its trouble:
they wont share the stock piles of salt so have to driver longer distances giving the snow time to settle then freeze by the time they’ve turned and head back to there depot to refill
So would your boss be keen to share his diesel with a contractor who says we roughly used ■■■ amount of gallons? Same principle, Highways Dept has to buy their own salt to fulfill their contract to Central Government, Local Councils have to buy and stockpile their salt for their areas, Maybe writing to the council in your area and suggesting that they have a stockpile set aside on each of their designated gritting routes would be a good idea, but dont forget to include that the driver would have to load his gritter by hand otherwise it wouldn’t be cost effective if they had 12 routes and had to have 12 JCB’s to load them once an hour
be ok once driver has passed assesment for working with shovel so long as he is wearing high vis and hard hat take your point no probs there. point was when the local councils done all the gritting i think they had less area to cover. ie if a hill was getting slippy they would be able to run over it a couple off times because they had less of a stretch of road to look after. where as now they seem to cover a bigger area and need to be sparing with the salt. bad thing about forums you think you got a good idea then you get brought right back to earth again
paid about as much intrest into this debate today than the one a few weeks back with the lady from dog radio complaining about the john lewis advert…i despair at this country some times, still banged a chrismas cd on and had a listen to that while i was stuck in traffic on the M40 whilst a car driver had stopped in the slow lane to have a wee…i kid you not.
sammy dog:
just as a matter of course how do you guys manage in canada
maybe the answer is to make it law that studded tyres have to be fitted to cars for winter months and for trucks to carry snow chains.
We do have good tyres, and the same ones stay on all year. Even our all season car tyres are good. My Buick is FWD and is great fun if you want it to be, but it doesn’t spin if you are careful and that is a 3.8 litre V6… The Explorer has snow tyres and you can still make it dance easily enough…
Two things spring to mind… Firstly, traffic is generally lighter and people are more used to driving in it or getting out of the way… Secondly, we get conditioned to it so our confidence levels are higher. Most capers are caused by panic reactions.
The ex miltary trucks would make very good snow ploughs/gritters and at a much lower price into the bargain, it makes a lot of sense, unfortunately if that was to happen the local councillors would not be able to have a dozen meetings to decide when to hold another dozen meetings to decide on the spec of the trucks, then have another dozen meetings to choose which manufacturers to approach to put in tenders that run to 200 pages of environmental BS before they even mention that they require a lorry
The minister for transport is doing a good job, says the big man as ministers only talk a load of old bollox for a living, that’s hardly praise is it
As doggy boy says, snow doesn’t make a lot of difference here, people are used to it and they act differently when it appears, when it gets really bad nobody goes out in it, even when they do go out, there are nowhere near as many people on the roads so things run a lot smoother, you still get people that drive like idiots in it, but the way the roads are built means that when they inevitably crash, they end up in a ditch, so the rest of us keep on rolling through.
We’ve had snow for well over a month now, the first week or so is a nightmare, everyone (including me) is driving around like we’re in a Micra (or in the ditch) but then it just becomes the norm. My car is amongst the worst choices you can get for driving in the snow, lots of power, high speed rated tyres and RWD, it gets along ok though, as long as I go easy and stay away from the traction control off button, once I press that button all hell breaks loose In the truck it’s normal service really, you just drive to the conditions, if it’s not too windy you can do 65mph even on sheet ice (in a straight line) but with a side wind it gets a bit naughty and they’ll fold in two at the drop of a hat, then it’s time to slow down so that when it happens you’re A, going slow enough to recover, or B, going slow enough so that you don’t completely destroy the truck when it happens
Sure agree with NMM that the first week or two of snow and ice in the winter is the worst.In fairness to our Euro/Brit friends though,we have our major problems when the temps are hovering around zero to minus 10c,which is just what those guys are getting now.The colder it becomes the better the driving conditions,snow generally blows across the frozen highway and will only stick during a hard storm of if the gritters have been out.Can always be bad at the top of our valley when the hill has been sanded because that;s where the snow will stick,people go flying up the hill(which is clear) then arrive at racetrack bend to find the road packed with snow and ice,accidents galore.
We’ll have another bad spell coming the other end of winter,thaws during the day then after the sun goes down it’ freeze again,fun times.
Hope neither NMM.BTD,or any other expats are down in N.Dakota tonight,they’re getting a good storm which is working it’s way up,weather channel says it’ll stop at the Trans-Canada.
Looks like it’s crossed the border, just had a peep out of the window and it’s coming down pretty good, I’m about 20kms south of the TransCan, I don’t even get to moan about it tomorrow either, if I do the Canadians will all laugh at me
The Problem isn’t so much snow or ice or bad weather, but that the transport infrustructure (Road, Rail and Air) is creaking at the seams. It only takes a minor problem for the whole lot to grind to a halt.
