desypete:
the bell end that needs a sat nav is indeed a bell end in my book.
the defence by so called drivers is alarming !!! its like there saying they can not do the job without one ?
Without using Satnav or Google Maps or Bing Maps or any online mapping at all or any Satnav tell me how to get from Thorpe Road Howden to Dragon Lane Bridlington. I’ll take your inability to do so as an admission that you’re admitting you’re wrong.
Crack on.
Conor:
desypete:
the bell end that needs a sat nav is indeed a bell end in my book.
the defence by so called drivers is alarming !!! its like there saying they can not do the job without one ?Without using Satnav or Google Maps or Bing Maps or any online mapping at all or any Satnav tell me how to get from Thorpe Road Howden to Dragon Lane Bridlington. I’ll take your inability to do so as an admission that you’re admitting you’re wrong.
Crack on.
i will answer your question with a simple question that surely you should of thought about before posting ( but i guess your to dumb to realise )
but the question is this
how did we get to the places you mention before goggle maps or sat navs or any online help ? think about it once upon a time there was no aids yet we got around the country making our deliveries were ever they were all over the uk and Europe
desypete:
but the question is this
how did we get to the places you mention before goggle maps or sat navs or any online help ? think about it once upon a time there was no aids yet we got around the country making our deliveries were ever they were all over the uk and Europe
By driving around cities with a map in one hand and the steering wheel in the other. But that is assuming there were actually street maps for where you were going and the maps you did have weren’t woefully out of date. Even if they did it was commonplace in larger cities to often end up going to the wrong place because there would be several roads with the same name. Some firms would have books full of maps drivers had drawn which you’d have to decipher and which usually left out something important or didn’t account for things like being diverted due to roadworks.
You could stop at a petrol station or ask the man in the street and they’d give you directions but they never had to drive a truck so you often came across low bridges or roads you couldn’t get a truck down and then you were knackered because you were invariably in the middle of some friggin housing estate or the middle of nowhere with no clue where you were. All of this assuming you didn’t end up somewhere like I did once in Bradistan where I needed directions but couldn’t find anyone who actually spoke English. There was the last resort of phoning up the place you were delivering to to ask for directions but I lost count the number of times the person who answered the phone didn’t actually have a clue where anywhere was in their town or how to describe how they got to work.
In short it was ■■■■ compared to what it is now and we’ve moved on. Things improve and Satnav is one of those things which has massively improved how truck drivers find the route from A to B.
Many years ago on horseandcart.net, petes great grandad was slagging the new fancy dan breed of driver that used a map.
Takes a great deal of skill to crap in a bag whilst piloting a horse and cart.
desypete:
now far be it for me to call you silly names like a moron robroy or a bell end i wouldn’t stoop so low as to insult the forum tart
now what are we arguing about on this thread ?
oh yes the sat nav moron driver
while its true it is more the lack of skill of a driver that might lead to the more serious of road mishaps like the bridge being hit or bikes being cut up while there to busy making up there minds did the sat nav mean this road to turn left or the next one ? which i am sure your far to smart a driver for that to happen to you robroy
but the fact remains drivers get confused, they get lost, they end up in wrong lanes then cause all sorts of mayhem trying to get back on track and there only aid is a screen that there to busy looking at trying to work out which way to go instead of eyes on the roadthe sat nav is a major distraction and i shudder to think how many accidents have really happened because the driver was to busy looking at the screen ? but of course no driver is going to admit they were to busy looking at the screen in the event of an accident are they ? no there then more interested in trying to save there own skin and coming out of it like its not there fault
i wonder just how long you have been driving if you can not understand the difference robroy of how it was before they came along and how it is today
one finaly point i have is i well remember a guy who i once worked with refusing to do a drop as he didnt know where it was and the sat nav couldn’t find it so the firm simply give the job to a driver that knew where the drop was
that shown me just how silly the drivers are becoming in the hgv world and dependant on technology to do it all for themmobile phones and sat navs should be banned from the cabs and the guys have to learn just how to be a real professional driver.
‘‘The forum tart’’ 
… Love it Pete, even if I’m not entirely sure what you mean tbh, but I’m sure you’ll enlighten me.
