Arklow89:
Not just the 80s, still fairly common now here in Ireland. Plenty of lads still doing it now. Not just on European work, often done 18/19 hour days.Sure if you want to make the money you have to do the loads.
I remember the report that The Irish were doubling their budget for traffic enforcement, by employing a second ministry man!
Edit: spelling correction.
Arklow89:
Not just the 80s, still fairly common now here in Ireland. Plenty of lads still doing it now. Not just on European work, often done 18/19 hour days.Sure if you want to make the money you have to do the loads.
If you have to do it you have to do it but I would not be in anyone shoes who gets caught doing it now and that goes for any country
I left my tacho analogue chart in the head, no fiddling, left Porto and got stopped in Spain before the French border, in the dreaded Basque land with huge fines to pay .
I was well over my driving hours, and the young policeman looked about 17 years old, and an older policeman was dealing with another vehicle .
The young lad looked at the tacho, but must have been fresh out of training college, and had no clue it was illegal, i thought if the older guy comes walking over, i have had it, it would be time to cough up and pay .
The young lad then says ok, go, as i pull off , the older guy is finished with the other truck, and walks to the young lad .Lucky escape .
Carryfast:
caledoniandream:
Carryfast:
switchlogic:
As for Bking…I wouldn’t trust him to fix a bicycle punctureThat’s why he’d be the ideal candidate to sharpen his skills by stripping and rebuilding that Volvo motor.On that note he can’t be any worse than the muppet who designed it.
Never heard such a nonsense, Volvo is world most recognised manufacturer of Truck, plant and marine engines, working all around the world in the harshest environments.
You really show here that you don’t have any clue, and just Google your nonsense together
Volvo made engines which didn’t pee oil all over the floor, long before British, German and Dutch manufacturers managed to make an engine which is dry on the outside.
Volvo Penta is a fantastic marine engine, found in boats all over the world, sorry but if you spout bull, first do some investigation in the facts, and don’t just copy headlines.
It was really meant as a laugh.But if you really must make a serious point of it are you really suggesting that you’d prefer to have to fix a leaking timing cover for example on a D13/16/Mack MP 8/10 than a pushrod Scania V8 or even a Detroit 60 series. Or for that matter any type of job which requires a head off and/or valve train strip down.On that note we do have the ‘fact’ of the example of nmm’s recent issues regarding exactly that scenario.Remind us again of what the labour time and bill was although luckily in warranty in that case.
Still living in that weird alternate reality I see. I reckon at home you’ve set the spare room up as a mock up 70s transport office and you spend the day ‘working’ in there pretending you’re running trucks all over Europe on a big map.
nightline:
how there where not a lot of big accidents I will never know
Yeah I’ve always thought that. I’ve even worked for companies that went from running bent to running legal and the accident rate actually went up!
I worked with a driver on middle east work, who is still doing it today, anyway we used to park in istanbul ( oktay parking ) we moved there after the Londra closed, he left Istanbul Friday night, and phoned the boss from Dover Sunday Morning ( he wasnt happy and said if he wants to kill himself, then do it, but not in my truck
AndrewG:
Carryfast:
AndrewG:
I one hit it from Calais to Malaga in the car and its one hell of a slog.Realistically one hitting anywhere in Southern Europe from the Channel Ports is at best difficult varying to no chance in the case of Southern Italy/Sicily for example.Even at German and old school French motorway car type speeds.The idea of one hitting Gibralter etc from Calais,without severe sleep deprivation,at truck type speeds,let alone Euro type truck limits,sounds like mission impossible.
As for those types of run with a car it takes/took a something which can happily run for extended periods at 120 mph + often closer to 150 mph together with a speed regime which turns a blind eye,to do it comfortably.
On that note,like drink driving,I’ve always viewed higher speeds as being the much lesser of two evils if any,than pushing the boundaries of sleep requirements.
This is bikes but gives an idea of the old school fast continental ‘touring’ scene.
Its doable in 23hrs and with microwave cat naps in between ive never fallen asleep. I know the route like the back of my hand and although may go over the speed limit, speeds of 120mph plus are not needed…
Firstly I’d guess that’s referring to ‘over the speed limit’ for a car IE 90 mph + running speeds ?.As for 120 mph + running that made for a similar overall journey time on that run to/from Enna for example but with a comfortable hotel stop and no need for any cat naps usually on the basis of around two 12 hour hits including ferry crossings and stops overall.On that note stopping for a lot of short sleep periods or a long period doesn’t really fit the definition of ‘one hit’ and it’s obvious that trucks aren’t going to be running at anything like 90 mph let alone 120 mph +.
