Thetaff2:
Picked up a few trls that were bone dry and had to fuel them up and bleed them,all because of the bone idle drivers who couldn’t be arsed to do it.
Think carrier fridges bleed themselves now. Do thermo king still have the screw out pump thingby?
I never let mine go under a quarter. I’m chicken.
Legend_Scania:
I often play russian roulette when the light comes on to see how far I can go before I bottle it and go and fill uplucky never run out
Heheh, me too!
BITD I was at the yard playing fitter for the week when one of the lads called in:
“Wagon’s stopped”.
“Any fuel in it?” says I.
“Yeah, loads, I can see it in the neck!”
“You at a garage?”
“Nope”
HUH? thinks I. “OK I’ll come out. where are you?”
When I got there, some muppet had left the filler cap behind when they’d filled up days before and popped a plastic beer glass in the neck to “seal” it (we worked the shows and there were always plenty of these lying about). A bit of beer in the bottom and it looked for all the world like it was full, BUT…not a drop!
It was a Merc 813 from the 80s with a filler cap the size of a dinner plate - how could you forget it■■?
alliance:
and they sent a fitter out with derv and shtick,meanwhile two hairyarsed bobbies turned up and I had to endure 40 mins of Pish taking.
Hmmm, how did you come to find out both bobbies had hairy arses? 
Driveroneuk:
alliance:
and they sent a fitter out with derv and shtick,meanwhile two hairyarsed bobbies turned up and I had to endure 40 mins of Pish taking.Hmmm, how did you come to find out both bobbies had hairy arses?
always looks ■■■■ different when you read it back after posting…
I’ve nearly done it. At our place the norm is to fill up at the end of the shift. The problems usually occur when the day driver for whatever reason, doesn’t get round to filling up at the end of his shift, and the night driver doesn’t notice (shoulda gone to Specsavers 
). On that occaision, I had to buy diesel and get back the money off the firm, not a problem, but the boss wasn’t impressed, saying that if I’d missed the diesel, what else had I missed? I don’t know if it’s true or not, but someone told me that it’s actually an offence to run out of fuel in a commercial vehicle, but don’t take it as read, only hearsay, unless someone actually knows it for fact?
cav551:
Eight times in roughly two years! all doing rail replacement bus driving. Those who have done it will know that you often take over a vehicle in the afternoon that has been running since about 4am. 20 odd gallon tank and no fuel gauge and no mileometer either, so if something goes wrong and the bus doesn’t get changed over as well as the driver, then there can be fun.Junction of Dalston Lane and Graham rd eastbound blocking the traffic lights, at about 4pm on a Boxing Day. Some will remember this old route through to the M1 from the Blackwall Tunnel via the Balls Pond rd and the Archway.
M25 southbound just after the M11 running out of service, came to a halt in the (then) road works. While waiting for recovery my mate pulled up just behind me… also out of fuel. Two hooks now needed!
Better still midnight at Cambridge Station, last bus of the evening. Only one fitter on duty, while he was attending to me his mobile went… four more out of fuel, can you deal with these please? One in Liverpool Street station, one at Sadler’s Farm roundabout on the A13, one at Hertford and I forget where the last one was, it might have been in the Hammersmith area.
Not being funny ! but ! Running out Eight times in 2 years
Did it not occur to you to check/fill it up at the start of your shift, after the first time you ran out or even the second 
Is it some sort of London Bus Driving Mentality for a lot of you Guys to run out of fuel in the most congested city in GB ! 
I came back off holiday a few years ago & we always used to fill up at the end of the shift, but the Numpty who had my motor the day before was too lazy to top it up. So I got in, did all the usual checks, but didn’t even think about the fuel/my mistake 
(as I said, it was standard practice to fill up at the end of the previous day)
I lasted most of the day, up until I was pulling out of Rugby Wireless Station (I think it was BT) & ran out of fuel with the guage showing a Quarter of a tank (Bloody Scania !) Cost me a couple of hours while I waited for a fitter 
Ran out with nearly half a tank in a TK Bedford back in the day. The top half of the pipe in the tank that goes up and over had fallen off, so the bottom half was high and dry. Two coppers in a landy pulled me off the roundabout that I’d conked out on.
martinviking:
cav551:
Eight times in roughly two years! all doing rail replacement bus driving. Those who have done it will know that you often take over a vehicle in the afternoon that has been running since about 4am. 20 odd gallon tank and no fuel gauge and no mileometer either, so if something goes wrong and the bus doesn’t get changed over as well as the driver, then there can be fun..
Not being funny ! but ! Running out Eight times in 2 years
Did it not occur to you to check/fill it up at the start of your shift, after the first time you ran out or even the second
Is it some sort of London Bus Driving Mentality for a lot of you Guys to run out of fuel in the most congested city in GB !
