good_friend:
OK I will get my tin hat ready…
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What on earth has auto gear boxes got to do with hitting bridges? I fail completely to see the connection
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If you hunt about for the cheapest CPC training and go for that, what makes you think any driver would accept those fees to stand in front of a classroom and talk? There is a guy local to here who does CPC for £35 a day. I can bet you any money you like his trainer isn’t a driver, ex or otherwise.
Yes, I admit to some self-interest so moderators please feel free to delete this. I won’t be offended 
- I assume you are asking me because i was the one who answered another post and mentioned gearboxes in my post…which in context is very much in connection to why bridges are being hit, and vehicles smashed to buggery with general neglect/incompetence of job and equipment.
When lorries required some hand brain nous coordination and general interest in the job itself, ie actual lorry driving, then the job attracted in the most those who had taken an interest either from family involvement or an interest in machinery etc from a young age.
In other words they wanted to be lorry drivers, and no i don’t mean selecting D and pressing Resume and attending the steering wheel, i mean the whole job, which meant in the main loading and securing waterproofing the load you had on, and then having to actually drive the vehicle with all that involved, not just steer with one hand.
If someone wanted to be a lorry driver, then they took an interest, they wanted to do the job and they usually took a pride in doing it properly because they were doing what they always wanted to.
This often meant starting at a young age on vans or little lorries where the budding lorry driver cut their teeth, i assure you controlling a 60’s or 70’s Ford D series sat on Michelin X’s in the wet wasn’t far from skid pan training, the new driver learned how wind affected the vehicle, hills, corners you name it because the driver was learning that all important seat of the pants feel for what was happening at the point of contact with the road, you learned a lot about weight distribution, balancing grip and handling against being able to actually steer the thing, power steering was not an option.
As for bridges, well when you’d loaded then roped and sheeted your load you knew exactly what the height was because you’d been there, and every driver worth his or her salt had the bridge height map at their side, in the early days it was the Michelin map and later on the AA truckers atlas range, the latter of which is still the most clear to read of all the road atlas i’ve seen.
You planned your journeys taking all sorts of things into account, motorways were only on the major routes and dual carriageway by-passes few and far between, so route planning was something the earlier drivers took for granted, and still do.
That isn’t to say that young drivers now arn’t going to be as good or take a pride in their work, because you still to this day see young lads in their dads’s cars looking longingly and thoughtfully at your vehicle as they overtake, these will often be the proper lorry drivers of the future.
And all of us work with young drivers who are switched on and wanting to learn and progress, these are the genuine old hand lorry drivers of the future and bridge bashing will not feature in their lives.
Right, that’s how things were, remember our young drivers of the past had already learned much about vehicle control from their cars before they ever got into even a small 7.5 tonner, no abs, drum brakes, no power steering (even on artics until the mid/late 70’s in many cases), no traction aids of any sorts, they’d found by the time they’d had a car licence a month just how little grip there really is under the tyres in the wet, and how easy brake fade was to provoke if you overdid things.
Now where auto gearboxes come into the equation is simple, because the modern lorry requires little skill or coordination to operate (hill hold on an auto i ask you?), and if the modern lorry driver has come straight from their modern car, quite possibly with an auto box, then the only actual vehicle control learned might have been in the driving school car, yet these people are expected to cope with all that a double decker involves when all they’ve driven before is a bloody hatchback.
This is not knocking young drivers, it isn’t their fault things have got to where they are, and there are many younger drivers out there who like the older ones wanted to be lorry drivers when still in short trousers, and who take a pride in their work.
But this is where the automatic gearboxes and the simplicity and ease of the job generally now has been counter productive re learned skills, because its allowed those who should not have become lorry drivers to breeze into the job for a variety of reasons, not to have gone through the learning curve picking it up along the way as was once the case.
Auto boxes and all the other changes have allowed in those who would not at one time have made the grade, and in all likelihood wouldn’t have wanted the job anyway.
You don’t find the new drivers who take a pride in work and wanted to be lorry drivers smashing into bridges, i suspect the good young drivers cringe when they see ■■■■■■■■ like the alleged drugged artic driver going the wrong up a motorway causing mayhem.
Lorry driving is not for everyone, it never was it never will be, it’s just that the autobox (in the main but other changes have helped in this regard) made it possible for anyone to do it.
If you deskill an occupation, and lorry driving isn’t alone in this by a long chalk, then don’t be surprised when the inevitable happens.
) lane discipline, non sat nav route planning theory courses, incorporating low bridge routes, and drum in empathy and courtesy on road towards other truck drivers…(never thought I’d hear myself say that as it was just ‘‘The done thing’’ once)