Hello,
My name is William and I’m a truck driver from the states. I’ve been driving for just over 6 years. I’m learning about trucking all over the world to satisfy my own curiosity. Would love to know what some of the differences are, like your regulations and equipment.
Have a safe trip wherever you are.
Wpmclam:
Hello,
My name is William and I’m a truck driver from the states. I’ve been driving for just over 6 years. I’m learning about trucking all over the world to satisfy my own curiosity. Would love to know what some of the differences are, like your regulations and equipment.Have a safe trip wherever you are.
our regulations are a minefield of misinterpretation. one EU country may fine you 6000 euros for an offence that they claim is serious, but another country may just ignore the same thing. we use analogue, and digital tachographs. we can drive for 9 hours per day, we can extend this twice per week by 2 hours. we must take a brake of no less than 45 minutes after 4.5 hours of driving, this break can be split into a 15 minute break followed by a 30 minute break. we must have a rest of 11 hours in each 24 hour period, but this can be reduced to 9 hours, 3 times per week. we can work for 6 days per week, then we must take a rest of 45 hours, but this can be reduced to 24 hours, as long as the shortfall is made up by the end of the third week, this must be added to a minimum of a 9 hour rest period.
to get round this some use magnets to stop the tachograph from working. but if they get caught, some may go to prison.
but the prisons here are quite nice.
then there is the working time directive, and road transport directive. but no one bothers about it really.
Sounds like your operating hours make it pretty easy for a driver to get in violation. Also we can regularly drive 11 hours a day within a 14 hour period of the same day but then must take a consecutive 10 hour break to reset our daily hours. Do you have a weekly hour limit or did I miss that? Your tachograph seems to be a version of our logbooks to keep track of driving hours correct?
you’re correct, the tachograph is the modern logbook (spy in the cab).
maximum driving time is 56 hours per week, but the fortnightly limit is 90 hours (the spanish police love that one).
so the reality is prety much 45 hours per week.
if i could come over there to drive, i’d be a happy man. i believe you usually get paid per mile?
limeyphil:
we can drive for 9 hours per day, we can extend this twice per week by 2 hours.
Hmm
GBPub:
limeyphil:
we can drive for 9 hours per day, we can extend this twice per week by 2 hours.Hmm
oops. we can extend by one hour, twice per week. 
i knew what i meant. 
Most drivers that do long haul trucking are paid per mile, while owner operators get a percentage of the load revenue. Generally it’s the local trucking run by unions that get hourly pay. Our weekly limit is 70 hours in 8 days with a consecutive break of 34 hours resetting that. I’m fascinated by the trucks you operate since we haven’t run COE trucks since the mid 90’s. I especially like the Scania trucks.
We use COE trucks because we have limits on how long our vehicles can be.
Over here, they are known as “forward control”.
An articulated truck can be 16.5 metres, 54 feet, a rigid 12 metres, 39 feet and a roadtrain, ie rigid with one trailer, 18.5 metres, 61 feet.
Very few operators will swap cargo space for a long bonnet and the authorities can make a great deal of money in fines out of over-length trucks.
Also, our roads are not as long as yours. 
In most of Europe, a truck can be no more than 4 metres high, just over 13 feet, except in the UK where unmarked bridges are 4.8 metres, 16 feet.
In the Netherlands, many bridges and some tunnels are only 4 metres high and taller trucks will not fit underneath.
Regards,
Nick
The height of my truck/trailer is 13 ft 6 in so probably not much different than yours. As for the length our standard trailer is 53 ft with the tractor length varies. I’ve got a mid size hood on my truck which is an International Prostar. I would love to drive your style truck over here, it would make tight maneuvers much easier. We are starting to use some of the technology Europe uses in our own trucks. Specifically the new engines.
opps double post
what sort of suzzie coupling do they use in the States? like the UK or the palm type the rest of europe use our weight limit in the UK on a 3 axle unit and 3 axle semi is 44,000 kg about 97,000 pounds (US)
engine wise the norm for full weight is about 440 bhp and upwards to 700bhp odd if you got a long pocket or a good boss, and to keep the polar bears alive we now had to use Adblue
We use palm couples for our air lines here. Our weights are 80,000 max gross on the interstate highways with some smaller highways having higher limits. If you have more weight than that you’ll need special permits to travel. Most company trucks like mine are set for 475 bhp but owner operators or heavy haulers may opt for 600 bhp which is a monster over here.
Here’s a link to the transport inspectors handbook for drivers on our hours laws.
It’s a big handbook , but it’s what we have to work with. Also, its only a handbook on the regulations, not the actual EU regulations.
Drivers Hours and Tachograph Rules.
We have the same regulations over the whole of the European Community, but each country enforces it in their own style. But a truck and trailer that meets the EU regulations in one country meets the EU regs in every country in the EU. We also have our own domestic regulations. For example, in the UK we can run at 16 foot high and 44 tonnes, but only in UK. The Dutch can run at up to 50 tonnes on 6 axles (I think), but only in Holland.
The EU regs are 13 foot 1 inch (4.0 metres) high, 2.55metres (8 foot) wide and 40 tonnes.
(1 tonne = 1000kg and 1kg = 2.2lbs imperial, so 40 tonnes = 40,000 kg = 88,000lbs imperial)
Nick has already mentioned lengths. Normal maximum width is 2.55 metres (about 8 foot), and a semi trailer is usually 13.7metres (45 foot) long.
We use the word trailer to mean either a semi trailer or a proper trailer. If it bends, its got a trailer , I don’t know if you still differentiate or if you do the same as us now.
We can go over standard dimensions in certain circumstances.
We can run a 60 foot long trailer, as long as you are transporting an un-breakable long load in one direction of a trip, 65 foot lengths of steel for example. It would usually go on an extendable trailer, but could go on a fixed 60 foot long trailer.
We can also go to 3.5 metres (11 foot) wide, with a police permit and warning markers on a pre-approved route, but no other requirements. I used to work for British Steel, I had a set of permanent wide load permits which covered all the UK where I was likely to go. All we had to do was inform the police what load dimensions had gone where and when at the end of each month.
Any wider or longer needs an ■■■■■■ as well as police permits and any heavier goes on specialist transport, called STGO (Special Types), but I’ve never had anything to do with that, yet.
My time on slightly wide and/or long loads was a few years ago. There has been an up-date of the rules since then, so I could be wrong about the dimensions, but I think they stayed the same. It was more about updating the markers and ■■■■■■ bits of the rules.