivery is more important than my going out to buy a tin of beans. But is it more important than a thousand people going out to buy a tin of beans? Yes and No - we are mutually dependent.
I understand that that a shortage of HGV drivers in UK is forecast. So East European drivers will become the saviours of this nation? Assuming they are all not back home saving their own nation. Is anyone planning for that possibility?
This household has three vehicles, each has a full tank of fuel. The nearest fuel to my house is ten miles away. The local fuel station had to turn a delivery away, because they could not access the filling point ..... frozen hatch, or something. I prefer to be self reliant. By the same token, we have sufficient food in the house to last us (and the dog) for a month. But it appears that keeping our fuel tanks and larder stocked is considered to be hoarding, and immoral, ought to be illegal. Surely it would be better if every household bought an extra days supply of "iron rations" every week, shoved them into the cupboard-under-the-stairs.
I assume that everyone here knows the origin of the nick-name "Yorkie"? I use it affectionately.
602

 

[xtrailman]

Hi,
Well, that got a reaction.

And yes, you have your points. I am still concerned about HGVs (presumably artics) being unable to crawl up a hill. OK, you have reassured me that they can stop ...... but how do they start again? The obvious solution is to have the trailer wheels driven from a PTO on the tractor, but I accept that is financially unrealistic.
I still think that a "hub" (see, now I know the technical term) has got to be better than the same number of HGVs parked in the high street. I can name one supermarket where a big artic always parks on the pavement to unload, and another where the truck has to park in a side street that I would rather avoid, even when driving a small car (two way traffic, but only room for one way). I understand that the Whitgift Centre in Croydon has underground parking for delivery lorries. I am not anti-Yorkie but in return I expect Yorkie not to claim precedence over car drivers. I'm guessing that Yorkie has a car too? And that he walks occasionally. Yes, his delivery is more important than my going out to buy a tin of beans. But is it more important than a thousand people going out to buy a tin of beans? Yes and No - we are mutually dependent.
I understand that that a shortage of HGV drivers in UK is forecast. So East European drivers will become the saviours of this nation? Assuming they are all not back home saving their own nation. Is anyone planning for that possibility?
This household has three vehicles, each has a full tank of fuel. The nearest fuel to my house is ten miles away. The local fuel station had to turn a delivery away, because they could not access the filling point ..... frozen hatch, or something. I prefer to be self reliant. By the same token, we have sufficient food in the house to last us (and the dog) for a month. But it appears that keeping our fuel tanks and larder stocked is considered to be hoarding, and immoral, ought to be illegal. Surely it would be better if every household bought an extra days supply of "iron rations" every week, shoved them into the cupboard-under-the-stairs.
I assume that everyone here knows the origin of the nick-name "Yorkie"? I use it affectionately.
602

602
Are you on a mission to post drivel, or have you been drinking to excess?

 

[Steve L]

Having driven every cofnigureation of vehicle from a moped to car & trailer to 44 ton artics, I can say that lorry drivers do get it hard. The transport manager who probably only drives his desk is always on their case with the "are we there yet" down the phone every 5 mins. But that does not excuse anyone fron not abiding by road regulations , be they signs or traffic lights.

I have had an 8x4 bulk tipper skew across the middle lane of Dinmore before and trust me it was only done because he saw cars doing 10Mph up the lane and they would of got to the top had he not of blocked their way!

Lets be brutally honest here 90% of drivers drive the same route every weekday and they do know exactly where the junctions are and which traffic lights have yellow box sections etc. But as soon as these become obscured by snow, they choose to play dumb and chance their arm.

Everybody has to get to their destination but it is their choice to do it at the annoyance of those who still play fair on the roads.

There were several people treated for abbrassions (fat lips & black eyes) at the hospital in hereford because road rage or is that snow rage had struck. But I have no sympathy for those who deliberately ignore clear signal instructions and the consequences they end up with when an aggrieved motorist takes umbridge to the attitude.

 

[Parksy]

........... My wife reported that there seems to be a lot of hate on the roads......................

