|
Post by the light works on Oct 19, 2013 13:53:58 GMT
Multi-Driver teams exist in UK, but not that often.... Part of our ruling that is in any 14 day rolling period, you MUST on the 14th day take a complete 24hr break away from the truck, away from place of work, and do no driving at all, unless domestic. But to be honest, with the way transport works, it cheaper to have two trucks working than have two drivers in the same truck.... We dont have THAT much long distance in UK that cant be done in one day.... And if it is that far away, it gets "Trunked", whereby a driver drives it from one depot to another where the next driver takes it onwards, with the original driver returning home with a return load.... Less "Overnight" night out expenses get paid, and with proper organization, that load can be on the move 20 out of 24 hrs. Less expense, and as most depots are therefore half a days drive from each other, less chance of a tired driver doing more hours than he should?... and that driver gets to go HOME at night, better chance of sleep than a busy wagon park. well that particular pair of drivers does a fixed route. one gets back and hands the truck over to the other before going home. but we have long haul teams who carry cargo over thousand mile plus legs, and may not see "home" for a month at a time. one I met works for Boeing, and he and his wife do the route (she does not drive - she's just along for the ride.) when he gets a call, he drives up to Seattle, picks up the trailer with the engine, takes the trailer to whatever airport called for the engine, no matter the mileage in between, drops off the trailer, and then he and his wife take their time driving back by the scenic route. as he explained to me; it is not a very profitable way to run your truck, but it is paid for, so he just needs to make enough money to pay for the food and fuel. addendum: many of our long haul truck companies pay by the load-mile; so a driving team that can put in more total driving time can earn more money per day than a solo driver. - and the company will often pay a driving team more per load mile because the load can get there faster, if it is more than a legal day's drive.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Oct 19, 2013 14:00:49 GMT
Multi-Driver teams exist in UK, but not that often.... Part of our ruling that is in any 14 day rolling period, you MUST on the 14th day take a complete 24hr break away from the truck, away from place of work, and do no driving at all, unless domestic. But to be honest, with the way transport works, it cheaper to have two trucks working than have two drivers in the same truck.... We dont have THAT much long distance in UK that cant be done in one day.... And if it is that far away, it gets "Trunked", whereby a driver drives it from one depot to another where the next driver takes it onwards, with the original driver returning home with a return load.... Less "Overnight" night out expenses get paid, and with proper organization, that load can be on the move 20 out of 24 hrs. Less expense, and as most depots are therefore half a days drive from each other, less chance of a tired driver doing more hours than he should?... and that driver gets to go HOME at night, better chance of sleep than a busy wagon park. well that particular pair of drivers does a fixed route. one gets back and hands the truck over to the other before going home. but we have long haul teams who carry cargo over thousand mile plus legs, and may not see "home" for a month at a time. one I met works for Boeing, and he and his wife do the route (she does not drive - she's just along for the ride.) when he gets a call, he drives up to Seattle, picks up the trailer with the engine, takes the trailer to whatever airport called for the engine, no matter the mileage in between, drops off the trailer, and then he and his wife take their time driving back by the scenic route. as he explained to me; it is not a very profitable way to run your truck, but it is paid for, so he just needs to make enough money to pay for the food and fuel. addendum: many of our long haul truck companies pay by the load-mile; so a driving team that can put in more total driving time can earn more money per day than a solo driver. - and the company will often pay a driving team more per load mile because the load can get there faster, if it is more than a legal day's drive. addendum to the addendum: remember that in the US, trucking and rail freight still don't get along that well.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Dec 6, 2013 15:21:01 GMT
If it takes you more than ten minutes to chain up, you are not doing it right, or you have them stored wrong; and with a good brand of diamond pattern passenger car chain, more than a minute per tire is questionable. proper tire chains need not be time consuming - drape them over the tire, set the inside latch and safety, draw them to the outside until the inside band is snug, latch the outside and set the safety, and set the tensioner(s). the time consuming part is to drive ten yards and then recheck the chains to make sure nothing slipped. the white death has come to Oregon and in the preparation, I test fitted the chains on the tender. it took me 9 minutes to test fit one chain. would probably have been quicker if it wasn't for the fact that that set of chains is for one tire of a set of duals and has tensioners on both the inside and outside of the tire.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Dec 8, 2013 9:09:58 GMT
We had the big Wind here in the UK. At one point a wagon got blown over, on something called Barton HIGH level bridge... I emphasise the HIGH bit in that. WTF was he thinking taking a curtain-sider high sided vehicle over there?...