I’ve highlighted the bit in cav551 post that you missed. 
Bus garage I worked at, the drivers would only drive. Not their job to re-fuel the service buses. There is a team who do that as well as checking the other levels, washing them and cleaning the interior.
Colingl:
martinviking:
cav551:
Eight times in roughly two years! all doing rail replacement bus driving. Those who have done it will know that you often take over a vehicle in the afternoon that has been running since about 4am. 20 odd gallon tank and no fuel gauge and no mileometer either, so if something goes wrong and the bus doesn’t get changed over as well as the driver, then there can be fun..
Not being funny ! but ! Running out Eight times in 2 years
Did it not occur to you to check/fill it up at the start of your shift, after the first time you ran out or even the second
Is it some sort of London Bus Driving Mentality for a lot of you Guys to run out of fuel in the most congested city in GB !
I’ve highlighted the bit in cav551 post that you missed.
Bus garage I worked at, the drivers would only drive. Not their job to re-fuel the service buses. There is a team who do that as well as checking the other levels, washing them and cleaning the interior.
I thought that there must be more to it than the driver simply filling it up !
But that is appallingly Bad Management- to allow Busses to run out of diesel.
Lady ‘V’/er indoors, uses the buses between MK & Dunstable & they are forever breaking down due to one thing or another- Bad Maintenance (or running out of diesel) & Bad Management. They don’t care about the passengers or the hold ups they cause ! Grrrrr !
Once in a wagon, once in a coach, twice on busses, once in my car, a good few times on motorbikes.
The once in a wagon, I dived in a brand new 7.5t daf lf that I’d never drove, was doing a job to the east coast, so not far, filled the tank on way out, did my delivery and heading back the tank was reading under 1/4, so I checked where the nearest key fuels was without going too far off route, it was 40 miles away, 39 miles and the truck stopped, even though the guage was still above the red
Had to walk to garage, buy a Gerry can, walk back, put fuel in truck, and repeat until there was at least 3 gallons in it, then pump the bleed pump and then drive to the garage.
Never got refunded for the Gerry can so I kept it and a gallon of fuel in it
I always drove a Merc Actros C+E for the firm, rarely I might dive in a rigid for a local job, but never drove the 7.5t, didn’t think any truck couldn’t do Manchester to Bridlington and back on a full tank of juice
Dunno about running out of diesel, theyve just installed 70+ brand new 63 plate Volvo **Methane/diesel** hybrid Tractor units at my local DHL depot. They estimate these Volvos have a 600km range, so it should make running down south past Magor & back on a day run interesting. As the diesel tank is only 150ltrs capacity. But AFAIK there are only 5 methane refuelling points in the country, the tank theyve installed in the yard is sposed to be the 1 furthest north. Driver training for re-fuelling is still to be started, so there are only a handful of people able to fill em up with gas. So if you see 1 of em at the side of the road, or in the services with the O/S locker open, theyve probably gone over a pot hole, or a sleeping policeman and tripped the methane kill switch that activates in the event of a bump/accident, which then needs the trip switch in the locker to be reset. Its also possible if you hit the pin too hard while coupling up, to trip it
Only done it once, in a 7.5t on multidrop. I was getting towards the end of my run, and noticed I was low on juice, done my last drop and the fuel light came on. So I rang the yard, to ask how far it’d go with the light on (no fuel cards, tank in yard and they didn’t trust us with cards), to be told the 40 miles back should be no problem, just bring it back and fill up in the yard. I got it back to the yard, queued up with everyone else, and the shunter driver came over to say he’d sort it, so I turned it off. He got in, and it wouldn’t start…
Used to do a run all around Yorkshire up to skipton way from Birmingham.
One day I came back completely on red, for last 15 miles
Phoned office and they said I should be ok, I coasted alot back
Only once when our travelling friends helped themselves whilst I was parked up.
cissa:
Closest I will ever get.
0
I have worked for Stagecoach for 7 years, and wasn’t allowed to even touch fuel cup, apart from checking it was secured. After I finished shift all I had to do was to park it in the queue to the fuel pump… BTW I have run out of derv 4 or 5 times…
aspro:
I have worked for Stagecoach for 7 years, and wasn’t allowed to even touch fuel cup, apart from checking it was secured. After I finished shift all I had to do was to park it in the queue to the fuel pump… BTW I have run out of derv 4 or 5 times…
A couple of times with Stagecoach
Once with a double decker, stopped at a set of lights a car length away and it died, then with a Dennis Dart which had transferred from another depot and only when it ran out of diesel did they reliase that it had a smaller tank than the others
I’m pleased I’m not alone,thanks for the all the admissions.
