5 key incidents that brought down scotlands infrastructure where all HGV related. At the enquiry John Swinney urges hauliers not to make journeys to save the driver hours for later on in the week. Employees should not be fearful of their jobs if they do not want to travel. In future the police are to stack lorries in a single lane.
Ministers also announced a six-point action plan for coping with further problems, to:
Store extra salt and grit at key locations on the national trunk road network for quicker access.
Use traffic management resources to enable diversions where necessary.
Adapt vehicles, such as landscaping vehicles, for clearing snow.
Remove trunk road and motorway central barriers, allowing easy access to blocked or broken down vehicles if necessary.
Work with the police on holding, or “stacking” lorries on the roads, if conditions deteriorate, to keep traffic moving.
Provide blankets and other supplies to central Scotland’s Trunk Road Incident Support Service.
Yes I heard him on the radio, let the ases bray thats what I say the things they come out with ,what do these people think we a are doing when we are out on the road. I would love to be a news man inerviewing one of these dopes when he came out with gems like him on the radio I would like say clear off you fool .
Perhaps it is time we took the situation seriously and stopped driving lorries round Scotland, for the fun of it.
When will these politicians wake up to the fact that lorries are an essential part of everyone’s existence.
Very few of us enjoy driving in snow and ice but we have a job to do to supply each and every community with the essentials to stay alive, food, fuel etc. The best the government can suggest is wait until the snow has gone, then they can blame us because there are food and fuel shortages.
Lets face it they need to do something.I just happened to be on the road up in Scotland when the snow was at its worst and got to say the standard of driving is generally appalling as per normal.
You would think the bad weather conditions would deter tailgating morons but not so.I lost count of the number of cars and trucks driving far to close to each other.
One main problem is everone perceives the conditions differently and so when one driver drives at the speed he is comfortable at(which he is entitled to do)another wants to go faster and tries to bully him by sitting right up his chuff.
These are the morons that cause serious accidents when it all goes wrong and whether they drive a car or a lorry they should be dealt with appropriately.
I am just glad I am not on the road that much cos I would hate to be stuck in the same lane as some of the morons during bad weather!
Removing central res barriers sounds fun! Have they got concrete ones up there yet? And when will they be removing them? Cos that will help road safety no end!
Agreed they need to do something, adaption of vehicles for extra snow clearing resources sounds realistic.
Wer,nt just in scotland where they blamed the truckers. I was stuck in operation stack on the M20. And the head of Kent highways agency said " we clear the lane then the lorries over take recklessly putting al the slush and snow back." I was about to go on BBC Kent to tell him how incompetent he was when i got on the chunnel. Sitting in that queue for over 7 hrs i saw to gritters.
The idea with the ploughs on normal wagons it what they do in italy. You see them stuck on the front of cement mixers and tippers mainly. Bloody good idea gets the job done and helps hauliers earn a bit when there aint nothing else on.
alamcculloch:
What about the government paying lorryists for having a cow-catcher or snowplough on the front of their wagons.
Why should lorryists be paid for having a snowplough on the front of their wagons? They are going to be on the road, utilise them
i heard that all stobart trucks were being retro fitted to have snow ploughs on them because you pass one every 4 mins (or what ever the claim was) the roads will always stay open.
My dad was sent on runs which both he and the planners knew he couldn’t make but had to try to get paid by the client. I wonder how many others made similar pointless journeys.
Next time it snows, we all park up, safely and let there be shortages from greedy panic buying folk.
Let the army sort out the shortages fall out!
This way WE won’t cause any more problems on the road.
The funny thing was, a week last Sunday before I headed up to Scotland, I looked at the weather and told the wife, ‘I won’t be back till Wednesday, it looks like I am going to get stuck in Scotland tomorow’. If I could see it why couldn’t the people controlling the snow ploughs and gritters?
All trucks should have winter tyres and carry chains, with all drivers instructed how to fit chains.
Seems pointless going out into what we know are going to be adverse conditions and the fact that local authorities cannot deal with the conditions either.
We need reality, not bull, not investigations by some ■■■■ sat behind a desk…Realistic and practical action to an age old problem…No rockets were damaged in this proposition
alamcculloch:
What about the government paying lorryists for having a cow-catcher or snowplough on the front of their wagons.
Why should lorryists be paid for having a snowplough on the front of their wagons? They are going to be on the road, utilise them
i heard that all stobart trucks were being retro fitted to have snow ploughs on them because you pass one every 4 mins (or what ever the claim was) the roads will always stay open.
Well the laybys will all be clear Norwich Southern bypass around lunchtime today there were four green and red wagons in 2 laybys, looked parked up for their 9/11’s (I passed twice in just over an hour). This is becoming a common occurence around here.
Norwich Southern bypass around lunchtime today there were four green and red wagons in 2 laybys, looked parked up for their 9/11’s (I passed twice in just over an hour). This is becoming a common occurence around here.