There's nothing quite like a topic about driving to make there seem to be a lot of hate on forums either

What never ceases to amaze me is the way that people treat the act of driving a car or an HGV (I've driven both) as though it's a sort of divine quest handed down by some omnipotent motoring god (Jeremy Clarkson perhaps?)
Drivers make mistakes or errors of judgement all of the time. Car drivers make mistakes and HGV drivers also make mistakes, I've made mistakes when driving and so has everyone else reading this who drives.
The sooner that everybody factors in to their driving the fact that other drivers will be less than perfect(!) the less stress and road rage there would be.
A lot of drivers treat their driving seat as some sort of throne from which to dispense judgement on other drivers. If they themselves spent more time concentrating on their own driving and less time criticising everyone else around them the roads would be much safer for everybody

 

[Steve L]

I agree people do make genuine mistakes and to be honest most people can tell the difference between a mistake and couldn't give a stuff.
Years ago "Lorry drivers" were looked upon as the "knights" of the road. They would stop to lend a hand or give you a lift to the nearest town to get help. I had a knight stop way back in 1984 when my mk1 transit blew a piston 5 mile outside Banbury at 5am, he gave me a lift to town where I could phone for help and sit it out in a cafe until my dad turned up in a rental truck.

Now they have modernised into "truckers" the halo has slipped but that is most likely down to trackers being fitted to every truck to "micro manage" every delivery.

 

[seth1]

Sorry nothing to do with "modernising in to truckers".The driving job has never been as "easy" as present.That shows with the current crop of drivers.With the introduction of modern trucks,powerfuller engines,Automated gearboxs,better cab conditions,safer brakes,electronic suspension,less driving hours,drivers no longer fix their own vehicles.
The truth is most drivers get sick of arrogant,ignorant car drivers who have,nt got the time of day for anyone but them selves and think they have a god given right to drive how they feel and pass comments on stuff they know nothing about.
Why should a "knight of the road" pull over to change a tyre on someones car they dont know,times have changed and so has society.

 

[Steve L]

You're probably right Seth. Todays trucks are so darned comfy and easy to drive, the appriciation of the job and what it used to mean have gone down the pan.
But if everyone just passed by a fellow driver who has broken down and is struggling, then there is no small wonder where the attitude has developed.
What I was talking about when I started this topic was just how people think they can turn a blind eye to road signs and signals and pretend they don't know what is under the snow. As the police often say, ignorance is no defence.

I will still offer assistance to people who are obviously having trouble with the conditions. Only yesterday I was doing the washing up in the laundry room because our van was froze up, and a chap came in witha 20 Litre can, trying to get water as his £100'000 lodge static home he'd just bought was frozen up too. Rather than watch a "greenhorn" struggle, I nipped back to our tourer and got my washing machine hose I'd adapted to fill the water barrels as the site doesn't have a low down tap anywhere indoors to use. He was very appreciative of my help and I told him where to get a hose like mine for future use.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all
sorry just had to comment:- so driving trucks is easy is it ??
well sorry folks is isn't start with the tacograph or should I say smart card then there is the transponder thats shows the transport manager exactly where you are down to the nearest 10meters by showing a red dot with no on a map of the area on a 50in plasma screen in the office then there is the delivery times window that has to be met within 10 mins irrespesctive of weather conditions traffic volumes and distance then theres the no shows when you get there the traffic wardens trying to move you on because the loading bays are full of disabled badged cars and you have to pull up on double yellows or double park inorder to deliver then theres the returnes to sort out when you get back and the bollockings recieved if anything went wrong during the day and debriefeings that all takes 2hrs back at the yard after been out on the road for 10 hrs not counting the hour in the yard first off waiting to be loaded or having extra drops put on a allready full scedual.

nice job no it aint far better in a nice warm office but some one has to do it thank god I dont have to do it any more.
colin

 

