I am currently writing my final year dissertation for my logistics degree at university. (glamorous I know)
I am researching what drivers believe contribute toward accidents involving HGVs and third parties. It would be really helpful if you guys could take some time out to answer a couple of questions, and maybe even advise of some questions worth asking that I have missed?
Geesh … is it disertation season again.
Instead of formatting useless surveys and getting people to answer & complete your work for you. Why not actually go spend some time and do some actual research and earn that degree, instead of going to the pub.
peirre:
Geesh … is it disertation season again.
Instead of formatting useless surveys and getting people to answer & complete your work for you. Why not actually go spend some time and do some actual research and earn that degree, instead of going to the pub.
Complete the survey… Nah I’m of to the pub
I appreciate the point pal…
This is my research, directly addressing a publicly recognised forum for drivers is the best place to look surely. I still have to write the 15000 words, just need the information from you guys to base my points.
I don’t have the finance (being a student and all) to travel and carry out interviews with drivers, past that, would you take time out of your day to talk to some lad about crashes? Or answer a poll (averaging 1.3 minutes) that you can express thoughts about a serious issue?
Cheers for the thoughts anyway though mate, enjoy the pub! I know where I’d rather be!
A logistics degree. So what is your future choice of employment once you have achieved this coveted degree? Transport manager?
If you want to get into transport, start at the bottom, and learn the business the hard way, and earn some respect along the way. Or Get a degree, and expect to get walk into a job and get respect , and be sorely dissapointed. …
Edit… if you are doing a logistics degree just because that was what you could enrol in, and you just want a degree, just to have a degree, you are part of the problem. …
I was a member of the Institute of Logistics Management and I would be embarrassed to produce a paper like that. If this is for a thesis, I suggest that you look for a better subject like how to stack shelves more efficiently. When you get a job in Tesco, it will come in handy.
Waaatts:
I don’t have the finance (being a student and all) to travel and carry out interviews with drivers, past that, would you take time out of your day to talk to some lad about crashes? Or answer a poll (averaging 1.3 minutes) that you can express thoughts about a serious issue?
You’d get a whole lot of better answers if you were to visit a motorway service area and just ask. No cost or additional travel costs needed.
You get to meet a cross section from all over the country and instead of closed questions, you may be surprised at what extra questions you hadn’t considered just from a chat.
It wouldn’t be that difficult to find a driver willing to talk.
Waaatts:
You’d get a whole lot of better answers if you were to visit a motorway service area and just ask. No cost or additional travel costs needed.
You get to meet a cross section from all over the country and instead of closed questions, you may be surprised at what extra questions you hadn’t considered just from a chat.
It wouldn’t be that difficult to find a driver willing to talk.
I had thought about this, but my concern was that drives would flat out not be interested in talking to someone about this sort of thing, but if it’s something guys would be happy to address in an interview I’d be more than happy to do it.
Just thought you’d be less inclined to have a potentially long chat/interview with a student… (which going by the above looks like a reasonable assumption…)
I was a member of the Institute of Logistics Management and I would be embarrassed to produce a paper like that. If this is for a thesis, I suggest that you look for a better subject like how to stack shelves more efficiently. When you get a job in Tesco, it will come in handy.
That’s a fair point.
I’ll show them my questionnaire and they might promote me one day to fishmonger or something!
the nodding donkey:
A logistics degree. So what is your future choice of employment once you have achieved this coveted degree? Transport manager?
If you want to get into transport, start at the bottom, and learn the business the hard way, and earn some respect along the way. Or Get a degree, and expect to get walk into a job and get respect , and be sorely dissapointed. …
Edit… if you are doing a logistics degree just because that was what you could enrol in, and you just want a degree, just to have a degree, you are part of the problem. …
For context: I am from Felixstowe, and the majority of my family work in transport. It is what I have intended to do from a young age.
I have worked unpaid for small transport firms, cleaning the yard, filling adblue tanks and shuttling drivers to and from the yard to the office. I have done filing, sat on VBS desks trying to get drivers on the dock, and other things that aren’t glamorous roles.
I took a year out working my way around the bottom of a company in order to understand everything that happens from the ground up.
Whilst I appreciate that most students are wasting everyones time, I have worked for the last 4 years to enter an industry I have been set on for ages. Please don’t make assumptions about my reasoning.
A degree may well be pointless for our industry, but it’s pretty difficult to get a job at the moment, figured it would help me out.
Waaatts:
I don’t have the finance (being a student and all) to travel and carry out interviews with drivers, past that, would you take time out of your day to talk to some lad about crashes?
