dieseldave:
[From my days of teaching CPC, ‘Road Friendly suspension’ (RF) was taken to mean ‘air bags,’ as opposed to steel springs.:
That would be my thought as well Dave. I won’t dispute your info on this,I am happy to be corrected on this one but I suspect my bosses may not be!
I can assure you though that the plates definitely say 32000 GVW, apart from the one exception I mentioned; the only vehicle which is on airbags is the artic.
Puzzling.
Denis F:
DD is right
TBH, I looked it up.
Mr EOS isn’t often wrong…his CPC courses are the industry standard after all. 
gnasty gnome:
That would be my thought as well Dave. I won’t dispute your info on this,I am happy to be corrected on this one but I suspect my bosses may not be!I can assure you though that the plates definitely say 32000 GVW, apart from the one exception I mentioned; the only vehicle which is on airbags is the artic.
Puzzling.
Hi gnasty gnome, I have to be honest and say that I looked it up.
A thought that came to me is that it’s sometimes quite easy to mis-read the plate.
Here’s one for an 18t rigid (with air-bags) that I prepared earlier:
Any doubts that your boss might have could be settled by a trip / phone call to your friendly local GVTS. 
albion:
This is primarily because we are specialised and require drivers with unusual qualifications and additionally agency drivers cost a significant amount more per hour than a regular driver.
What sort of specialised qualifications? VMPs? 
dieseldave:
Hi gnasty gnome, I have to be honest and say that I looked it up.A thought that came to me is that it’s sometimes quite easy to mis-read the plate.
Here’s one for an 18t rigid (with air-bags) that I prepared earlier:
Any doubts that your boss might have could be settled by a trip / phone call to your friendly local GVTS.
That’s exactly where I read ours from; I’ll check this out next week when I’m back at work, and start another thread, think we’ve hijacked this one enough!
Saratoga:
albion:
This is primarily because we are specialised and require drivers with unusual qualifications and additionally agency drivers cost a significant amount more per hour than a regular driver.
ADR Class 1 and security clearance
Mike-C:
DAFMAD:
Agencies should all be banned period.If you employed guys actually consulted with your employer and took your holidays when your truck was in for MOT or service etc. , that would reduce the need for your employer to provide ‘cover’ for you being off work.
i hope you are joking mike or are you that short sighted
in my reckoning that would equate to 9 6 weekly checks 1-2 days for mot and yes sod the wife and kids they dont really want a holiday . get real
xxicelandicxx:
ok im in a job but i keep hearing this everywhere but why arnt companys advertising jobs, so it makes me actually wonder if its true,so to all employers everywhere why dont you actually start advertising for proper full time drivers if you want to get them and ditch agys then maybe people will come.
and maybe you wont be short.
ok rant over…
due to a change in domestic arrangements im heading down to the GOLDEN TRIANGLE, till future notice money good digs will be HELL 
.
so there must still be a demand 
money beats the hell outa rates up here .
and i have worked agencey before in deepest EENGERland
as long as the road signs arent in polish /welsh im happy
last time i was that far south ,i was 30,000 feet up on my hols .
i dont need a passport do i for northhampton, things have changed since then
braveheart alex salmond the polis will take my tachos and my freefreedom
gnasty gnome:
del949:
Presumably he means something like an 8 wheel tipper type chassis,Funnily enough I was in RAF Northolt base today looking at hook over demountable bodies with 20 ft containers on and thinking that there is a lot of weight there.
They’re called the DROPS system, basically a hook-loader. Used to be mainly 8x4 Constructors or Fodens, not sure what they’re being replaced with. Some pull a drag too.
Found this, might interest you…
They’re being replaced with MANs arent they? There a lot of 6x6 abd 8x8’s at Ashchurch in Gloucestershire at the mo…
I think any driver shortage, if there ever was such a thing, came to an abrupt end when the countries of Eastern Europe joined the EU and were given instant access to the UK job market.
It occured because greedy and exploitative employers, let their New Labour pals know that they would like a nice dose of cheap labour to keep the Brits in line and wages low.
Low wages mean increased profits which in turn mean bigger bonus payments to the board of directors. The method of choice for increasing profits for your average fifth rate British executive is to hammer wages. It means they don’t actually have to do what they are paid their huge salaries for, which is to innovate and create growth.
gnasty gnome:
dieseldave:
[From my days of teaching CPC, ‘Road Friendly suspension’ (RF) was taken to mean ‘air bags,’ as opposed to steel springs.:
That would be my thought as well Dave. I won’t dispute your info on this,I am happy to be corrected on this one but I suspect my bosses may not be!
I can assure you though that the plates definitely say 32000 GVW, apart from the one exception I mentioned; the only vehicle which is on airbags is the artic.
Puzzling.