[Parksy]

hi all
sorry just had to comment:- so driving trucks is easy is it ??
well sorry folks is isn't start with the tacograph or should I say smart card then there is the transponder thats shows the transport manager exactly where you are down to the nearest 10meters by showing a red dot with no on a map of the area on a 50in plasma screen in the office then there is the delivery times window that has to be met within 10 mins irrespesctive of weather conditions traffic volumes and distance then theres the no shows when you get there the traffic wardens trying to move you on because the loading bays are full of disabled badged cars and you have to pull up on double yellows or double park inorder to deliver then theres the returnes to sort out when you get back and the bollockings recieved if anything went wrong during the day and debriefeings that all takes 2hrs back at the yard after been out on the road for 10 hrs not counting the hour in the yard first off waiting to be loaded or having extra drops put on a allready full scedual.

nice job no it aint far better in a nice warm office but some one has to do it thank god I dont have to do it any more.
colin

Lorry driving nowadays might not be considerered to be easy by some Colin but it's certainly no harder than it was before.
Lorry drivers ought to be used to tachographs by now, they were introduced to prevent drivers being coerced by unscrupulous bosses into driving whilst falling asleep at the wheel because transport managers have always attempted to pressurise drivers into doing extra drops. The oft asked question has always been 'what took you so long' so the gps transponder should show the bosses exactly where the driver has been.
In my day lorry drivers had tongues in their heads and they lost no time in using them to tell the transport manager where to get off so if the poor shrinking violets driving 'trucks' as lorries seem to be called nowadays can't cope with the job they should make way for those who can or learn from the old drivers.
The standards of comfort and driver useability of modern wagons is far and away above what we had which were AEC Ergo's or worse still freezing cold Foden FG tractor units with 240 Cummins lumps and Fuller 4 over 4 constant mesh gearboxes. The new bloke started with the worst wagon of the fleet and you had to wait for somebody to die before you were given a better tractor unit and with fibreglass cabs you ought to have been issued with ear defenders just to drive them. They gave us thermal vests and long johns before night heaters became commonplace.
Loading Bays? - Do me a favour! At one time I carried bright steel bar on a flatbed trailer which had to be chained and dogged down tight, covered with tarpaulins and then sheeted and roped. At evey drop I had to unsheet and get the forklift driver to unload me in the street while I made sure that the rest of the load stayed dry and phoned around from a call box for a backload of steel coil, timber or new pallets.
Todays wagon drivers don't know when they are well off!

 

[JonnyG]

"well off" .
Comfy? yes, well off,!
somebody mentioned tacho's and for the driver of the new digital tacho , they have actually lost driving time.Yes that's right not only do the trucks of today have to make do with a restricted speed of 56mph,and a 4 minute loss an our on m/way driving compared to the lads of a decade or so in the past, but now these digital tachos are costing driving time losses, of 2 or 3 more minutes an hour!
So today's hgv driver is some 50 plus minutes short a day of what he had a mere 15 years ago! How can that make him Well off? Or indeed the companies that they work for?
It adds another extra expense to many companies who find that routes with stop start traffic have these digital tachos rolling over the minutes for mere movement!
And as for roping and sheeting. Err its not disappeared you know, we still have flat beds! and we still have to rope and sheet loads, and with all this health and safety malarkey and having to take tests for this that and the other,its certainly changed from the days of old.But well off? No its a different game today....

 

[Soozeeg]

"easy to drive"
"don't know when they're well off"

What ridiculous statements. Anyone who hasn't actually done lorry driving for a living, or who hasn't done it for several years and therefore has no real experience of what it's like now, can't possibly know or they wouldn't make statements like that.

I have no intention of an ongoing involvement in another protracted 'discussion'. Suffice it to say that my husband has been a lorry driver for most of his working life (he's 60 in 11 days) so one would assume he knows what he's talking about, and he certainly wouldn't say it's easy. Nor would I, when I've been getting up to make him a hot drink when he's been coming in at 04.00 or 05.00 am and is too exhausted to do it himself, having been at work since 3 pm the day before, as has happened during the past fortnight when he's been out working in all that snow, black ice and fog. The sheer strain he's been under trying to drive (and safely) in those conditions means he's fit to drop when he finally gets home, having been at work for 14 or 15 hours, taking into account the hour+ journey to/from work over the past fortnight in the snow, when the journey normally takes 20 minutes.

