a few of us at our place have been pulled up by the ‘driver developement’ 
bod,for apparently not braking correctly. the big chief saying we’re allowed 10 harsh brakes a month,or we are in for re-training ffs. the dd bod is a really nice bloke,but the chief has him in his pocket. according to him,you are better off driving up to,say,a red light and slamming your brakes on,than gradually slowing down with your foot on the brake pedal for 3 seconds which counts as a harsh brake if ‘slowing down quickly’ . saves pennies on brake linings,apparently 
anyone else get the harsh brakes Gestapo giving them grief?
Love to see he’s face when you call him and say
“ Boss because you meant me to follow you prescribed braking methods , I now need a new front end and the car in front is a write off “ [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
Sent from my truck
I rarely receive harsh braking “awards”, I do however receive numerous harsh acceleration ones! God only knows how I qualify for that particular accolade.
the maoster:
I rarely receive harsh braking “awards”, I do however receive numerous harsh acceleration ones! God only knows how I qualify for that particular accolade.
yes,he mentioned harsh acceleration…but we’re not being persecuted for that…yet
Sounds like he is talking quite some tosh tbh.
If anything like microlise a harsh braking event is speed dropping by 8km or more over a 3 second period or something along the lines of that from memory.
So you have to be braking quite hard reducing your speed quickly over 3 seconds to trigger a harsh braking event.
So his logic of driving up to hazards and braking hard a late would gain you harsh braking events quite easily.
If you drive smoothly and use exhaust brakes/retarders in advance of junctions and lights etc it’s quite possible to avoid harsh braking events, not to mention putting less wear on the brakes and drive train. And you barely need to use the brakes to slow the vehicle down and you drive more relaxed and less stressful.
Not to mention loads going over under harsh braking.
Really a harsh braking event should only become necessary during an emergency stop or avoidance of something all of a sudden.
What would, pointy shoes do if a large number of drivers on a daily basis, for say a week kept getting harsh braking?? Also what do they do about the agency numbty scores…
Thank foook I don’t work for a blue chip,pointy sky thinking management Arsenal licking company.
Thank christ I dont work for these muppet large “logistics” turds.
carryfast-yeti:
a few of us at our place have been pulled up by the ‘driver developement’
We have microlise at our spot, I don’t think anyone gets any harsh braking events recorded, let alone 10 in a month. You have to be trying really hard for it to record one. You certainly don’t get it using engine braking and then foot brake for last little bit.
Sure you’ve got what they’re saying about harsh braking the right way around?
biggriffin:
What would, pointy shoes do if a large number of drivers on a daily basis, for say a week kept getting harsh braking?? Also what do they do about the agency numbty scores…
In an ideal world they’d sack the lot of them because clearly they can’t drive given that if you’re approaching a set of lights at a decent lick, they change and you bring the truck to a halt that still doesn’t record a harsh braking event.
As for the agency numpty scores…speak for yourself. I’m currently 5th or so at our site with an A 1.00 score. Most, if not all the agency are Bs at the most. The worst drivers on the weekly scoresheet that’s put up are company men.
msgyorkie:
Thank christ I dont work for these muppet large “logistics” turds.
Yeah it’s terrible working at a place with well maintained vehicles with employers who care about the welfare of the drivers and a nice easy job with nice tarmacced and concreted yards getting paid almost £16 an hour plus shift bonus plus a £20 bonus just for not having tacho infringements and driving the lorry properly. You keep where you are fella and be proud. After all someone has to work at those cowboy outfits running motors that’d look bad in a scrapyard getting paid less than Tesco shelf stackers so it might as well be you who gets to be that hero taking one for the rest of us.
carryfast-yeti:
the maoster:
I rarely receive harsh braking “awards”, I do however receive numerous harsh acceleration ones! God only knows how I qualify for that particular accolade.yes,he mentioned harsh acceleration…but we’re not being persecuted for that…yet
No chance of that if you drive a Merc 12 speed auto 
Hi… as i understand it in microlise the paramiters of what is deemed to be an " offence " can be changed in the software ie on a scale from 1 to 10 sensitive to course what you need to find out is where the threshold is
so if the threshold is so low that normal braking creates an event it is impossable to work inside the settings were a more course setting would give a more realistic feedback of day to day driving
Bonus points if he’s saying brakes to slow gears to go combined with a competition among the drivers as to who can be the last of the late brakers.
That sounds like some weird idea of harsh braking as opposed to brake as early as possible combined with maximum engine braking as possible.Which leaves the question of one driver finding numerous suicidal cyclists and pedestrians among others during a day v another who found none. 
Conor:
msgyorkie:
Thank christ I dont work for these muppet large “logistics” turds.Yeah it’s terrible working at a place with well maintained vehicles with employers who care about the welfare of the drivers and a nice easy job with nice tarmacced and concreted yards getting paid almost £16 an hour plus shift bonus plus a £20 bonus just for not having tacho infringements and driving the lorry properly. You keep where you are fella and be proud. After all someone has to work at those cowboy outfits running motors that’d look bad in a scrapyard getting paid less than Tesco shelf stackers so it might as well be you who gets to be that hero taking one for the rest of us.