I may have the wrong end of the stick,but i think foden developed a n RF suspension system using rubber between the metal leafs and the axles. Could this be in use on the Volvos. It was more robust than air bag in poor terrain conditions ideal for tippers.
eddie snax:
I may have the wrong end of the stick,but i think foden developed a n RF suspension system using rubber between the metal leafs and the axles. Could this be in use on the Volvos. It was more robust than air bag in poor terrain conditions ideal for tippers.
Hi eddie snax, That seems to ring a bell mate.
I’ll have to look a bit further into this one…
Thanks for the reminder, cos I’d forgotten about this one. 
Ragnarok:
I think any driver shortage, if there ever was such a thing, came to an abrupt end when the countries of Eastern Europe joined the EU and were given instant access to the UK job market.
I can’t stand the ■■■■ taking East Europeans, I won’t speak to any of them I come across because I don’t want to encourage them to be here.
They cost me a lot of money a couple of years ago, I was doing overtime, £100+ per week. Then these East Europeans (polite way of putting it…) invaded, offered to do the job for normal rate after 8 hours, not time and a half or double time, so all the jobs with overtime were given to these tossers. The blokes who had been there years suddenly got all the jobs without overtime.
Like someone said on this thread, close the borders and look after our own first.
Ronaldo:
Ragnarok:
I think any driver shortage, if there ever was such a thing, came to an abrupt end when the countries of Eastern Europe joined the EU and were given instant access to the UK job market.I can’t stand the ■■■■ taking East Europeans, I won’t speak to any of them I come across because I don’t want to encourage them to be here.
But if you are that clever and can speak to the East Europeans, I take it you are fluent in the more common languages such as Polish, Czech and Hungarian. You could use your skills as an interpreter 
Or do you mean the Poles, Czechs or Hungarians pretend not to speak English to you
Grundril:
I would like to see a lot of these so called professional drivers who browse this site take a 16T wagon with a 16-18T load across the worst terrain imaginable and get themselves out of the mire when they are bogged in, so do not go on about the penpushers and “others” etc etc !!!
They have had agencies for many years, there was a big one run by the government, it was called the labour exchange
Wheel Nut Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 8:50 am Post subject:
Grundril wrote:
I would like to see a lot of these so called professional drivers who browse this site take a 16T wagon with a 16-18T load across the worst terrain imaginable and get themselves out of the mire when they are bogged in, so do not go on about the penpushers and “others” etc etc !!!
A 16 ton army wagon is a totally different animal to a 44 tonne artic, the first thing that will stop you is the ground clearance and wind spoiler kits, nothing to do with perceived ability to drive.
Fair point, but it would still be good to see
Ronaldo:
Ragnarok:
I think any driver shortage, if there ever was such a thing, came to an abrupt end when the countries of Eastern Europe joined the EU and were given instant access to the UK job market.I can’t stand the ■■■■ taking East Europeans, I won’t speak to any of them I come across because I don’t want to encourage them to be here.
They cost me a lot of money a couple of years ago, I was doing overtime, £100+ per week. Then these East Europeans (polite way of putting it…) invaded, offered to do the job for normal rate after 8 hours, not time and a half or double time, so all the jobs with overtime were given to these tossers. The blokes who had been there years suddenly got all the jobs without overtime.Like someone said on this thread, close the borders and look after our own first.
So you reckon they are taking our jobs?!!
Denis F:
gnasty gnome:
With respect Dave I think it’s more to do with the date of registration than the springs. All of our 8-leggers (Volvo FM except for one ERF) are plated to 32 tonnes GVW except one old 1991 FL10 which is plated at 30.5 tonnes. All of them are on leaf springs.chrishodgetrucks.co.uk/pixlaw/wd04.jpg
DD is right
I mebbe should have read the link, but I guess it’ll prove they’re both right. In that 32 tonners have to have road friendly suspension, but this is done by using parabolic spring suspension rather than air. It’s a falacy I believe, that RFL means air suspension
Wheel Nut:
But if you are that clever and can speak to the East Europeans, I take it you are fluent in the more common languages such as Polish, Czech and Hungarian. You could use your skills as an interpreter
That has been my part time job for years alongside driving, I am a language translator and interpreter, I do freelance work. I’m fluent all round in Spanish, Catalan and French. I could get by linguistically in Italian and Portuguese, but I’m fluent ‘on paper’. The reason I am driving is more money and more work available.
When you buy a new electrical appliance the instruction book is in several different languages. Who do you think translates them into all those? No, I don’t do every instruction book possible before some smart arse comments. I also do magazines and legal documents.
dieseldave:
The military do things their own way, which is fine, but when those guys leave the military they have to get used to a different way of doing things.
I’ll second that.
Tachos.
WTD.
Actually sticking to the plated weight.
Actually lashing the load down properly.
Realising that not everything can be handballed.
Realising that if you turn up for work still smashed from the night before, the boss wont just let you sleep it off on the cam-nets.
Realising that a CF front bumper wont just ‘bend back into shape’ like a tunnys will.
etc, etc…