In which case,although I believe that some of them probably did ‘one hit’ Southern Italy or Southern Spain,I can’t believe that it wouldn’t have made anyone a total liability on the road long before they reached anywhere near the destination point.
Oh look Carryfast is rewriting history again ffs…
newmercman:
Oh look Carryfast is rewriting history again ffs…
To be fair more like an accurate view of maths in terms of average speeds v distance and biology.Which,because of the silly excesses of those who thought/think they were immune from all that,is why it’s now all about digi tachos and E logs and gestapo type enforcement tactics.
Carryfast, you don’t half talk a lot of Betty Bullox, your posts are unreadable and make no sense at all, you should be on Pre Mod and not allowed to post until the moderators
Have apapproved your rubbish that you put up on here .
I know I sprout a lot of Bullox but not has bad as your random and boring junk .
Get a life man and grow up n
And yet hundreds of drivers loaded up in Southern Europe and one hit it back to England every week, which, “to be fair” is what was really happening in the real world, average speeds, distance and biology were all involved
You cite your run up from Sicily as an example to prove your theory and you fail to take into account the amount of fuel stops you need to take in a car traveling at speed, while you’re poncing around getting petrol, wandering around the gift shop, having a coffee and a sticky bun, going for a pee and all that stuff, the lorry is plodding on. You may hit 120mph here and there, but you can’t maintain that speed for long, too many slower vehicles in your way and you’ll struggle to average anything close to the speed limit, add in all your stops and your average speed drops even further.
So you’re comparing apples to oranges.
newmercman:
And yet hundreds of drivers loaded up in Southern Europe and one hit it back to England every week, which, “to be fair” is what was really happening in the real world, average speeds, distance and biology were all involvedYou cite your run up from Sicily as an example to prove your theory and you fail to take into account the amount of fuel stops you need to take in a car traveling at speed, while you’re poncing around getting petrol, wandering around the gift shop, having a coffee and a sticky bun, going for a pee and all that stuff, the lorry is plodding on. You may hit 120mph here and there, but you can’t maintain that speed for long, too many slower vehicles in your way and you’ll struggle to average anything close to the speed limit, add in all your stops and your average speed drops even further.
So you’re comparing apples to oranges.
Firstly the continental motorway system and traffic certainly allowed/s for ‘sustained’ 120 mph + running speeds.While absolutely 120 mph + running doesn’t mean ‘average’.Just as continental truck type speeds didn’t mean 50 mph average let alone if mountains were involved.While biological break requirements for food etc are obviously no different if you’re driving a truck than a car.The difference being that they can be easily fitted in around the fuel stops which yes are frequent and often at those types of speed around 150-200 miles at best.Bearing in mind that a truck is ( supposed to be 
) stopped for a 45 at around the 250 mile mark.While many of those fuel stops with the car often means just that fill it up pay for the fuel and carry on.
As for apples v oranges I don’t see any reason as to why you’d have got any further in a shift doing long continental one hit runs as a uk trunking pre limiters.With every reason to to think that you wouldn’t have got as far bearing in mind the Euro truck speed regime and tougher terrain.Which just then leaves the question of the definition of a ‘shift’ and therefore sleep.On that note you ain’t even going to reach Milan in a normal driving ‘shift’ let alone Southern Italy.Which as I said if we’re talking about one hitting Southern Italy we’re talking along the lines of London-Glasgow-London just to reach Milan when we couldn’t even do that pre limiters,in easy UK terrain,without a changeover around Charnock or Haydock and certainly no further than Killington Lake.In which case as I said I haven’t got the remotest idea how anyone could have possibly driven a truck one hit to southern Italy.Without severe sleep deprivation in the form of doing the equivalent of around three or four decent UK trunking shifts in one without sleep to the point of being a total liability on the road.
Carryfast:
newmercman:
And yet hundreds of drivers loaded up in Southern Europe and one hit it back to England every week, which, “to be fair” is what was really happening in the real world, average speeds, distance and biology were all involvedYou cite your run up from Sicily as an example to prove your theory and you fail to take into account the amount of fuel stops you need to take in a car traveling at speed, while you’re poncing around getting petrol, wandering around the gift shop, having a coffee and a sticky bun, going for a pee and all that stuff, the lorry is plodding on. You may hit 120mph here and there, but you can’t maintain that speed for long, too many slower vehicles in your way and you’ll struggle to average anything close to the speed limit, add in all your stops and your average speed drops even further.