Lol I have mentioned this to you before.
I too work for a good company with all the above you just mentioned, the pay, the kit etc etc. The difference is we are trusted to just get on with job and we dont need to be micro-managed like you clearly do.
You have to realise that just because we work for a small outfit it doesnt mean its a bad outfit, in many ways they can be far superior.
Did I miss something? Your objective in an HGV is not to brake unless you have to. I was trained to “keep it rolling” use your exhaust/engine brake and gears, but keep off the brake if possible. I look around and wonder what happened. Everyday, all day, when I knock off the revs at the half mile marker for a roundabout and engage the engine brake just before the 300 yard marker some muppet steams past me, brake lights flashing and when we get to the junction he’s scrambling for gears, or worse, is stationary and off I go leaving him in the mirror. Are there any instructors out there who can enlighten me as to this new training ideal?!?!
It’s not just wagon drivers either. On a four mile cross country stretch to work on Wednesday the car in front braked 27 times and crossed the white line nine times (sadly I counted) . Me? I had to brake twice for the two red lights. The world has gone mad.
simcor:
Sounds like he is talking quite some tosh tbh.
They are management, isn’t that a given?
Best thing to do is everyone keeps driving sensibly then they’ll either have to take everyone off work for a day for “driver education” or think again. The cost of non productive drivers should make them reconsider.
It’d be interesting however for the driver trainer to see you driving sensibly, then look at the scores. If he agrees its better to slam the brakes on, then its likely time to look for a new job as they be idiots.
Truckerian99:
Did I Are there any instructors out there who can enlighten me as to this new training ideal?!?!
Its not how you are taught, or at least not how I was 5 or so years ago, but is just a mentally of certain rush-rush people and perhaps certain companies*.
You’ll never teach the people who are rush, brake hard, rush to do anything else until they turn the trailer over, then its off to the agency again. Likely many have been driving like that for years.
Thinking about what Carryfast-yeti was saying, I’d love to know the bosses opinion on slamming the brakes on in the current weather. Snow / ice, coming up to a junction and slamming on at the last minute…that’ll be interesting.
Only real problems with exhaust brakes are the lack of it putting the brake lights on and not being ideal in snowy weather. Personally I use a combo of exhaust brake to kill most of the speed, then brakes gently so the muppet behind me who isn’t paying attention, doesn’t run into me.
- Currently looking at DX as the worst culprits after Mark Thompson stopped pulling them. Are these all Tuffnells rejects!?
Maybe?
Maybe the trainer is correct that the software gives better marks for short sharp braking, than for a gradual slow down?
IF so it is rubbish software to blame.
Marking a driver for recorded braking performance, rather than for actual MPG is a foolish thing, but the software is available to do this, and doesn`t require much effort to use.
MPG corrected for weights, routes, and vehicles takes more effort unless comparing regular trunks.
trevHCS:
Truckerian99:
Did I Are there any instructors out there who can enlighten me as to this new training ideal?!?!Its not how you are taught, or at least not how I was 5 or so years ago, but is just a mentally of certain rush-rush people and perhaps certain companies*.
You’ll never teach the people who are rush, brake hard, rush to do anything else until they turn the trailer over, then its off to the agency again. Likely many have been driving like that for years.
Thinking about what Carryfast-yeti was saying, I’d love to know the bosses opinion on slamming the brakes on in the current weather. Snow / ice, coming up to a junction and slamming on at the last minute…that’ll be interesting.
Only real problems with exhaust brakes are the lack of it putting the brake lights on and not being ideal in snowy weather. Personally I use a combo of exhaust brake to kill most of the speed, then brakes gently so the muppet behind me who isn’t paying attention, doesn’t run into me.
- Currently looking at DX as the worst culprits after Mark Thompson stopped pulling them. Are these all Tuffnells rejects!?
Our Volvos do put the brake lights on when slowing down on the exhaust brake when speed drops a certain amount and I’ve known other trucks do the same. Older trucks maybe not but most new trucks should illuminate the brakes lights when using the exhaust brake to slow down.
Personally i prefer motors that don’t illuminate the brake lights for exhaust brake alone, i want the brake lights to mean something important not to have been illuminated for several miles continually whilst the exhauster holds the vehicle to a constant speed whilst dropping down to jct 23 M1 northbound.
Have no idea if our lot look for harsh brakes or what they do about it, i’m annoyed enough with myself if i get caught out.
When I first encountered harsh braking it was via the Microlise route for a logistics firm, even though I wasnt able to logon to microlise it still scored me and got me an appointment with the line manager to discuss why. Which was slightly biased as I was unaware at the time that anything was amiss. Now after several months of experiencing the system Ive improved. Ironically the improvement involved me pushing the seat further back a couple of clicks, so that Im no longer stamping in the brake peddle, now I have the heel of my foot on the ground and squeeze the peddle more gently, braking earlier and for longer.I Its only unexpected events and crappy rush hour traffic that I harsh brake