LATEST MOAN FROM YOU AND ME - 2021

I think there has been on going trials in the UK with longer trailers carrying a heavier payload. It would be mainly for trunking, probably only on certain roads, as in from port to depot. This increase would mean trucks with a gross weight of 48 ton. The trials were based on reducing emissions, more environmentally friendly. This new rule could be implemented very soon from what I have heard.

 

Yes, only seen 1 and think they will be use on motorway only depot-port>depot-port and werehouses just off the motorway juncions, double trailars

 

I've had to deliver down roads with signs like that but they didn't have "do not follow sat nav" they had "unsuitable for" and yes they were unsuitable
Drive in, deliver, back out no where to turn 3 miles backwards is not fun

 

There is a local "rat run" around here that lots of cars use to get to the motorway, quite often an artic, usually foreign one, gets stuck in the village the road passes through.
Causes chaos.

 

Definitely agree Sheal. Maybe things are slightly different in Canada. In America they can also be called "artics" or just "18 wheelers" assuming they are the ones with 18 wheels.

Last week we got stuck behind a beer delivery truck who mistakenly went up here but got through with the help of bystanders ...

 

HGV drivers will download the Sat Nav app designed for heavy goods vehicles. It will bypass bridges etc etc where there is weight and height restrictions. We are right on the coast and have narrow roads, signs with, "No heavy goods" then other signs will say the same but include only for access. A good HGV Sat Nav should identify these roads and give you a more appropriate route, even then it's still not ideal in some areas for the larger trucks.

We supply a G/C in Scorton, Lanc's, but due to weight restrictions over the river Wyre, we can only deliver to someone else's depot, which they then tranship.

I also get numerous request's for pallets of soil conditioner and mulch to be delivered into the lake district, only when I have confirmation of their postcode can I quote them. There are some who I can deliver to using my own trucks, but most I can't. It has to go through the pallet network and I will instruct them that delivery can only be made on a small rigid truck, normally a 7.5 gross ton truck. This means the cost of delivery is more expensive, most don't mind but others kick off and say, "our local binmen can get down" they don't realise rigid curtain siders are longer than rigid refuse trucks. Mine are 28 ton and 32 ton gross, there is very little difference in length but compared to a 4 wheeler refuse truck, they are considerably longer.

The problem is, our infrastructure hasn't grown, but vehicles have. I took my daughter and her friends ten pin bowling yesterday and thought I would nip in to B&Q and Curry's etc etc to kill sometime. The problem was parking, I was in a little VW up yet I couldn't get out of my car due to the amount of SUV's and peoples poor parking skills. If everyone owned an SUV, everyone would have to go on a crash diet as you literally can't open your car door to get out.

 

There is also proposals of a 6-axle articulated trucks allowing the gross pay load to be increased to 48 ton, this would be without the need for another trailer.

48 tonne intermodal freight trial: consultation document - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 

We've all noticed the ruts in motorway tarmac caused by constant (and current max) 44 ton trucks. 48 tons will help that along so we can look forward to even more roadworks in the future as they carry out the increased resurfacing. Give it ten years and the industry will ask for an increase to 52 tons i guess.
It was 32 tons max in the 70's, then it went up to 38 tons in the 80's followed by 44 tons. No wonder the motorways need constant work

 

Most of the increase was allowed due to extra axles. I can remember in the past, a good 30 years ago when the unit would only be 2 axle with the trailer also being 2 axle. We still get 5 axle trucks come into our yard, I am not 100% sure if it is 38 or 40 ton the maximum gross load for a 5 axle truck, I know it's not 44 ton. Then you have to be careful you don't get prosecuted for axle over loads as well as gross overloads.

I have my transport manager certificate and my biggest headache is axle overload, its not a problem if you just have a one drop load, the problem is with multiple drops. We are told to unload from back to front, with multiple drops, you then run the risk of been overloaded on your front axles, but if you move some of the load from the front to the rear to counterbalance this can have ramifications . Doing this, you run the risk of being prosecuted for carrying an insecure load as your load should be always secured to the headboard, then they wonder why there is a HGV driver shortage.

 

I was pulled into a ministry check point several years ago.
My total weight was fine at 43 and a bit tons. But i was one ton over on the rear axle.
I could've faced a heavy fine, but luckily the vosa guy was in a good mood, so he just gave me a warning note and allowed me to continue to my next drop to get the rear stuff off. They tell me these days that there's no mercy and you DO get done.

 

Ministry weight brigdes well they can give wrong readings

Load with grain on farm (no bridge or weiger on trailar so a guess) well pulled by misistry over weigh bright 38.35kg got to tipping piont 42.50kg who's right, do i go back to misistry and say your brigde is wrong

We all ways had problems with going up narrow lanes/roads so we will ring farmers to make sure which is best way in but most of the time you would get no problem to farm, then you get stuck half way through because farmer could get through with tractor it was no problem, back in the 80's that is

 

The Member of the Senedd for Alyn and Deeside has called on men to change their behaviour and encourage others to do so too in order to tackle domestic violence against women.

What about domestic violence against men - or can't that possibly happen?

The media is constantly telling us that men are the problem. We are apprently violent and can't control ourselves. Try telling that to my brother and see what sort of response you get.

Interesting to see that a bloke it taking his female boss to court for sexual harrassment. Don't see this plastered all over the internet for some reason.

 

I am on the Cumbria haulage group page on FB. Someone I know posted on the 24th September he had quit driving and was going back to working at Sellafield. This morning he has posted the below image, stating, "I forgot how much I hated working there, back to HGV driving tomorrow". The company he had been driving for are a decent company but not one of the best for pay, even more so compared to working on the nuclear site. The issues are not all about money, the problems go far deeper and its only when the government start looking from the bottom up, then the issues within the haulage industry can start to be addressed.