Keep clear of Reading you polluting lorry drivers

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
41

cieranc:
Hi Maltese Steve,
When travelling from A to B, I will usually use the most direct route. This saves fuel.
If you were walking from A to B, which route would you take and why?

If a weight restriction was put in place, loads would have to be split onto smaller vehicles, meaning more vehicles into the town.
No business in the town will absorb the extra cost of the vehicles, so they will put prices up.
If the delivery is to an end user, the cost of the goods will be marked up accordingly to absorb the extra delivery costs.

It appears the issue here is the width of the road. How wide is a standard artic, how wide is a rigid (18/26ton) and how wide is a 7.5 tonner?

Out of curiosity, what sort of vehicle hit the wall you refer to?

Thanks, cieranc.

Well, when walking A to B I would take the most direct route available, unless I considered it unsafe to do so, or perhaps if there were signs advising me that an alternative route would be most suitable for a pedestrian. In short, common sense, rather than “Well, I can go the most direct way and I’m damned well going to, move aside, coming through”.

Don’t know about the widths of the various vehicles you mention, I presume that they’re as near as dammit the same otherwise you probably wouldn’t mention it. Again, the problem with artics is that when they go wrong on that road, the consequences are far more serious than when other vehicles go bad. Their sheer size tends to inflict far greater damage and cause far worse blockages.

If the weight restriction was put in place, then it’s only one road in to Reading. There are many others, all of which are far better routes for heavy goods vehicles, and for the most part just as fast. I don’t see how it follows that HGVs wouldn’t be able to get there at all and deliveries would be split. They’d just go a different way. I’m in no way advocating a ban on HGVs in Reading, I thought I’d made that perfectly clear.

And you know what? I thought it was an artic which hit that wall but I’ll go away and check if I can. I may have heard it on a radio bulletin and there may not be written evidence available regarding the incident. The incident on Reading Bridge, however, was definately an artic and the ensuing chaos caused delays so severe that, trying to get from south Reading to Caversham, I used the M4, J11-J12, A340 to Pangbourne and then Whitchurch Toll Bridge to avoid town. Not many people did though, and town was solid by all accounts. I saw the jams starting at J11 getting off the M4, right up the A33. This kind of thing happens regularly in Reading due to HGV incidents around the Caversham/A4074 route.

42

Well said paul…but i digress, All hgvs should be banned from all town centres, unless having business there, you may well say thats obvious but it isnt, way back in the 50s and 60s we had no choice, millions if not billions have been spent on by-passes to alleviate the congestion in town centres, and to make life more liveable for its residents, so if drivers just want a different view, or a change of scenery, then tough !! dont do it at someone elses expense.
On my way to work, i often see tippers travelling through the small villages where i live, long before the 0700 timeline, and way off the london lorry route, i dont know why, and at 0630 in the morning, when theres little traffic, so this happens all over the country, so i say if you dont need to be there, dont be there, or legislation will not let you be there,
If towns want to ban trucks from delivering to them, thats not a problem, it can be arranged, but you have to have a good customer relationship, or lose the contract, failing that , charge an excess ( similar to transport co`s who deliver to M/Way services ), but that needs to be scrutinised, or once again, lose that work too by refusing…what is the answer…put it on the railways…run a railwayline through the middle of every town, then when the wagons arrive shout out from the roof…"here it is, come and get it " :laughing:

43

Maltese Steve:
Thanks, Plambert.
Is there any other drawback to using the motorways and getting to Caversham from the south side and avoiding the 4074 other than a time saving,

This phrase sums it up, go use somebody elses backyard is the rough translation.

Why the heck would anyone want to use that road willingly? unless they had drops in the locality, I may find an answer…

From Oxford to Reading

4074 is 26 miles and takes 1 hour 4 minutes.
A34 M4 is 46 miles and 54 minutes.