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Dec 8, 2013 16:42:25 GMT
We had the big Wind here in the UK. At one point a wagon got blown over, on something called Barton HIGH level bridge... I emphasise the HIGH bit in that. WTF was he thinking taking a curtain-sider high sided vehicle over there?... how many years experience did he have?
|
|
|
Post by anonym on Dec 10, 2013 1:06:17 GMT
Today I forgot which side goes up. btw anyone happen to have a spare car on their hands?
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Dec 10, 2013 1:22:27 GMT
Today I forgot which side goes up. btw anyone happen to have a spare car on their hands? Attachment Deletedthat's why some people put labels on their cars. but, no, I don't have a spare that runs.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Dec 10, 2013 7:19:26 GMT
We had the big Wind here in the UK. At one point a wagon got blown over, on something called Barton HIGH level bridge... I emphasise the HIGH bit in that. WTF was he thinking taking a curtain-sider high sided vehicle over there?... how many years experience did he have? I dont have a clue. I dont know who he is, dont care, dont want to know... We all knew it was windy, I was off the road for the day, as in, the wind was too much for me to even be interested in trying to drive anything high sides.
|
|
|
Post by kharnynb on Dec 10, 2013 7:54:05 GMT
One of the kids at our "ammattikoulu"(professionschool?) took his skidding out of the parkinglot too far and neatly landed his car in the opposite ditch.....This is being followed by the Carmechanics Teacher lining up all the students and shouting rather a lot.(something about warnings etc etc.).
Luckily it was this persons own car this time, instead of a customers car(people can have repairs done there, it's cheap, checked by the teachers, but slower than your average shop).
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Dec 10, 2013 14:57:19 GMT
how many years experience did he have? I dont have a clue. I dont know who he is, dont care, dont want to know... We all knew it was windy, I was off the road for the day, as in, the wind was too much for me to even be interested in trying to drive anything high sides. right. but you have experience; while this kid may have been greener than mint jelly.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Dec 13, 2013 8:01:45 GMT
If you are greener than Mint Jelly, you should NOT have a class two... (C)
The idea of the class C licence these days is to show that you HAVE experience, As in, are NOT greener than fresh pea soup, have a more than just a little experience, and would know NOT to take a high-sider over Barton High Level. There is a pass mark on the test sheet the examiner has that questions if the driver under exam has shown that he does know what he is doing and is showing "Professionalism". You will also be asked something like "Take the next available left"... Now we all know this one from driving school, the physical next left is a no-entry as its a one way street in the opposite direction. On Class Two, you will be taken to a road that has signs that prohibit Large Good Vehicles.... On Test, they want to know if you can read that sign, which may not be all that visible, correct your road position, and take the next turning. My test examiner on class two, now C+E, had the problem that I had already had many years experience in Manchester and just ignored the prohibited road when he said next available left, didnt even slow down and look. When questioned, I answered that I knew there was a low bridge down that road with no turning point already as I had been under that bridge in a 10footer plenty of times and I had presumed that was what he meant when he said "Available".. as in THAT road wasnt available, as we were in a 13 footer and it was a 12 ft restriction....
And just as a point of interest, we had the ONLY 13ft trailer in the yard that day, which my Examiner knew, and he had marked down "Something" on his sheet when I would up the correct footage on the marker above the windscreen inside the cab.... Seeing him do that, I had mentally ticked every 12ft restriction I knew as "Probable" for him to try and test me for height with..... The "As a point of interest" above?... Yes the examiners would be that nasty. They see it as their job to search out the incompetent and prohibit them from passing a test... Including the one I had that took me down a road that had recently, as in the past week or so, been reduced from a 50mph limit to a 30 mph limit, just to see what I would do..... I just commented that I knew that one, and no I wasnt about to fail on speeding points. Exceeding Truck speed limits whilst on test is an immediate fail, some may allow 10%, some may fail you for 1mph over the limit. And yes they test...Single carriageway 50 mph signed is 40 for trucks, anything less on road signs is 30 mph absolute limit for trucks.