You don’t need money, just ask a truck driver to take you on a run one day. I can guarantee with 100% certainty that from the truck cab you’ll see exactly where the problem lies and it will take you just one trip to recognise where the problem is.
Waaatts:
Just thought you’d be less inclined to have a potentially long chat/interview with a student… (which going by the above looks like a reasonable assumption…)
A bit of a condescending remark there. Some of us may be truck drivers but that doesn’t mean we’re not educated and that we’ve not been students ourselves. A few years ago I attended a red brick university and did a BEng (Hons) degree in Electronics Engineering for example.
Waaatts:
I don’t have the finance (being a student and all) to travel and carry out interviews with drivers, past that, would you take time out of your day to talk to some lad about crashes?
You don’t need money, just ask a truck driver to take you on a run one day. I can guarantee with 100% certainty that from the truck cab you’ll see exactly where the problem lies and it will take you just one trip to recognise where the problem is.
Waaatts:
Just thought you’d be less inclined to have a potentially long chat/interview with a student… (which going by the above looks like a reasonable assumption…)
A bit of a condescending remark there. Some of us may be truck drivers but that doesn’t mean we’re not educated and that we’ve not been students ourselves. A few years ago I attended a red brick university and did a BEng (Hons) degree in Electronics Engineering for example.
I would take any opportunity to go out with a driver and witness that stuff first hand.
I also didn’t mean to offend at all, my point was actually why would you guys want to talk to me? Just very poorly worded obviously. The reason I am doing this research is because I am trying to see if there are any glaringly obvious reasons for accidents that are missed, purely because drivers aren’t consulted, rather than just being pointed at for blame.
Have you tried going direct to the horses mouth and ascertaining factual figures and information ?
ie : The Department for Transport (DfT).
.
For Starters, the word Accident ' is no longer used - Collision or Incident has replaced that term item. Accident ’ implies that there is proportion to blame.
An accident is an undesirable incidental and unplanned event that could have been prevented had circumstances leading up to the incident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence.
A Collision ' is the physical act of the subject matters colliding together. Commonly known as an incident ’ that has occurred.
.
So from your research, are you likely to be publishing any recommendations that may have a bearing on reducing these impacts and occurrences ?
.
Have you recognized potential areas that have high occurrences ? together with types / time of day/ time of year / UK or EU origin ? etc etc.
.
You may also want to rethink your survey wording and final draft paper if you want to impress high up the food chain, ie : HGV should be LGV etc . You say you`ve spent time already in transport offices and yards , yet have no understanding of the basic rudiments.
.
Not wanting to tell young granny to ■■■■ eggs , but I think you do need to research the industry basics a little closer if you aim to pass or excel.
Or have you already been down the pub most of the year and watching bands in the Uni’ bar and left it a little late and rushed to final Sudden dawn realization of zb i must get something done a bit rapido ?
Get your hand outa that sock and put a bit of commitment into it, or may just end up being another tenapenny logistics deskjockey that keeps phoning up asking where the driver is . and we dont want that do we
,
hth , just wondering
trux:
Have you tried going direct to the horses mouth and ascertaining factual figures and information ?
ie : The Department for Transport (DfT).
.
For Starters, the word Accident ' is no longer used - Collision or Incident has replaced that term item. Accident ’ implies that there is proportion to blame.
An accident is an undesirable incidental and unplanned event that could have been prevented had circumstances leading up to the incident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence.
A Collision ' is the physical act of the subject matters colliding together. Commonly known as an incident ’ that has occurred.
.
So from your research, are you likely to be publishing any recommendations that may have a bearing on reducing these impacts and occurrences ?
.
Have you recognized potential areas that have high occurrences ? together with types / time of day/ time of year / UK or EU origin ? etc etc.
.
You may also want to rethink your survey wording and final draft paper if you want to impress high up the food chain, ie : HGV should be LGV etc . You say you`ve spent time already in transport offices and yards , yet have no understanding of the basic rudiments.
.
Not wanting to tell young granny to ■■■■ eggs , but I think you do need to research the industry basics a little closer if you aim to pass or excel.
Or have you already been down the pub most of the year and watching bands in the Uni’ bar and left it a little late and rushed to final Sudden dawn realization of zb i must get something done a bit rapido ?
Get your hand outa that sock and put a bit of commitment into it, or may just end up being another tenapenny logistics deskjockey that keeps phoning up asking where the driver is . and we dont want that do we
,
hth , just wondering
Hi mate,
Yeah I do have facts and figures etc. from some firms, not completely empty handed!
