Afternoon all. Hope those who intended to get home Friday did, and those who wanted to work Saturday aren’t getting too shafted! For those of you who are in several groups/forums online, yes, you may have seen this before somewhere - I’m putting it as many places as possible as I’d like this to be a really driver-packed article please, no-one gives a ■■■■ what people what I think, it’s about you guys!
Sometimes, just sometimes, a feature falls at just the right time. This is one of those features…I need you to answer the following question:
“What did you learn this winter?”
It can be absolutely anything at all, from serious lessons learnt in snow, ice and wind, through how to fish socks out of your night heater air intake at 2am, via good ways to stop your gloves turning into dishrags strapping down in the ■■■■■■■ rain, to what you need to make sure the gaffer gets fixed BEFORE the cold sets in next year. Anything and everything, I want the lot, good, bad and downright fugly!!!
Over the years, i learned that whatever the weather, bosses wanted you out in it, so long as you left the yard, it doesnt matter about yourself…so long as the truck never got damaged…and the goods got there in one piece…but back in the day we did it with no night heaters, and if we slept in the non sleeper cabs…that was our way of making a few quid, but boy did we suffer…and wished we had gone into those digs…rather than wake up in the morning to the inside windscreen frozen solid, siting behind the wheel waiting for the heater to warm the cab and defrost the screen whilst shivering from the cold…having to drag your ropes through wet ice and snow, then folding the very stiff sheets up in the same conditions…leaving the engine running whilst we did this to keep the cab warm…but sometimes there was help in the form of other drivers in the same predicament…we all helped each other… apart from that, its pretty much the same today, but with better equipment and trailers that have the sheets already fitted Winters were guaranteed to be like that of recent days, and we came prepared as well as we could…boiler suits…big ex army boots, and rubber gloves…but it was just as cold…the difference is , we now have sleeper cabs…night heaters, mobile phones, and all the mod cons that truckers carry today, myself included…so the only downside is driving in the adverse weather conditions…just as we did before…it wasnt an option to phone in sick, or saying you cant get into work…you bloody well had to…or be sacked…pretty much the same as now. The good thing about years ago, was the fact, the boss had endured the same conditions…whereas the boys in the office today, with their Pointy Shoes have no idea of what its all about…just pallet counters.
My bosses learned with glee (so much so they shared the info via e-mail to all the planners) that they ARE in fact still insured during a red weather warning… Phew! We drivers were all so worried about that…
I learn’t in the winter of 1987 ropes will work as heath robinson snow chains but probably a bad idea if you needed them to tie down the pallets of shrunk wrap car batteries that they left on board over the drive axle for ballast.But look on the bright side the resulting chemical disaster for the truck was better than getting stranded in the arctic wilderness of Kent for a couple of days with a day cab rigid.
I also learned that by dropping all the air out of my seat and hunching down like a Catholic priest fastening a choirboys laces that I can actually see perfectly well through the two inch piece of clear glass at the bottom of my windscreen.
the maoster:
I also learned that by dropping all the air out of my seat and hunching down like a Catholic priest fastening a choirboys laces that I can actually see perfectly well through the two inch piece of clear glass at the bottom of my windscreen.
That’s class…and true.
However if you were like me 6’1” a Bedford Tk 7.5 Tonner gave you the same posture with normal driving, and that posture stayed if you slept on the shelf behind the seats overnight.
I learned that the sick notes carry on as usual, dropping the company in the crap at the last minute, hastening in their own idiot way the ruination of the last remaining good jobs that pay properly including, yes you guessed it, full sick pay.
Bet they’ll be wingeing the loudest when some outfit like the green death takes over and the jobs buggered, they’ll get no sympathy from the rest of us who had to cover their shifts.
I learned that the County Council of Lincolnshire, as usual were putting out positive PR, but were not backing it up with anything of substance, so very low levels of snow closed all major routes in and out of Lincs.
I also learned that the Police do not communicate with each other and have no real plan of operation/contingency.
I also learned that I can get a shipment from Utah to the UK in five days(Monday - Friday via Fed Ex), yet the Royal Mail cannot get my parcels out of Lincolnshire for four days!!
Overall, I learned that my decision to leave the UK is the best thing I am doing, as the people and the infrastructure, are left sadly wanting in diverse situations.
People lazy and lack of funding from state and local level ends in a country that does not work…
Only started driving HGVs in April, definitely learned a few things on Thursday in particular, here’s a small selection:
my new £12 24V kettle from Amazon made a very welcome distraction when I was stationary on the M62 (Westbound) at around lunchtime and then stationary again in Colne about 6 hours later (having taken a different route to try to get back to Yorkshire)
The M65 can be ****ing windy
Don’t believe Google Maps if it tells you at 4pm you can be back in Yorkshire at 6pm if you take the M62
Any number of websites / smartphones / sat navs don’t hold a candle to a bloke with local knowledge taking the time to tell me (and most others ahead and behind me) that the road ahead is blocked by drifting snow but if I turnaround, head into Barnoldswick and take a right at the mini r/b I’t’ll spit me out further up the road I was trying to use, PAST the snow drifts.
Thanks to his enormous public spiritedness, I eventually made it to the A59 (which was surprisingly fine) all the way into Harrogate and then eventually home for around 10pm
I’ve enjoyed driving through the recent harsh weather.
Lots of snow, very cold conditions and so on are conditions that I’ve always been happy in. The old basic rules of take it slow, brake well in advance and very gently, and keep driving to the conditions proved their worth. So did stepping in to use manual mode to prevent gear changes happening at moments you don’t want.
Driving on longitudinal groove, minimum rolling resistance tyres is doable but life would have been much easier with a proper tread from a winter tyre. Being able to see properly would have been nice. It’s baffling that we didn’t get winter washer fluid supplied in time for the freezing weather.
A random thing I learned was that road salt gets everywhere. Coats the curtains and then dries, crystallises and flakes off all over you when you pull them. Don’t lick your lips!!!
slowlane:
A random thing I learned was that road salt gets everywhere. Coats the curtains and then dries, crystallises and flakes off all over you when you pull them. Don’t lick your lips!!!
I used to find it came in through the blower vents unless you put them on recirc, as well…Yeuch…
Thanks guys, great posts so far - keep 'em coming!
I learned on Friday night that even though I was using lane 2 as I was passing a junction in order to leave lane 1 free for joining traffic that some ■■■ will join the motorway and come straight out into lane 2 and directly under my bumper even with main beam on in less than good conditions.
Winters were guaranteed to be like that of recent days, and we came prepared as well as we could…boiler suits…big ex army boots, and rubber gloves…but it was just as cold…the difference is , we now have sleeper cabs…night heaters, mobile phones, and all the mod cons that truckers carry today, myself included…so the only downside is driving in the adverse weather conditions…just as we did before…it wasnt an option to phone in sick, or saying you cant get into work…you bloody well had to…or be sacked…pretty much the same as now. The good thing about years ago, was the fact, the boss had endured the same conditions…whereas the boys in the office today, with their 