I don’t think there can be a priority case for haulage, for a start as truck driver we need to drive our cars to work, the people who work at the loading and delivery points need to get to work and we all need to get food and many others could make a very good case for needing to go to work.
Sadly what we need is what we seems to have a lack of in this Country, That is common sense.
Do you really need to make a cross country journey with your kids in the car to see Granny when the weather is that bad?
Most of the times kids seem to be wrapped in cotton wool, but now you put them at great risk. Just because you have a 4x4 it doesn’t mean you aren’t going to get stuck in traffic.
Can you work from home? I’m sure the woman on the JV show could have phoned in instead of driving to the studio in Swindon.
Can you do your shopping in the local town, instead of driving miles to the nearest shopping centre?
Finally
One of the news stories after the woman who phoned into 5 live saying all the trucks in France had been stopped and it should happen here, Was about Brussels airport being closed because the truck carrying the de-icer was stopped on a French Motorway. So probably thousands of people plans effected because 1 truck couldn’t makes it’s delivery.
dafdave:
Correct me if im wrong but when the first m/way m6 was opened by ernie marples in 1963■■?was it not mentioned that one reason for building m/ways was to help road freight move easier instead of getting held up in towns and cities[or words to that effect]
regards dave.
I think you are wrong; wasn’t the M1 the first motorway? It was opened by Sharples but is was in 1959…
Just googled it,m1 first m/way opened to interurban standards 1959
m6 first m/way opened to m/way standards 1963
regards dave.
chilistrucker:
‘… who should have more rights to be on the road …’
See through the spoon-fed gumph that is cunningly employed through ‘public interest’ programming to distort alternative possibilities of a better ‘reality’.
Isn’t it little more than the usual governmentally sponsored ‘divide & conquering’ methodology, adeptly yet faithfully employed by nanny BBC to keep us prole’s at each others throats rather than challenge the weaknesses in our inept & otherwise toothless leadership at the bequest of Brussels?
Whilst suitably fuelling his vanity (and disguising his crap knowledge of music), Whiney Vine is witlessly part of a mechanism that Goebells would be proud of
P.S. Society is granted priveledges to use the highways through various obeyances to conditions such as licencing, adherences to the Highway Code, etc. Thus, no-one has a ‘right’.
[zb] being stuck in a cab with you all day.
I don’t always agree with everything Keith writes, but at least you would get a bit of independent thought instead of the normal [zb] provided by rags like The Sun.
dafdave:
Correct me if im wrong but when the first m/way m6 was opened by ernie marples in 1963■■?was it not mentioned that one reason for building m/ways was to help road freight move easier instead of getting held up in towns and cities[or words to that effect]
regards dave.
I think you are wrong; wasn’t the M1 the first motorway? It was opened by Sharples but is was in 1959…
Just googled it,m1 first m/way opened to interurban standards 1959
m6 first m/way opened to m/way standards 1963
regards dave.
The Preston By pass Now part of the M6 was the first section of Motorway to open in the UK.
On a bright and clear morning in December 1958, a crowd of dignitaries, civil servants, engineers, workmen and journalists gathered at a small podium in a muddy field. After the usual speeches, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan set off at the head of a motorcade to inspect Britain’s first motorway.
When Mr. Marples opens to-day the first stretch of M1, … estimated that the economic benefits deriving from the stretch of M1 opened to-day will repay its …
I was with BRS when that small stretch of M6 opened & I suddenly realized what hopeless ,underpowered old lumps of junk we were driving.
sammy dog:
just as a matter of course how do you guys manage in canada
maybe the answer is to make it law that studded tyres have to be fitted to cars for winter months and for trucks to carry snow chains.
We do have good tyres, and the same ones stay on all year. Even our all season car tyres are good. My Buick is FWD and is great fun if you want it to be, but it doesn’t spin if you are careful and that is a 3.8 litre V6… The Explorer has snow tyres and you can still make it dance easily enough…
Two things spring to mind… Firstly, traffic is generally lighter and people are more used to driving in it or getting out of the way… Secondly, we get conditioned to it so our confidence levels are higher. Most capers are caused by panic reactions.
thanks to bobthedog and newmercman for the replies got an old 4x4 never had a problem on snow or ice my truck has been parked up in the workshop for 12 months so havent had to battle through any bad conditions for a while cheers martyn.
flat to the mat:
Hope neither NMM.BTD,or any other expats are down in N.Dakota tonight,they’re getting a good storm which is working it’s way up,weather channel says it’ll stop at the Trans-Canada.
dafdave:
Correct me if im wrong but when the first m/way m6 was opened by ernie marples in 1963■■?was it not mentioned that one reason for building m/ways was to help road freight move easier instead of getting held up in towns and cities[or words to that effect]
regards dave.
I believe the gist of it was to get the “lorries” off the main roads and leave them clear for the car driver.
Then there was the priceless quote by Harold Wilson about,“Why do we need motorways,they are only the quickest way between two traffic jams!”