That’s a strange 10 minute saving.
BUT it’s at least 6 quid in diesel in a 12 tonner. lets assume this diversion is similar across the country, x5 days = £30, x 52weeks = £1560, x5 deliveries a day to tesco = £7800, x every haulier & own account that supplies tesco, x all the other supermarkets & retailers x every town = some serious dosh. But everyone (including myself) wants their Warburtons Toasty to still cost £1.30 and they actually want it on the shelf even if the only way to get it there by pleasing everyone is by fairies.

44

Maltese Steve:
[I live near the A4074, I use it every day in cars, on bikes, on foot. I consider there to be a real and present danger from HGVs using the route from my experiences using the road, and my opinion is valid and deserves due consideration. I’ve been here 20 years, and have only recently (sadly) come round to the view that there are now too many trucks causing too many problems and presenting a real threat of death on the road to other road users. I’d say that’s not exactly a “sod everyone else” viewpoint, but a well considered position based on years of ■■■■■■■■■■ experience and taken with a bit of a heavy heart. I am a car/driving and general transport enthusiast but that doesn’t mean that all vehicles should have free reign over all roads at all times.

I have some sympathy with this view point. As a keen road cyclist and having been both a push bike and motor bike courier in and around London I have had my fair share of ‘exposure’ to dangerous situations. However, I can only speak for myself here, as someone who owns his own trucks - and subsequently pays directly for any damage caused - I would never drive on a road where the risks of potentially injuring someone or damaging vehicles is a possibility outside the normal ‘accidental damage’.

I think where we do not agree is that currently the road in question is difficult in places but is not considered dangerous by most that travel along it, otherwise most would not be ‘bothered’. You have to realise the problem with truck drivers on the whole is that they spend too much time sat on their own thinking of ways they can either drag the job out or get more out of their boss - one and the same things sometimes :smiley: . So if there is an easier way around which involves little effort most will take that option unless told to do otherwise.

I don’t think there is a sensible driver out there that would go out of their way to become a dangerous hazard - although driving around central London you often wonder - so the road is being used for various reasons, and be assured its not to cause problems for others - and ultimately costs for them!

45

Maltese Steve:
…I am a car/driving and general transport enthusiast but that doesn’t mean that all vehicles should have free reign over all roads at all times…

:bulb: :bulb: :bulb: I agree, how about 20% of car drivers can use their cars on Monday, another 20% on Tuesday etc etc, problem solved.

46

I actually prefer using the M4 anyway…the A4074 is a long boring road from Oxford; Although not as mind numbing as the A4130 to Henley on Thames. Both roads are notorious for small cocked businessmen in BMWs showing off their lack of driving skills. I like to upset as many as I can by doing 40 on the wide stretch near Berinsfield :smiling_imp:

47

Maltese Steve…Not sure as to why LGV drivers (or anybody actually) would want to cut through Reading via the 4074 to get out the other side to Winnershe Triangle or Thames Valley Park etc (Reading has enough m/way junctions )but i know from experience (from working at another depot) that it was the way my route was planned. Couple of drops in Woodcote, Castrol HQ, Police Rehab, The Pack Horse and then 15 or so drops in the town center then, depending where my last drop was, (normally BBC & Albert Road Day Center), back out on the 4074. Like i said, 10 minutes can be saved if you are prepared to drive at 56mph (slowing down to 50 through the 13 bends) and letting it over-run to about 60/65mph down Woodcote…in a 44tonner, loaded up to the max. How these knobs keep a license i never know. I’d rather sit on the limiter (53/54mph)going the other way or like Muckaway, sit at 40 as soon as i come of the A34 at Hinksey. I’ve lost several off-side mirrors on that narrowish bend just past The Palm Tree where they have been going to fast to bring it under control safely and have just carried on going. Talking of small cocked businessmen in BMW’s, there is one parked in the hedge on the 4074 on the Oxford side of Nuneham Courtney on that bit of downhill section…all smashed up! One less to worry about, eh?

