I did my share of planks across the bonnet, later i got a Crusader with a cushette, previously a Scanny 110 day cab with the same, cushette eh there’s posh for you
It was different days, we were a hell of lot less snowflakey then and generally out to make a living doing the job we wanted to do from when we were kids, the difference in pay between a company paying 25% of what the motor earned with an old Mickey Mouse Foden or Buffalo and the all flash no cash crew down the road with their Swedish sleepers was considerable, pay was my first priority so old MM it was.
I liked going in decent digs, indeed right up until i finished on the transporters i’d still book into a B&B or cheapy hotel once a week or so if i could find one near where i could park the motor safely.
The thing about nights out in those days, and still the same for sane drivers now, whilst we might sleep in the lorry we’d always get away from the thing for a few hours, decent meal a pint or two, a chat with other normal humans or get comfy in a corner of the pub (preferably at an advantageous totty spotting point) with a decent book for a couple of hours.
Course in the older more sensible days it was a 12.5 hour max day, so chances were you’d be parking up at tea time latest, and there were lots of places to park near to or in town.
Sod this parking up at 14hrs 59mins in a layby inches from a dual bloody carriageway, pull the curtains round, self cater, sleep, rinse and repeat for the rest of your week
Sleeping in the cab during the 60’s was a rare event, I did it a couple of times with my Dad when we had got to a delivery but couldn’t get tipped until the next morning and they allowed us to park inside overnight, I recall being curled up on the passenger seat with the obligatory cab engine cover blanket around me and Dad lying forward against the steering wheel, how he slept like that I don’t know except he would have been dog tired, I never slept a wink and was shattered on the way home the following day. Thankfully we usually got into digs and I had a few nights in my own little room at Arden House on different occasions. I don’t believe drivers of that era even considered beds in the cab, most were drivers form the end of WWII and had roughed it quite a bit during their service years but given the choice of a bed in a decent digs to their rope smelling, cold, cramped cab then the choice was easy. Lorries in those days were tools and not the offices of today. These old hands thought the industry had gone soft when power steering, powerful heater/demisters, sprung seats and mirrors the size they had in their bathrooms appeared from the foreigners, all this would change when the younger generation drivers who had come into the industry in the late 60’s early 70’s started to long for the comforts of the Euro offerings when tramping as these types were more familiar on our roads, persuading gaffers to buy though was a different thing, even up to the 90’s blokes were still spending nights out in day cabs with no beds. Franky.
The conditions for workers of all types have become worse, over the period mentioned in the original post. Cleaners are on zero contracts, professionals are flogged into an early grave with slavedrivers’ targets. The driving day was cut back to a legal 8 hours in, IIRC, 1977. Drivers now do 15 hour shifts, including loading and checking the vehicle, from when they get out of the bunk to when they get back in it. Other trades do 12+ hour days, if you include travelling to work time.The only “benefit” is that stuff is consumed at a greater rate, and more ■■■■■■■ about goes into the supply of it. The banks earn off every act. It stinks, properly.
If sleeper cabs had remained against the rules, I believe the digs would have become worse, over the period, until filth prevailed. No more cosy B&B’s- drivers would scramble for beds in over-busy dormitories, sharing maxed-out facilities. The supply of digs would just about keep up with the increases in traffic. Modern sleeper cabs are infinitely preferable to that scenario. The only thing lacking, in the modern situation, is convenient access to good washing facilities. A manned kiosk containing baths, bogs and washing machines in every lay-by would not cost much- maybe £5 per driver, with a bit of tax funding.
Lorries of this period were taxed on there unladen weight which went agaist sleeper cabs & many more lorries were trunked day & night with drivers having days out in B&B thus utilising the invesment.
Volvo were a player in sleeper cabs being more common place because when ordering a stasndard cab on all other makes this was a day cab but on a Volvo it was a sleeper.
