Longer lorries to be allowed on UK loads

This is about those 2 metre longer trailers we’ve all seen. Now I know most of you thought they were already here however they were in trial so you had to apply for permission to use them. From May 31st any company can.

bbc.co.uk/news/business-65533993

Once in general use it won’t be long before they make the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

I believe…

It is. It’s an extra 4 pallets in a fridge?

As usual, the driver get’s the all the extra graft and aggro for no wage gain and the gaffers get the benefits.

I nearly got crushed by one of those because I walked close to it while one was reversing on the bay,I was expecting it to take the normal path but didnt allow for the rear wheel to be oversteering it

yourhavingalarf:
I believe…

It is. It’s an extra 4 pallets in a fridge?

As usual, the driver get’s the all the extra graft and aggro for no wage gain and the gaffers get the benefits.

If anything, they will put downward pressure on wages as fewer drivers will be needed to move the same volume of goods.

It won’t be long before we are seeing longer trailers sent out on farm collections; we already see double deckers on this work squeezing along unsuitable roads.
“Ministers insist they are safe”. That would be the same ones who ■■■■■■ the economy and won’t negotiate with any workers. The same ones who insist that councils build tens of thousands of five bedroom houses. The only thing ministers know about is how to arrange lucrative consultancy fees for themselves.

yourhavingalarf:
I believe…

It is. It’s an extra 4 pallets in a fridge?

As usual, the driver get’s the all the extra graft and aggro for no wage gain and the gaffers get the benefits.

Yep, …as usual. :unamused:

Harry Monk:

yourhavingalarf:
I believe…

It is. It’s an extra 4 pallets in a fridge?

As usual, the driver get’s the all the extra graft and aggro for no wage gain and the gaffers get the benefits.

If anything, they will put downward pressure on wages as fewer drivers will be needed to move the same volume of goods.

Absolutley H…

When tri-axles first appeared, we got an extra £1 a day if we pulled them. Riches beyond my wildest dreams!

cav551:
It won’t be long before we are seeing longer trailers sent out on farm collections; we already see double deckers on this work squeezing along unsuitable roads.
“Ministers insist they are safe”. That would be the same ones who [zb] the economy and won’t negotiate with any workers. The same ones who insist that councils build tens of thousands of five bedroom houses. The only thing ministers know about is how to arrange lucrative consultancy fees for themselves.

Safe as in smart motorway safe!

Won’t be increasing the 44T GVW to accommodate those extra pallets though it seems for now. Only ones I’ve seen are carrying lightweight goods, Walkers crisps for example. I can forsee maybe the large operators utilising them but not smaller general haulage because of the risk of not being able to get into some places with them.

Cronus:
because of the risk of not being able to get into some places with them.

We used to pull the long trailers for Greggs, their night man would drop one in our yard and we would then deliver the full load to Enfield and collect empty trays if there were any. Despite Greggs paying us both ways empty or loaded and despite the front desk being told that the trailers were ONLY for Greggs work if we didn’t collect trays the little nobs on the front desk would try to pressurise the driver into making a collection at a clearly unsuitable place.

The only asked me to do this a couple of times after my response was “sure, send me an e mail with your name on it outlining what you want me to collect and I will”.

Cronus:
Won’t be increasing the 44T GVW to accommodate those extra pallets though it seems for now. Only ones I’ve seen are carrying lightweight goods, Walkers crisps for example. I can forsee maybe the large operators utilising them but not smaller general haulage because of the risk of not being able to get into some places with them.

I don’t see them going beyond 44T in the future either, there’d need to be too much of a major rewrite of the C&U regs, and the complications with axle numbers and axle weight limits. Unless they wanted to scrap STGO Cat 1 (vehicles up to 50T) and make 50 the new 44 :laughing:

And, if Operators were forking out for a brand new LST, they’ll only have done so because it fits the work, which as you say is only suitable for lightweight work, so I’d expect these to be confined to going in and out of RDCs, not struggling down some unsuitable rural track to a farm.

I’m being tipped at Greggs Cambuslang right now. One of their long trailers + unit is on the next bay on my offside, sticking out that much further and reducing the space available on my nearside to manoeuvre, which made it difficult for me to get onto my bay. Might well clip me as he turns right coming off the bay.
According to the government one standard-size trailer will be taken off the road for every 12 trips. That will depend on long trailers being loaded to full capacity presumably. When I was working (agency) for Morrisons a few years ago they had around 10 long trailers, which could be a quarter full, half-full or whatever, but they very seldom carried a full load of 30 pallets. Same with my own company, which has a few long uns, but they’re hardly ever full.

Good Morning Britain tweeted about it and all the mouthbreathers on Twitter going mental with the usual uninformed rubbish. You can tell that most of them didn’t bother reading the story by the fact they were unaware they’d already been in use a decade.

They do have there uses… Royal mail love them & they are appropriate for them.
ASDA for instance stopped using them because they were trying to do store deliveries with them & they were just too big to spin round in most yards.

I wouldn’t fancy a job that your have to regularly have to get them into services bad enough with a normal trailer after a certain time of day.

I have been using them for years, they are fine for trunking work but not very good for general haulage. As said above think carefully about going into the services, unless you park in 2 bays at once you may not get out :laughing:

Have maximum vehicle lengths along with permitted rear overhang limits been tweaked at all?

This is probably a daft question, but this mean the extra length will “legalise” those bonneted Scanias with a 45foot trailer? or are they specifying the length of the trailer only?

Its a bit odd that they have set the max length at 18.55m, which is shorter than the current limit of 18.75m for a wag and drag.

I am operating a max length 8w wag and triaxle drag. It is sometimes a bit of a squeeze to park in a services without sticking out too far. My gain is that it bends 2/3 way down its length so can turn sooner than if it was an artic when getting out of a narrow gap.

Didn’t take these morans long to start moaning.

road.cc/content/news/cycling-uk … ies-301139