Jeepers, I’m between a rock and a hard place here due to me spending 3 months of the year working for a large cereal farmer. I’d agree with everything and nothing that has been stated so far, there’s ignorant and inconsiderate people in all jobs and I have to admit that when I’m in the car, I do seem to get caught behind some young ■■■■■■ in a tractor with about half a mile of traffic behind. A little bit of courtesy costs nothing but goes a long way.
The kit is big but still within length and width restrictions and that includes duals.
The weight is a separate issue, we have an on-farm weighbridge and I gross 31.65 tonnes with a good load of wheat - oops!
The distance - very grey area (the ministry has laid it out in black and white), no agricultural insurance provider will commit, ie. they are content to offer a policy, knowing the sizes, weights and distances and will pay out unless the ministry were to get involved. There have been incidents on public highways of non-fatal accidents, where a fine has been incurred and it does appear to be massively lenient compared to a similar incident if it were to happen with a HGV.
The one point that always gets overlooked is the hours worked. In a good dry season, our drivers will work from 8am till midnight or 1, 2 am and beyond, 7 days a week for up to a month until the harvest is finished. This is the norm and obviously the most dangerous aspect of the issue - fatigue kills! God only knows, I’ve had enough ‘moments’ but have luckily avoided any incidents so far - I did once fall asleep and crash in to the back of the combine but that’s another story (caused by fatigue). Every season I hear of calamities involving tractors, it must be God’s will that they infrequently hurt anybody.
I aint got no problem with farm workers/tractor drivers etc and if anyone thinks I was knocking them well theyd be wrong its a free world to make a point and no one can argue with fact.
AAAAH! this old chestnut! as a tractor driver who mainly has to used ual carriageways for his work, its lorry drivers that hack me off! mainly artics who decide to pull back from overtaking when the unit is barely past the tractor let alone making sure the trailer is clear! I’ve been run off the road several times.
“Some staff on farms who drive tractors, particularly migrant workers from overseas, may be unaware that failure to pull over when you have a long queue of traffic behind you could constitute an offence of inconsiderate driving,” said Sgt Jones.
“The offence could earn you 3 to 9 points on your licence and a fine of up to £5,000. We would urge farm owners to ensure that that staff are aware of the law and they should pull over where necessary and safe to do so. A little consideration for others goes a long way.”
I think its up to plods discretion but there is a number of vehicle in the tailback where plod will take action and its not that many.
I find there are 2 issues
is the slower moving vehicle (HGV etc) which has its own tailback which catches and overtakes a tractor, leaving the tailback behind the tractor
the lack of suitable places top pull in with a tactor as they’re all full of HGVs on a 45 or caravaners picnicking.
best we can do most of the time is pull as far to the left as we can but sometimes the only way some f’king car drivers will get past is to stop the tractor and drive the car past you yourself these ditherers are a pain to everyone and shouldn’t be on the road, its them that cause the tailbacks
chicane:
best we can do most of the time is pull as far to the left as we can but sometimes the only way some f’king car drivers will get past is to stop the tractor and drive the car past you yourself these ditherers are a pain to everyone and shouldn’t be on the road, its them that cause the tailbacks
have this all the time roading a 3cx , i keep as far left as possible , its not the best driving in the kerb ,only for the dimwits to sit behind you despite it being wide enough to pass comfortably
the other day coming down the Odiham bypass to jct 5 of the M3 i sat right to the left and the cars coming towards me kept over to after one led the way ,only for an artic driver to sit on the white line giving the overtaking cars main beam
Threads like this are good as it at least gives those of us who operate JCBs tractors etc a chance to explain the position and reasons we do what we do to other road users, hopefully this will (eventually) go some way to releiving things. Yeah its a pain getting stuck behind a slower vehicle but its just another poor sod trying to earn a crust.
I work in both industries and there really isn’t much difference in the pressures and problems in Agriculture and Haulage.
I am lucky in that although I drive a tractor, its not for agricultural use and I am paid by the hour, I regularly have to run Syston to melton mowbray on the A607 and on that stretch its quite good as there are 4 places I can pull in.
The A46 & A6 dual carriageways around our yard are the worst roads to drive see the previous comments about overtaking HGV’s. I don’t think half the car drivers in the world understand when they can legally overtake a slow vehicle they often just sit behind you when the conditions are perfectly safe and well within the highway code to overtake.