If you go to talk to any drivers on a night out now they dont speak english anyway
I’m maybe speaking from a 2019 perspective, but if I was driving before I actually was, and I was given the choice between a proper sleeper cab bunk, (modern by those day’s standards) kipping across the engine of a daycab on a board, or some dodgy B&B shared with strangers, I’d take the sleeper cab every time.
thats what i did from day 1 ,sleeper or no sleeper.
i was always mostly on the 25%nwork andit suited me though didnt stop me having plenty of in cab adventures wherever i could wangle it.
plus
it saved listening to the typical big company union type lorry drivers waffling their gums mmoaning and drowning everyone in diesel constantly …kinda similar to looking in here though.
dieseldog999:
i remember their being a flash in the pan clampdown on cabbing it around the busy parts adjacent to london ,scratchwood services ect when we all got turfed out the cabs at night with some power mad wooden top spouting the no sleeping in your cab rule with your bunk had to be more than so many inches away from the steering wheel ect,and assumed standing around in the carpark all night was more conductive to a good nights rest possibly somewhere around 1980.■■
his operation of disruption went somewhat haywire when we all just climbed back into someone elses cab .
there was a bit of verbal consisting of " you cant do that,thats not allowed,prove it,and ■■■■ off" thereafter they did and we all got a kip.
it only lasted a very short time possibly because it got them nowhere once word got around.
Wheel Nut:
I will wager 20 pages & I will also ask anyone to find documentation about measuring steering wheels and bunks as my unicorn eats stuff like that! [emoji13]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wager 20 pages ,how about £20.00 ?
Commercial Motor Oct 1978.
0
Since when did the police make laws? Find me the law for my unicorns, and the wager was for 20 pages before Christmas.
dieseldog999:
i remember their being a flash in the pan clampdown on cabbing it around the busy parts adjacent to london ,scratchwood services ect when we all got turfed out the cabs at night with some power mad wooden top spouting the no sleeping in your cab rule with your bunk had to be more than so many inches away from the steering wheel ect,and assumed standing around in the carpark all night was more conductive to a good nights rest possibly somewhere around 1980.■■
his operation of disruption went somewhat haywire when we all just climbed back into someone elses cab .
there was a bit of verbal consisting of " you cant do that,thats not allowed,prove it,and ■■■■ off" thereafter they did and we all got a kip.
it only lasted a very short time possibly because it got them nowhere once word got around.
Wheel Nut:
I will wager 20 pages & I will also ask anyone to find documentation about measuring steering wheels and bunks as my unicorn eats stuff like that! [emoji13]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wager 20 pages ,how about £20.00 ?
Commercial Motor Oct 1978.
0
Since when did the police make laws? Find me the law for my unicorns, and the wager was for 20 pages before Christmas.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I never said anything about the police making laws.But the clipping did confirm what “dieseldog999” was saying about police
measuring the distance between steering wheels and the bunk.
dieseldog999:
i remember their being a flash in the pan clampdown on cabbing it around the busy parts adjacent to london ,scratchwood services ect when we all got turfed out the cabs at night with some power mad wooden top spouting the no sleeping in your cab rule with your bunk had to be more than so many inches away from the steering wheel ect,and assumed standing around in the carpark all night was more conductive to a good nights rest possibly somewhere around 1980.■■
his operation of disruption went somewhat haywire when we all just climbed back into someone elses cab .
there was a bit of verbal consisting of " you cant do that,thats not allowed,prove it,and ■■■■ off" thereafter they did and we all got a kip.
it only lasted a very short time possibly because it got them nowhere once word got around.
Wheel Nut:
I will wager 20 pages & I will also ask anyone to find documentation about measuring steering wheels and bunks as my unicorn eats stuff like that! [emoji13]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wager 20 pages ,how about £20.00 ?
Commercial Motor Oct 1978.
0
Since when did the police make laws? Find me the law for my unicorns, and the wager was for 20 pages before Christmas.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I never said anything about the police making laws.But the clipping did confirm what “dieseldog999” was saying about police
measuring the distance between steering wheels and the bunk.