Comfy and easy to drive modern units.......well, that's assuming that all firms have those! Which they don't. Even the big firms, like my husband works for - they have a large fleet of vehicles, only half of which have night heaters! And the trucks are all different ages and types, with different levels of equipment. And since they are run 24/7 constantly, they break down a lot. Oh, but someone (I forget who, and can't be arsed to look back) said that drivers don't do their own maintenance now........well, I'll mention that to my husband, I'm sure he'd be interested to know that, since he's been doing exactly that!!

And as for today's drivers being shrinking violets without a tongue in their head since they clearly don't answer back like they did in Parksy's day......What would be the likely result, if they did? Out of a job, probably. And Parksy, you of all people know exactly how difficult it is to get a decent job paying a reasonable living wage nowadays.

Nobody who isn't actually a lorry driver in the present day can possibly say what the job is like now. They may have slightly better vehicles (although my husband would possibly dispute that sometimes), but working conditions (even with the interfering EU regs) haven't really changed significantly for the modern day lorry driver.

 

[Steve L]

I've already said lorry drivers do work hard for their crust, but today driving a tiptronic box where you only declutch to start off does make driving much easier, then add cruise control, power steering air sprung heated seats and the comfort factor is huge compared to even the early 90's.

Currently I have to contend with a leaky clutch slave cylinder on my rover 75 diesel. Sometimes I have to drive without any clutch at all. Getting your engine speed right to select gears without baulking is an art. But that art comes from driving trucks with crash boxes and having to double declutch to change gears. I gave a driving test examiner home the other day without much clutch, so I saved the clutch for starting off in 1st only. He noticed the lack of clutch and commented on how smooth the gearbox was, and forgiving for not using a clutch.

You probably only see 1 in 20 trucks today ropeed and sheeted and only half done tidy. With the advent of ratchet straps roping became a lost art. You rarely see loads sheeted and fly sheeted today. I'd even wager that the youngsters of today don't even know what the lorryman's hitch is today, let alone use it effectively.

The transport manager who does 2 hr debriefs needs just one thing. To get off his arse and spend a week with the driver to see what goes on out there. As a driver incharge of the firm's truck all you have to do is get the loads delivered within the law and on time. I had to remind the Md of the shed firm i work for about that once. He gave me a run in a tranny to do in the morning and then expected me to drive a 7 1/2 tonner overnight to scotland. When I rang him to say I was stopping for the dat at Carlisle, he went bolistic and wanted me to carry on to Edinburgh which would use my tacho to the full hours for the truck. I reminded him that as I'd driven the Tranny pick up in the morning and that he had cctv footage of me leaving the yard at 6am and getting back at 2pm plus diesel recipts from exeter service station, it wouldn't be rocket science for a DOT inspector to workout that 7pm in Carlisle was my end of driving day as the hours in the tranny count too. He soon shut up when I offered to E mail them for advice.

As I've already said, you do get transport managers who drive nothing but desks and computers. But they can be brought down to reality by using their tools against them. All it takes is old fashioned comaradery. Stick together and you win together.

 

[Surfer]

In comparison to an army truck driver in the wilds of Africa or the Far East dodging landmines and driving on tracks that are supposed to be roads, a truck driver in the UK has a very cushy life.

 

[JonnyG]

In comparison to an army truck driver in the wilds of Africa or the Far East dodging landmines and driving on tracks that are supposed to be roads, a truck driver in the UK has a very cushy life.

And why do you feel you have to make that comparison?We ALL have a cushy life here compared to those in wore torn areas,more so the locals!
BUT then when BT want a mask set on a bloody 800 ft hill with a narrow 8ft 6 wide track which isnt used from one decade to another[by lorries] or Scottish water need pumps and pumping equipment again sent up to a lock with again no real road! and you just have to hope the weather holds and the road doesn't wash away under foot! then i see plenty of comparisons to those in the wilds, and we even wish we had the lads from the royal engineers to help us!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Parksy]

"easy to drive"
"don't know when they're well off"

What ridiculous statements. Anyone who hasn't actually done lorry driving for a living, or who hasn't done it for several years and therefore has no real experience of what it's like now, can't possibly know or they wouldn't make statements like that.