48

AHT:
You drivers don’t do you selves many favors do you, someones come on here with an open mind asking why a certain type of vehicles are using a certain bit of road, might be an idea to give a good reasoned argument why there shouldnt be a HGV ban for all you know the poster might be the person who can make the desicion

Hiya years ago i did half a dozen drops around reading…i would tell the transport manager this is a rigid delivery
he would say i pay you to drive now get out there and get it done or f…off somewhere else… so why moan at us
hard working lorry drivers who don’t want to come anywhere near your abode but get sent even so.
John

49

Trawling through the Oxford Times archive reveals that the vast majority of accidents on that road are cars alone.
Seems there’s more bus’s than HGV’s crashed along that route, a crane, but mostly cars.
I would imagine the crane would have been routed anyway, if so then the HA/Police sent him that way.

50

According to the ‘Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce’ “Reading is an important commercial centre in the Thames Valley and Southern England. The town hosts the headquarters of several British companies and the UK offices of foreign multinationals, as well as being a major retail centre.”

I’d like to see them do that without trucks to deliver their goods and supplies! Whilst this has been said flippantly before by other members including in this thread surely it is quite obvious that in order to sell things it needs to be transported in.

I can understand that some NIMBYs do not like these ‘juggernauts’ roaming through their urban paradise but they already have the Wessex downs not far away and even closer is the M4!!! Reading also apparently has a net inward commuter flow. This would mean that even more people commute into the city than out of it.

However, I am sure if they tried banning those cars from entering there would be even more problems such as it being a ghost town!!! :confused: :sunglasses: :laughing: :laughing:

51

What about the lorries that pick up so many of Readings’ residents and transport them to Her Majestys’ courts of justice? :laughing:

52

Just a thought on the A4074 black hgv road signs. Could these be there as the road is not part of berkshire’s council strategic road network for hgv’s? This has nothing to do with any intended hgv restriction/ suitabillity of the road for said vehicles, just the councils prefered/funded route for hgv’s through their area.

We have to use the road from both ends as we deliver to a lot of farms along there, and most of the time see very little hgv traffic on it considering it’s a main A road into a large city. Also we have to go into Reading a lot because of the 7.5t limits surrounding it making access into the rural surroundings almost impossible :cry: .

Reading is quite welcome to an lez, but can they then remove all those 7.5t limits the nimbys just outside of Reading have had put in so i can just do my JOB!!! I don’t go into Reading out of choice, i do it because i have a job to do, and my work place happens to be on those roads.

53

Not quite in reading, but they really don’t want you to deliver in Streatley; Come in via A417 and there’s a weight limit just before the village/siamese twin of Goring, with no access exemption so you travel via Cholsey from Wallingford past the old Fair Mile Loony hospital and you hit a weight limit of 17t and again, with no access exemption on display. They don’t seem to complain about the beer wagons going through to service the pubs but they did when we were doing a job in there. :unamused:

54

Muckaway:
Not quite in reading, but they really don’t want you to deliver in Streatley; Come in via A417 and there’s a weight limit just before the village/siamese twin of Goring, with no access exemption so you travel via Cholsey from Wallingford past the old Fair Mile Loony hospital and you hit a weight limit of 17t and again, with no access exemption on display. They don’t seem to complain about the beer wagons going through to service the pubs but they did when we were doing a job in there. :unamused:

We go into streatley manor farm a lot. We come in via the A417 and turn back towards cholsey, go just into the weight limit up there and turn right into the farm. The amount of abuse we’ve had to deal with for doing this is ridiculous, the best so far was the dog walker who took a picture of one of ours leaving the farm, then another picture of him turning back onto the A417, why? wasn’t it obvious what he was doing? Had letters from the council asking for explanations as to what we were doing there, you’d have thought the first picture of him coming out of the farm would have explained it!!! This was then followed up by letters from the parish council, and from the photographer who was a member of the parish council. These were all basically asking why we would possibly have the nerve to go into there precious village? Haven’t bothered to reply to them as i think there own inteligence can work it out :smiley: :smiley: . I’d love to find where these people work and give them the same level of abuse why they’re at work to see how well they deal with it.

55

Since Goring station bridge was rebuilt, you’re meant to go that way, but why should Goring have to have Streatleys’ deliveries running through?