So you’re comparing apples to oranges.
Firstly the continental motorway system and traffic certainly allowed/s for ‘sustained’ 120 mph + running speeds.While absolutely 120 mph + running doesn’t mean ‘average’.Just as continental truck type speeds didn’t mean 50 mph average let alone if mountains were involved.While biological break requirements for food etc are obviously no different if you’re driving a truck than a car.The difference being that they can be easily fitted in around the fuel stops which yes are frequent and often at those types of speed around 150-200 miles at best.
As for apples v oranges I don’t see any reason as to why you’d have got any further in a shift doing long continental one hit runs as a uk trunking pre limiters.With every reason to to think that you wouldn’t have got as far bearing in mind the Euro truck speed regime and tougher terrain.Which just then leaves the question of the definition of a ‘shift’ and therefore sleep.On that note you ain’t even going to reach Milan in a normal driving ‘shift’ let alone Southern Italy.Which as I said if we’re talking about one hitting Southern Italy we’re talking along the lines of London-Glasgow-London just to reach Milan when we couldn’t even do that pre limiters,in easy UK terrain,without a changeover around Charnock or Haydock and certainly no further than Killington Lake.In which case as I said I haven’t got the remotest idea how anyone could have possibly driven a truck one hit to southern Italy.Without severe sleep deprivation in the form of doing the equivalent of around three or four decent UK trunking shifts in one without sleep to the point of being a total liability on the road.
Your are right about severe sleep deprivation but you are wrong about it not being done, it was done by most drivers maybe not every trip bus most trips and you would stop for a cat nap 10 to 20 minutes sometimes, the cat nap was no good for you but it was still called a one hit
Carryfast:
In which case as I said I haven’t got the remotest idea
Well, you got that bit right
nightline:
Your are right about severe sleep deprivation but you are wrong about it not being done, it was done by most drivers maybe not every trip bus most trips and you would stop for a cat nap 10 to 20 minutes sometimes, the cat nap was no good for you but it was still called a one hit
This, everyone dealt with it in different ways but my tactic when I really couldn’t drive no more was 20 minutes slumped over the steering wheel, never get into bed unless it was for a full sleep as I wouldn’t be able to get out after 20 minutes
After about 20 mins your arms went dead and you woke up, perfect. Listen cf whether you believe it or not it happened most weeks as already said and if you kept it up your body sort of gets used to it. I reckoned to sleep every other night and got by no problem
switchlogic:
nightline:
Your are right about severe sleep deprivation but you are wrong about it not being done, it was done by most drivers maybe not every trip bus most trips and you would stop for a cat nap 10 to 20 minutes sometimes, the cat nap was no good for you but it was still called a one hitThis, everyone dealt with it in different ways but my tactic when I really couldn’t drive no more was 20 minutes slumped over the steering wheel, never get into bed unless it was for a full sleep as I wouldn’t be able to get out after 20 minutes
Did you ever pull into layby behind another wagon, leave the engine ticking over, start the power nap over the wheel, then wake with a start seeing the back of the other wagon, and shove the brake pedal through the floor. By heck that wakes you up quick 
nightline:
Your are right about severe sleep deprivation but you are wrong about it not being done, it was done by most drivers maybe not every trip bus most trips and you would stop for a cat nap 10 to 20 minutes sometimes, the cat nap was no good for you but it was still called a one hit
It’s mainly the unarguable sleep/rest deprivation of what seems to be being described which I’m referring to.IE I don’t doubt that it was probably being done.But the fact remains that at best what seems to be being described is running to Southern Italy for example without a normally accepted ‘daily rest period’ regime and possibly combined with a dodgy break regime,all described in the liberal,if not literal,sense as ‘one hit’ when even Milan would be more than enough in that regard.Which as I’ve said translates as what could only have been drivers who were a liability on the road in terms of alertness levels.
I think that’s why it was called running bent
The large supermarkets all wanted their fruit as fresh as possible and “late” deliveries were penalised financially so one hit it was. The grape run was fun, all day in a field while they were picked and loaded get t forms about 6 pm Thursday evening with the words deliver 7am Saturday ringing in your ears. I’m not saying it was easy any many a time I got to Calais and couldn’t remember coming through Paris but that was the norm back then