So how many years driving have you done then Sue?

I have no intention of an ongoing involvement in another protracted 'discussion'. Suffice it to say that my husband has been a lorry driver for most of his working life (he's 60 in 11 days) so one would assume he knows what he's talking about, and he certainly wouldn't say it's easy. Nor would I, when I've been getting up to make him a hot drink when he's been coming in at 04.00 or 05.00 am and is too exhausted to do it himself, having been at work since 3 pm the day before, as has happened during the past fortnight when he's been out working in all that snow, black ice and fog. The sheer strain he's been under trying to drive (and safely) in those conditions means he's fit to drop when he finally gets home, having been at work for 14 or 15 hours, taking into account the hour+ journey to/from work over the past fortnight in the snow, when the journey normally takes 20 minutes.

12 hour days are not unusual now nor were they unusual when I was a lorry driver.

Comfy and easy to drive modern units.......well, that's assuming that all firms have those! Which they don't. Even the big firms, like my husband works for - they have a large fleet of vehicles, only half of which have night heaters! And the trucks are all different ages and types, with different levels of equipment. And since they are run 24/7 constantly, they break down a lot. Oh, but someone (I forget who, and can't be arsed to look back) said that drivers don't do their own maintenance now........well, I'll mention that to my husband, I'm sure he'd be interested to know that, since he's been doing exactly that!!

As I mentioned in my post, the new guy never gets the best wagon. Half of a fleet having night heaters is still much better than none at all. Day cabs are not normally fitted with night heaters nowadays owing to the simple fact that drivers are not normally expected to sleep in them.
On the older British made lorries which were universally used in the haulage industry not so very long ago sleeper cabs were very rudimentary, night heaters were unheard of, hence the issue of Damart thermals, and long distance drivers spent as much time living in the lorry as they did at home.

And as for today's drivers being shrinking violets without a tongue in their head since they clearly don't answer back like they did in Parksy's day......What would be the likely result, if they did? Out of a job, probably. And Parksy, you of all people know exactly how difficult it is to get a decent job paying a reasonable living wage nowadays.

Nobody can force lorry drivers to exceed their hours or break the law. The driving licence is the property of the driver, not the transport manager!

Nobody who isn't actually a lorry driver in the present day can possibly say what the job is like now. They may have slightly better vehicles (although my husband would possibly dispute that sometimes), but working conditions (even with the interfering EU regs) haven't really changed significantly for the modern day lorry driver.

I never said that working conditions had changed all that much (but they have definitely improved to some extent). I simply wrote that the job nowadays is no harder than it was before.
In comparison to piecework machine moulding in a dirty dusty hot and potentially dangerous iron foundry lorry driving is a walk in the park which is why I enjoyed the job more than I 'enjoyed' working in a foundry.

 

[extrucker1]

hi, i remember when i started driving lorries you were lucky to have a heater, let alone a night heater. anyone ever drive a two stroke foden with a david brown gearbox?. most lorries then had wooden cabs that you shared with the engine. modern lorries fitted with a limiter, we were lucky if our lorries would do fifty miles per hour. i have waited to get loaded/unloaded at docks for days on end and we didnt have sleeper cabs. when we did get loaded we had to hand ball it on/off. and yes we had snow in those days as well. no mobile phones, you had to sort out your own problems including changing wheels if you had a puncture. I've driven modern lorries with power steering, power clutch synchro boxes, what a piece of cake. like driving a car. rant over. regards ray.