I have found out a little more. It wasnt an English driver. It didnt even have British Plates. Therefore, it had ignored warning signs put in place that prohibited High-Siders from crossing the bridge?...
Question. Should there be a law that prohibits those who cant read local language from driving in that country...
For instance, perhaps non of us can read Arabic. If we went to an Arabic country, should we not first have to PROVE we can read their local road signs before we are allowed to drive?...
Just a suggestion.... Because when I see Foreign drivers stuck under bridges because the cant read the sign that says "WARNING LOW BRIDGE AHEAD", I wander just how stupid is driving past a warning sign that you didnt bother to learn to read?...
And in answer, yes, I understand most road signs in countries I have driven in.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Dec 13, 2013 8:05:02 GMT
And by the way, Myth Busted partially. Getting stuck under bridges, no we dont let the tyres down. Most trucks these days have "Kneeling" suspension. The front of the trailer is often a good few inches higher than the back, so lowering the truck suspension and backing away slowly often is the answer.... It has to be done carefully, to make sure none of the bridge follows you....
[sdit, I have never got stuck, so above is only what I have been instructed to do...]
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Dec 13, 2013 8:06:23 GMT
here, you have to be able to speak pictogram.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Dec 13, 2013 8:34:37 GMT
Is that a dialect of Pictsie?...(Mac Nac Feegle..)
Or is it just all signs are pict-o-gram, ... Do you not have road signs that say words such as FOG etc?...
|
|
|
Post by kharnynb on Dec 13, 2013 9:27:02 GMT
stuck under a bridge reminds me of Southern France.
We used to camp near a pass where the outer arch of the viaduct was about 30 cm lower on the very edge than the sign said. Local drivers would know, but there would be a loud bang at least twice per week.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Dec 13, 2013 15:11:22 GMT
Is that a dialect of Pictsie?...(Mac Nac Feegle..) Or is it just all signs are pict-o-gram, ... Do you not have road signs that say words such as FOG etc?... very few. as in only the ones that they couldn't come up with a pictogram for. example: back in the dark ages when I was testing for my drivers license, I got docked a point, because I overlooked the difference between a pedestrian crossing and a school crossing. of course, finding a convenient list of examples on teh interwebz is proving to be problematic.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Dec 13, 2013 15:19:44 GMT
stuck under a bridge reminds me of Southern France. We used to camp near a pass where the outer arch of the viaduct was about 30 cm lower on the very edge than the sign said. Local drivers would know, but there would be a loud bang at least twice per week. I think I've told the story before, but our coastal bridges were originally built with diagonal braces starting 12 feet off the sidewalk. with 13' trailers, you had to hug the center line and not hit a cross gust to clear the bridge. all of my grandfather's trailers came with the optional "bridge irons" installed - heavy steel caps on the tops of the trailers, so when you clipped the bridge with it, it didn't tear up the rail. About 20 years ago they started a project of replacing the lowest diagonal with a flat crossbar: if you look VERY closely, you can see a light colored patch where the brace originally anchored on the arch.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Dec 13, 2013 17:27:24 GMT
Question: are European roads marked using only white paint? I watched a few videos and it appeared all the markings were white.
|
|
|
Post by kharnynb on Dec 13, 2013 18:27:53 GMT
Yes, as far as i can think of out of my head, there is no other colours used outside of parking bays.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Dec 13, 2013 18:35:44 GMT
Yes, as far as i can think of out of my head, there is no other colours used outside of parking bays. here, the center line of a two way road is yellow, to differentiate it from a lane divider between same-direction lanes. on one way roads, the left hand line is still usually yellow.
|
|