tachograph:
‘…I don’t have a problem with caravans, but it does ■■■■ me off that, …’ etc
Why doesn’t the Government:
1. Capitalise on taxing them?
Caravanners are surely well-off for the ability to duplicate a musty living space on wheels for few days each year.
Are the Tories too scared? Is Labour too asleep? No, they like us to be at each others throats to avoid us calling them to account in managing us more effectively.
Meanwhile, the Liberals are very happy to encourage sandal wearers ‘the right’ to express a ‘sod-you’ badge of lentil-based honour whilst snarling-up the nation’s major transport and capitalism enhancing arteries
2. Require caravans to meet or exceed specific road worthiness criteria. An MoT perhaps
Surely there is revenue as well as maintenance & administration jobs to be had in introducing such simple measures
I’m man enough to suggest that my dislike of caravans may not least be based upon jealousy that they get away with what they do. After all, they get away with being major antisociable whilst giving beggar-all back to society other than:
1 A few tax exempt quid to spivvy site owners who are also their fellows in mint.
2 Dull magazine publishers
3 Spice to the work of radio traffic reporters, road scrapers and mortuary attendants.
4 The composite materials (formerly the fibre-glass) industry
Terry T:
The best caravan I ever saw was on the M6. All you could see was a car and a pile of melted fibre glass behind it. God knows how the fire started. Had to laugh though
As for parking in the Heavy (no) Goods (no) Vehicle (1 out of 3) spaces, should be stopped. Imagine their response if an artic was parked in a dedicated car+caravan bay.
If that’s where the signs direct them, it’s the fault of the services, not the person following the instructions.
dazaster:
syramax:
but will you be in a convoy like the four I followed along the a66 at 40 mph ■■?
thats the speed limit isnt it for some of the a66
I’m not 100% on speed limits, but can’t remember any 40mph zones on the A66■■
On some services they’re shared but on others there’s designated caravan areas yet you still see wobble boxers in the HGV area. Car drivers are as bad, parking in the caravan sections forcing them into HGV sections.
And any single track section of the A66 is 40 for us
For HGV’s yeah, but not for cars towing caravans, it’s 50… Now, fair enough at 40mph it shouldn’t bother a HGV, but we all know it will, but at 50mph you should be away from all but the most maniacal HGV driver, and stuff them, they shouldn’t be speeding anyway
I don’t think limiter speeds on single track roads is all that uncommon tbh judging by how fast trucks come at me in the opposite direction… I stick to 40 and always see HGVs in the inevitable queues that build up behind and sometimes have HGVs overtake me.
Boo9729:
They are a pain in the arse when they park in hgv area (amusing to watch them try to park though), but then what gives hgv’s the right to park in coach areas when there is plenty of space in the hgv park?? It’s nothing more than bone idle track suit bottom wearing slobs who either can’t read or aren’t capable of walking to far into the services!!
Like Fleet services Southampton bound then, Ive found that it seems to be Tescos and Sainsburys the worst offenders there…
tachograph:
I don’t have a problem with caravans, but it does ■■■■ me off when a caravanner who’s parked in a busy lorry park decides to have a picnic in the bay next to their caravan
Caravans all over the place at Lancaster services today!!! proper taking the P**S
Taking up two parking bays…cars frigging everywhere?
Had to park by the pumps to take my break… rant over
Was in micheal wood services today and never really cared about caravans parking in hgv parking areas but there was a load of kids running about the place when there was lorries reversing into spaces, accident waiting to happen me thinks and I suppose it’ll be all the big bad truckers fault when little johnny gets killed.
Wheel Nut:
For caravanners a night in the services is part of the holiday, they can get those last minute items like kindling, barbecue fuel and shortbread. The kids get to eat the only decent burger they are going to get for a week
The mother gets all excited about the lorry driver flashing his tool in the car park and the father is excited about the size of his equipment
The dog loves it too because the places stink of ■■■■
Went to park up in a motorway services in Germany one summers night, I was pulling a fridge which was thumping away so I parked down the far end of the lorry park where there happened to be a couple of Dutch caravans parked in the lorry bays, within a couple of minutes one of the caravaners was out shouting at me to shut the fridge off, I told him I couldn’t do that because the fridge had a recorder on it to show the customer that it had kept a correct temperature all the time it was on the way to him, and this customer was very very picky, anyway it ended up with the Dutchman calling the police, when they turned up the Dutchman was shouting about the noise of the fridge and that he and his wife couldn’t get to sleep to which the German police told him in no uncertain terms that if he and his mate didn’t pack up and move off the lorry pretty dam quick they would be fined for parking on the lorry park which was for lorries only, so at 11.30 at night he and mate had to pack up and move, the police said with a smile, good night driver and left. German efficiency at it’s best.
OssieD:
Went to park up in a motorway services in Germany one summers night, I was pulling a fridge which was thumping away so I parked down the far end of the lorry park where there happened to be a couple of Dutch caravans parked in the lorry bays, within a couple of minutes one of the caravaners was out shouting at me to shut the fridge off, I told him I couldn’t do that because the fridge had a recorder on it to show the customer that it had kept a correct temperature all the time it was on the way to him, and this customer was very very picky, anyway it ended up with the Dutchman calling the police, when they turned up the Dutchman was shouting about the noise of the fridge and that he and his wife couldn’t get to sleep to which the German police told him in no uncertain terms that if he and his mate didn’t pack up and move off the lorry pretty dam quick they would be fined for parking on the lorry park which was for lorries only, so at 11.30 at night he and mate had to pack up and move, the police said with a smile, good night driver and left. German efficiency at it’s best.
OssieD:
‘…Dutch caravans parked in the lorry bays … German police told him … move off … German efficiency at it’s best…’
‘…Love it … that’s what it should be like here…’
What? Isn’t asking our MP’s to manage home affairs when they’ve Syria to fuss over and the EU to fund as well as Merkel to pacify a bit OTT?
Besides, they’re currently busy wedging in Mediterranean holidays
And on their return, they’ll be far too busy saving their tribally focussed parties from sinking in popularity [sic] than to ponce around raising our quality of life above that of the blood-soaked gutter into which the UK has slid
AlexWignall:
When we used to go scrambling with our old transit and caravan we didn’t pay for [zb] owt.
Never mind holding lorries up on the motorway, we spent most of our time barging wobbling road riders on race replicas out of the way going to events.
Don’t even think who’s driving if you got hurt in a race. The missus is too upset to drive and you’ve only got a young kid as a mechanic. Good Effort young Darrell on that one lad, put many a trucknetter to shame that weekend…
Message to the OP, caravans have been on the road longer than cars and lorries by at least a century or two, learn a bit of respect for your fellow road users and your career won’t feel as long as it lasts…
W
Erm… there seems to be a bit of confusion here. I sincerely hope the first highlighted comment was made in jest.
Sidevalve:
we spent most of our time barging wobbling road riders on race replicas out of the way going to events.
learn a bit of respect for your fellow road users
and your career won’t feel as long as it lasts…
Sidevalve:
Erm… there seems to be a bit of confusion here. I sincerely hope the first highlighted comment was made in jest.
My mistake, I forgot how literal people can be on the Internet.
I should of said ‘spent our time groaning with boredom as we caught up yet another wobbling race rep in our clapped out ten year old transit packed with race kit and towing an ancient caravan’ but it didn’t scan so well…
In spite of the odd comic post I treat all road users with respect and courtesy, including hopeless caravan users and motorcyclists who are clearly out of their depth on the machines they choose to ride.
Surely there is revenue as well as maintenance & administration jobs to be had in introducing such simple measures 