 

[JonnyG]

I am sorry but i am reading alot of huff and puff about how times have changed, and how "easy" it is today!!!! and people harking on about lost skills!!!!!!
Steve you are breaking the law and you know it, slave cylinder knacked and you bragging about how smoothly you can drive without a proer working clutch! cuts nothing with me, it aint that bloody hard and again you are knowingly driving with a defect car!!!!!!!!!!!So fix it rather than brag about it........
No laws have changed regarding roping and sheeting, so to come out with rubbish like you dont see as many roped and sheeted as you used to,means nothing unless you have some statistics to back up this! New driving regs came into force just over a year ago, which now means you have to sit in a bloody classroom for 35 hours every 5 years to keep your hgv entitlement!!!!!!and newer drivers have to do it as part of their test! Something you didnt need to know, and clearly have no idea what the test contains, otherwise you wouldnt be making such rash statements.
I went out last year with a driver training school to see what had changed firstly on the road test, and then to see what the classroom element entailed . sure ok it aint rocket science but then its a dam site harder than driving without a clutch......! stop knocking

PS steve,lets hope its not a leaking slave cylinder on your 75,but rather the small master cylinder. if slave is leaking by now you have contaminated your clutch and flywheel [dmf] and that isnt a cheap fix!!!!!!!!!

 

[Parksy]

Heh Heh!
I can't go back as far as you Ray, my old ex British Rail Foden had a fibreglass cab with a massive engine hump which practically divided the cab into two. When we had it it was yellow but a weekends overtime with a tin of blue paint soon had it blended in with the rest of the decrepit fleet.
Speed wise the Foden was no slouch with the 240 Cummins power and we all felt a bit sorry for drivers who were stuck with lorries fitted with Gardiner engines which we overtook every time

.
I often managed to get 'back loads' to pay for the diesel and earn some bonus from the various docks, coiled steel was a favourite and timber was the worst. The dock crane drivers were truly frightening because the load looked as though it was in free fall heading straight towards you on the back of the trailer.

The crane drivers must have been on bonus as well!
I've been stuck out in winter for days and nights at a time, there were no police helicopters, mobile phones or night heaters to ease our situation and the only ones who were of any help were fellow drivers. We'd burn pallets, share food and help each other out until we could carry on. I think that the old time camaraderie has gone for good now, time is money and money rules everything about the job these days. We had the worst of times but we also saw the best of times to paraphrase Dickens.
Funnily enough I preferred constant mesh gearboxes to synchro, we used to try to see how little we could use the clutch after starting off because gear changes on constant mesh (crash) boxes were done by torque breaking if the driver was skilled enough.
I've also driven the more modern lorries, Daf's and Scania's which were heaven both to drive and to maintain after the old second hand British wagons and although in my humble opinion courtesy and standards of driving amongst motorists and professional drivers alike appears to have deteriorated modern day lorries are much safer to use.
Today's 'truckers' do a great job but the job is no more difficult than it was in the old days.

 

[extrucker1]

the good old days a Parksy. i liked the constant mesh box, ie fuller eaton. but the old david brown was a full crash box, some had a super low witch was a real job to select. if you were climbing you would be almost stopped if you were lucky enough to select it. i drove an eight legger foden with a gardener. it only had vacume brakes on two axles. and what about the scammells, with the gate box. i had an aec mandator for a while, but you had to carry spare injector pipes you, they were always snapping. nostalgia aint whot it used to be. ray.

 

[Surfer]

In comparison to an army truck driver in the wilds of Africa or the Far East dodging landmines and driving on tracks that are supposed to be roads, a truck driver in the UK has a very cushy life.

And why do you feel you have to make that comparison?We ALL have a cushy life here compared to those in wore torn areas,more so the locals!
BUT then when BT want a mask set on a bloody 800 ft hill with a narrow 8ft 6 wide track which isnt used from one decade to another[by lorries] or Scottish water need pumps and pumping equipment again sent up to a lock with again no real road! and you just have to hope the weather holds and the road doesn't wash away under foot! then i see plenty of comparisons to those in the wilds, and we even wish we had the lads from the royal engineers to help us!!!!!!!!!!

That was my job previously in very hostile territory. Done the above and got the t-shirt. That is when I found out just how high a TV mast can be especially when climbing the mast! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_View,_Nyanga The mast was right on the edge of the escapement and the views halfway up were nothing short of spectacular!