In this Transport Utopia that you used to live in all those years ago (I don’t remenber it btw) did people never get lost? I know I did. Did they not get confused and end up in the wrong lane, as you point out.
There has always been in cab distractons, from talking to a passenger, radio, cb, looking at mini skirts to sctatching your arse, that is how it goes.
Have you ever used the Paris ring road Pete, or even that dodgy roundabout in Swindon, they would confuse Captain Cook with or without a sat nav.
It does not matter a ■■■■ how long you (or me since you ask) have been driving, it’s what happens in the job and always has happened.
Some drivers are more competent at their job than others, some are good some are total deadlegs, but not your interpretation of one size fits all stereotype, just because they have a sat nav and dcpc card and don’t ■■■■ in their cabs Pete.
eagerbeaver:
Takes a great deal of skill to crap in a bag whilst piloting a horse and cart.
Poor old Pete, You’ve got to feel sorry for him.
He’ll never live it down, he’s always gonna be ever known as the ‘Trucknet Bagcrapper’ on here whatever he achieves in the future.
I suspect he could dip his finger in the bag if he ever lost his pen.
Rikki-UK:
We are preparing an article for CM and wanted your views on the following:
What are your thoughts on the amount of technology drivers are expected to monitor while driving through busy city centre, such as blind-spot cameras, audible warnings, etc? Are they useful to you, or do you find it a distraction from looking at the road?
How do you think vehicle design could eliminate the need for all this additional equipment?
Is driving a modern truck in city centres nowadays easier or more difficult then, say, 10 years ago?
Please reply below, any comments in this thread may be published in the magazine.
1.There is definitely more tech than there was, whether it is distracting is arguable. Glancing at a blind spot camera is no more distracting than glancing in a mirror, (and a lot more helpful and useful than a mirror if on a left ■■■■■■ for instance)
Checking a sat nav is a lot less distracting than reading an A to Z while driving imo, and the sat nav audible warning is no more or less distracting than a radio.
It all depends on the individual driver, and how he copes with his own personal perceived level of distraction.
2.It’s designed to help you, so is there an actual need to eliminate it.
3.More difficult,… the standards of driving have deteriorated over the years, everybody is in more of a hurry, fewer drivers are willing to be courteous to you, or give way to a bigger vehicle, as they used to once.
It has become an every man for himself/I’m alright Jack scenario in most UK cities.
Hope that’s the sort of thing you wanted Rikki.
Just trying to get off the subject of Pete ■■■■■■■■ in his carrier bag…not to mention the picture of it out of my head.
I think Sat nav’s are a very useful tool IF used properly. ONLY A FOOL would trust one 100% they are an invaluable aid when on time restrictions (Tachos) when trying to find new places etc, very useful GUIDES for lanes and junctions BUT AGAIN only if used PROPERLY and NOT BLINDLY BY IDIOTS.
Banning them as mobile phones is ridiculous, a mobile is a complete distraction from driving and should carry the fines that they do! but a sat nav is an aid to a competent driver not a distraction as are cameras and other things, sorry to rant but come on we are not all stupid! so to suggest banning is barmy!
I AGREE totally that cyclists are a nightmare and there should be much much more emphasis on training/educating them re dangers around trucks, i can’t believe there seems to be NO cycling courses anymore and there also is NO green cross code type training for the kids in schools either !! my lad is 12 and schools do NOTHING to even show dangers of roads … where has all common sense gone■■?
It sickens me that EVERTHING is put on drivers !!! I Agree we should do all that we can to be safe and professional BUT come on we are not PERFECTION no driver is no matter HOW much training or experience they have or threat of prosecution we have or MIRRORS CAMERAS BLIND SPOT AIDS, SIDE BARS ETC ETC ETC
IF THE CYCLIST OR PEDESTRIAN, VANS etc etc BLINDLY INSISTS ON PUTTING THEMSELVES IN A DANGER ZONE then its inevitable that sometimes IT WILL go wrong
The Best solution HAS to be Equal emphasis on ALL ROAD USERS then we would ALL have a fighting chance of decreasing avoidable tradegys!!
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW AN INFO ADVERT WARNING OF HGV/PCV DRIVERS BLIND SPOTS ON TELLY ■■?