Areas that have been looked at so far are things like: weather, time of day, delivery locations, hours worked/rest hours amongst others. The idea behind the survey was to briefly assess how drivers feel with regards to certain variables, as well as to outline anything that may not be considered in senior management. I have had some really good responses so far which is encouraging.
Your advice has been really helpful. I think maybe I have overlooked a couple of things that you’ve pointed out.
Now go travelling and enjoy some time abroad and note how other Countries compare if you can.
No rush , you can re-evaluate and join the mainstream again at 25 and still project in large corporate Companies on a fast track theme.
The world is your oyster as they say.
Congratulations guys; this is why the office treat you like subhumans
What might be a “rubbish questionnaire” to you might only appear that way because its only a small part of this guy’s research; perhaps he’s missing some specific information somewhere and this is the best way of filling that hole? You just don’t know.
Javiatrix:
Congratulations guys; this is why the office treat you like subhumans
What might be a “rubbish questionnaire” to you might only appear that way because its only a small part of this guy’s research; perhaps he’s missing some specific information somewhere and this is the best way of filling that hole? You just don’t know.
+1
I’m no fan of logistics degrees either, wouldn’t employ someone as a TM without several years driving experience but that survey will be a tiny bit of the guys work.
Maybe he should post the final thesis before handing it in if the survey is too simplistic and we can read all 15000 words
I am currently writing my final year dissertation for my logistics degree at university. (glamorous I know)
I am researching what drivers believe contribute toward accidents involving HGVs and third parties. It would be really helpful if you guys could take some time out to answer a couple of questions, and maybe even advise of some questions worth asking that I have missed?
If you want to know why drivers have collisions, look on YouTube. There are hundreds of videos of collisions, and usually it is quite clear what the cause of the accident is. Bad attitude.
Car drivers don’t understand the needs of large goods vehicles on the road- wide turning circles, longer stopping distances, slow acceleration etc.- and become frustrated. This leads to them pulling stupid manoeuvers to avoid being held up/save them some time. A good example of this is cars who overtake and pull in front of a lorry (causing it to brake sharply) to get to a slip road, despite the fact if they’d waited behind said lorry they’d be in exactly the same place on the slip road! This frustrates lorry drivers who then start to drive in a more aggressive manner to try and dissuade cars from pulling stupid manoeuvers.
Another cause of accidents is lack of concentration. I passed an accident this morning on the M1 where a car on a deserted, well lit, four lane motorway had hit the central barrier at speed and spun across the carriageway. Since the driver was stood at the side of the road talking to the local constabulary, I think its safe to assume he wasn’t taken ill at the wheel. Being a night trunker I see that most cars passing me have their cabs lit by he glow of a mobile phone. It’s almost as if driving is the last thing on motorists minds!
If you can, I would suggest running with a driver, especially on a night run, to see for yourself exactly what goes on on our roads.
Good luck on your course, although personally I recommend you get a LGV licence if you really want to get into the world of transport (too many TMs who cant drive a lorry IMO).
Cavey
ps, sorry for the grumpiness of my post, its late for me!!
OK. Did the survey for you young man not sure that the questions are going to get the eureka solution but hey ho.
Just my thoughts but how you are going to illustrate some of your conclusions? By that I do mean illustrate as in pictorial or schematic illustration. 15000 words can be heavy going and some graphical interruptions help the reader to comprehend the points being made. This suggestion given as a father who proofread his daughters dissertation in a subject I knew little about.
Another suggestion if you are going to reference your sources put the bulk of the source information as appendices and keep the dissertation itself free from the clutter and chaff that will inevitably be part of the source material, particularly helpful when referencing the same source more than once.
Good luck, hope you think your studies were beneficial to you.
I’m sure if you type “dissertation” into the search box of any subject specific forum (not just TN) you’ll get several hits where students have posted links to a research Questionaire to aid said students “dissertation”.
9/10 times this is because the tutor of said student has given advice to the student that it would be ideal to google and find suitable popular forums to post such a Questionaire, especially as a 1st post. This is why more often than not then members of various forums tend to respond with jaded views.
Maybe if the OP was to participate in the forum and not just disappear into cyberspace with only a 1+ post count after they’ve posted their Questionaire they’ed learn more, or maybe dare I say, if they use the search function they’ed gleen much more information than the narrow peramiters Questionnaires tend to provide.
Sudden dawn realization of zb i must get something done a bit rapido ? 
