Just recently I had a trainee ask me what you would do if your in-cab height indicator showed feet and inches and you found yourself needing to know what the conversion into metric was i.e when going under a petrol station canopy.
I gave him this useful attachment which shows simple conversions and told him to print it out and keep it with him when driving.
Just thought I’d share it here as well as it’s a useful thing to keep on you when driving especially if you’re switching vehicles often.
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We were given this on a credit card sized laminated sheet,handy to have on me as we deliver to a few petrol stations.
xichrisxi:
We were given this on a credit card sized laminated sheet,handy to have on me as we deliver to a few petrol stations.
We’re not allowed under the canopy of Sedgemoor services in our dd’s as they’ll hit it, I mean it’s a service station accessed only by the motorway ffs why didn’t they build it the same height as the motorway bridges.
I got that printed on business cards and give them out on load safety courses. Fits easily in the wallet
shep532:
I got that printed on business cards and give them out on load safety courses. Fits easily in the wallet
Awww if Id have known that Id have “borrowed” one of those from you on the course 
Why do some bridges say 5m or 16 ft 6 and others say 5m or 16ft 4?
Thanks for that, just printed it off, useful for peace of mind 
Many thanks will keep it in the cab
Learn your 3(0) times table!
It’s not always possible to be scratting around for a conversion chart if you have forgotten to check before you start driving. You should then be able to convert in your head even if you have to slow down or stop for a few seconds.
So 14ft x3 = 42(0) or 4.20 metres. Add on the inches at x3 (or x2.5 if you can) so 3 inches is .09
14ft 3 then becomes 4.29. 14ft 9 = 4.47
Not perfectly accurate but a good approximation which will always be slightly under as a foot is actually 30.48 cm.
As a driver you would normally give yourself a bit of leeway anyway to compensate for uneven/ sloping road surfaces.
austers:
Why do some bridges say 5m or 16 ft 6 and others say 5m or 16ft 4?
It’s been done to death several times. The calculations used to arrive at the bridge markings are different for Imperial and Metric measurements. Having said that, the highest marking you would expect to see on a bridge in the UK is 16’ 0" - anything higher would not be marked at all.
Thanks, will be very handy.
I’ve got that in me phone as a picture easy to check trl heights but most of ours are 13’9”
I write the trailer number and the imperial and metric heights in my notepad, which has the bonus of if I ever forget I can just take a quick glance at it.
It’s something I find incredible that many petrol station canopies are only marked in metric.
Seeing as we our road system has to be marked in imperial or both but not solely metric it is just asking for trouble. Whilst it’s easy to say that a driver should measure and convert, it’d be easier to mark it properly in the first place…