I remember this “distance from the steering wheel” crap erupting in the late 70’s but I can’t say we had any probs with it at Bewick Transport, we just treated it as another red herring ! Cheers Dennis.
All that I meant is it’s another one of those tales that comes around like not winding your trailer legs to the top and fines being issued, sleeping too near to the steering wheel and driving too close to the vehicle behind.
Policeman have forever been making rules up and trying to get them to stick, like sleeping in motorhomes, eating apples or Kit kats at the wheel
My recollections around1971/72 was the unions particularly TGWU were against sleeper cabs and drivers got a night out tax free allowance until law was changed to allow rest period to be taken in cab.
Ok, so we’ve established that 60s to about 72 it was a mixture of most drivers simply not wanting to kip in cabs, and Unions fighting against it.
So when all this stuff just fizzled out, and drivers were kipping across the engine covers more, and accepting it either as a preference to dodgy digs or to add to their income by saving their night out money) why did the manufacturers not jump on it a lot sooner than they did, and capitalise on it, and make things as they are today, where sleepers are more or less standard, and day cabs are secondary…especially when firms started converting their day cabs.
I remember the Sed Atk 400 coming out as a sleeper but not to about…76? and the day cab option was still quite common…ok I know they would be a cheaper spec, but why did drivers not kick off about being provided only day cabs to kip in.
Then the first Leyland Roadtrains were either day cabs or some poor fold down bunk in a narrow cab,.and the Marathons also were very narrow.
Even after I started in 79, I can still remember a hell of a lot of tramper’s kipping across the seats in day cabs, when opting for digs was gradually dying out.
In fact apart from the lucky ones with their 111 s, 88s, and 2800, I would go as far as to say that day cab tramping was more common than sleeper cab tramping for quite a long time, around then.
Would you not agree?
It was the continental manufacturers that started bringing sleeper cabs over here that kicked it off. None of the British were offering sleepers at the time. When the Roadtrain was introduced it had what they designated a rest cab with a fols down bunk. Volvo were clever with the F86 which was basically a day cab with room for a small bed behind the seats.
ramone:
It was the continental manufacturers that started bringing sleeper cabs over here that kicked it off. None of the British were offering sleepers at the time. When the Roadtrain was introduced it had what they designated a rest cab with a fols down bunk. Volvo were clever with the F86 which was basically a day cab with room for a small bed behind the seats.
Yeh I know, but that’s my whole point it was only the UK home market that were not supplied with UK manufactured sleepers, while the rest of Europe were getting Leylands, Seddons and the like with sleeper cabs.
ramone:
It was the continental manufacturers that started bringing sleeper cabs over here that kicked it off. None of the British were offering sleepers at the time. When the Roadtrain was introduced it had what they designated a rest cab with a fols down bunk. Volvo were clever with the F86 which was basically a day cab with room for a small bed behind the seats.
Yeh I know, but that’s my whole point it was only the UK home market that were not supplied with UK manufactured sleepers, while the rest of Europe were getting Leylands, Seddons and the like with sleeper cabs.
Maybe the customers here didn’t want them at the time it was always digs or cab , so no real demand until the continentals arrived and we saw what was possible. I remember the first 1418 Mercs arriving where my dad worked and he just missed out as he had just got a new Atki and they were short sleepers
ramone:
It was the continental manufacturers that started bringing sleeper cabs over here that kicked it off. None of the British were offering sleepers at the time. When the Roadtrain was introduced it had what they designated a rest cab with a fols down bunk. Volvo were clever with the F86 which was basically a day cab with room for a small bed behind the seats.
Yeh I know, but that’s my whole point it was only the UK home market that were not supplied with UK manufactured sleepers, while the rest of Europe were getting Leylands, Seddons and the like with sleeper cabs.
I have mentioned this before but when Tachographs were coming into general use around 1980 we attended an evening ‘course’ run by the RHA to gen us up on them. One of our drivers asked about nighting out and the RHA guy said “Why would you need to, the country isn’t that large?” and we were never quite sure if he was serious or not!
