Once upon a time there was a truck driver delivering regularly to Warsaw city centre. Warsaw is one of the worst towns in Europe to drive a truck in, you are allowed to do so only for few hours in the morning and few in the afternoon, there is virtually no parking and upon recently it was second worst congested town in Europe.
The truck driver was unable to make all of his deliveries before he was required to do his brake. At first he was driving to the first place where it was safe and legal to stop, but the Polish VOSA was fining him for working over his driving limit.
So then he started to park just where it was safe to, but then he started to get fines from the police for bad parking.
So next time when he ran out of his driving time, he stopped where his tacho clocked 4.5 hours…
…blocking one lane on the busy roundabout and one of the major tram routes.
In desperation he announced, that this is a protest agains the country that do not allow him to work in normal, human conditions, that fines him when he tries to stick to the rules no matter in which way he tries to deal with the impossible issue. He threatened to commit suicide and the Police negotiated with him for over three hours before the situation was solved…
I have to say I used to deliver to Central London a lot, and it’s much easier to find a place to stop there than in Warsaw, and also British police is much more friendly and using their common sense rather than just milking money of the public (well, compared to Polish I mean), so I in a way sympathise with the guy and feel sorry for him… I wonder what you think?
This is something I have thought about before now,I think forward planning is the only answer you will get from vosa even if you did 1 drop out of 20 and drove out of central London to scratchwood they wouldnt care if this was uneconomical ,its more tiring having a break knowing you may get a parking ticket or moved on than to actually just keeping going.
I go over 15 to 20 minutes one or twice a month just if I’ve dropped the ball, got my sums wrong, made a mistake etc. rather than just stop on the hard shoulder of the motorway.
We’re only human & let’s face it, driving for more than 4.5 hours isn’t dangerous or stealing a march on your competitors. I think most vosa & police understand this, you’ll always get the odd one though.
Abroad it’s purely about the money I get the impression where as over here if you’re not being a ■■■■, they tend to cut you some slack, in my experience anyway.
I go over 15 to 20 minutes one or twice a month just if I’ve dropped the ball, got my sums wrong, made a mistake etc. rather than just stop on the hard shoulder of the motorway.
We’re only human & let’s face it, driving for more than 4.5 hours isn’t dangerous or stealing a march on your competitors. I think most vosa & police understand this, you’ll always get the odd one though.
Abroad it’s purely about the money I get the impression where as over here if you’re not being a ■■■■, they tend to cut you some slack, in my experience anyway.
You got a window of 4 hours in the morning and in the evening when you are allowed to drive in Warsaw. Even with one drop in the city centre you might not be able to get in and get out within that limit. It’s not only about driving limit, it is also about limited time trucks might drive in Warsaw.
chester:
Surely the planners are aware of the difficulties in Warsaw, so they should not be giving the driver so many deliveries in a heavily congested city.
since when did common sense and ‘time’ become a factor in a transport planners planning!!
FarnboroughBoy11:
:lol: since when did common sense and ‘time’ become a factor in a transport planners planning!!
From what I read his protest is also about that planners deliberately plan his routes that way that he has no choice as to break the rules or pay the ticket and they leave him with that problem and don’t care about the outcome. It is about how the truck drivers are treated in geeneral - by planners, employers and uniformed services.
FarnboroughBoy11:
:lol: since when did common sense and ‘time’ become a factor in a transport planners planning!!
From what I read his protest is also about that planners deliberately plan his routes that way that he has no choice as to break the rules or pay the ticket and they leave him with that problem and don’t care about the outcome. It is about how the truck drivers are treated in geeneral - by planners, employers and uniformed services.
Loved all the notes he was posting out the window, fair play to the cops for not just smashing the window & tasering him although I didn’t watch all of it.
Silver_Surfer:
Good lad, now that’s a proper protest & cause.
Loved all the notes he was posting out the window, fair play to the cops for not just smashing the window & tasering him although I didn’t watch all of it.
These were some tickets he received and such stuff.
Did I really count EIGHTEEN Plod? What a wonderful excuse for a few bank jobs.
Angus Nairn flew in specially to drive it away I hear
From people’s comments I can see that the protest itself was not a problem, he just announced he will stay there untill it will be legal to drive for him again, he blocked one lane and trams were put on diversion. It was the cops who closed most of the junction to negotiate with him. He said if they try to break in to his truck, he will set himself alight, so they called fire brigade as well…
Now he is to answer for that he threatened to set fire in public place or something (I have no idea how to translate that legal term but it is something like that).
Silver_Surfer:
Good lad, now that’s a proper protest & cause.
Loved all the notes he was posting out the window, fair play to the cops for not just smashing the window & tasering him although I didn’t watch all of it.
These were some tickets he received and such stuff.
Did I really count EIGHTEEN Plod? What a wonderful excuse for a few bank jobs.
Angus Nairn flew in specially to drive it away I hear
From people’s comments I can see that the protest itself was not a problem, he just announced he will stay there untill it will be legal to drive for him again, he blocked one lane and trams were put on diversion. It was the cops who closed most of the junction to negotiate with him. He said if they try to break in to his truck, he will set himself alight, so they called fire brigade as well…
Now he is to answer for that he threatened to set fire in public place or something (I have no idea how to translate that legal term but it is something like that).
Anyone with any sense would just have locked the truck thrown the keys down the nearest drain and walked away shouting I’ve resigned and that applies to any local multi drop job anywhere in the world.