I bet you can’t remember … BET you can for Burgers, Beer , Sweets or any other so called "bad for us’ or “bad for enviroment” stuff you like to mention
Again sorry to rant but sometimes lack of common sense infuriates me …I have taught in cars and HGV’s and drive as a profession since the mid eighties
so I am EXTREMELY aware of road users and thankfully through judgement and obviously(realistically) some luck have never had any collisions.
Hope i haven’t upset anyone, its seems sense to spread the responsibility, not solely try to load all the blame on us!!
Cheers
Mac
Lane Departure Warnings: good idea, but they dont work too well. Too many false alerts and so they are turned off or ignored. Ditto with anti-collision braking: buzzes and switches on for shadows, street furniture, turning vehicles in parallel lanes, etc. Trucks automatically braking in bends because of road signs is Stupid! An automatic system that would fail a driving test. Once upon a time a warning light meant summat was wrong, and we would take notice. Now were being conditioned to ignore them because of over exposure to false alerts. And why does the DAF dash have a display of 7 blue and 1 red light to say “adblue is ok”? Ridiculous. Only give us coloured lights if summat is amiss please.
So, to get back to the original post…
Rikki-UK:
We are preparing an article for CM and wanted your views on the following:
- What are your thoughts on the amount of technology drivers are expected to monitor while driving through busy city centre, such as blind-spot cameras, audible warnings, etc? Are they useful to you, or do you find it a distraction from looking at the road?
Several points here:
a. Modern vehicles have (usually) 6 mirrors plus, often, a Fresnel Lens, cameras… the list goes on. But - and it’s a big but - drivers still only have two eyes and two ears.
I fully appreciate that this over-sight is all our fault [The lorry Drivers] but ces’t la vie.b. There needs to be a societal change:- Picture the scenario…
Joe Bloggs is driving down the road and sees the Artic in front of him indicate left. As the Artic indicates left it pulls out to the right-hand side of the road.
Joe thinks that the driver of the Artic is, obviously, an idiot and doesn’t know his left from his right. He immediately drives down the left hand side … only to be surprised when the lorry actually turns left.
There is the crunch associated with a collision as the lorry does, indeed, turn left.Given the above, every man and his dog would say that the driver of the Nissan Scrap is an A-Hole who deserved everything he got.
Now, put the driver on a push bike and we all know that, in the exact same scenarion, the driver of the Artic would, in the eyes of the media, suddenly become The Spawn of Satan.
c. Where on earth do you stop? 900 mirrors, surround sound in the cab and complete real time video of the surrounds to a radius of 50 yards?
d. A recent investigation in London - which involved academics, designers and sctivists - following the death of a couple of cyclists over the period of a month, came up with several options relating to lorry design. More pertinantly (from a TNUK point of view) in none - repeat none - of the cases highlighted was the lorry driver held to blame!
There is a recognised syndrome in America called ‘Suicide by Cop’. We, as lorry drivers, are (usually) only human and can’t possibly be held responsible for the antics of other road-users. A cyclist who rides up the indide of a lorry which is clearly indicating left is, arguably, committing ‘Suicide by Lorry’. Perhaps we – corporately as lorry drivers – should start making our voices heard… Don’t blame us!
- How do you think vehicle design could eliminate the need for all this additional equipment?
This comes back to a simple question… Why is it the fault of the lorry driver?
I fully appreciate that we are the professionals but, ultimately, others bear responsibility too!
- Is driving a modern truck in city centres nowadays easier or more difficult then, say, 10 years ago?
Of course it is harder …
Firstly, there is markedly more traffic on the roads than there was 10 years ago, and the increase in numbers has co-incided with an increase in impatience!
Secondly, vehicles (as in, cars) have become safer and it is a recognised psychological condition whereby if a person feels safe, they are more likely to take risks!
Thirdly, if you combine the above with the modern refusal to accept personal responsibility you are simply asking for trouble!Now, if you add all the above together…
Conor:
desypete:
but the question is this
how did we get to the places you mention before goggle maps or sat navs or any online help ? think about it once upon a time there was no aids yet we got around the country making our deliveries were ever they were all over the uk and EuropeBy driving around cities with a map in one hand and the steering wheel in the other. But that is assuming there were actually street maps for where you were going and the maps you did have weren’t woefully out of date. Even if they did it was commonplace in larger cities to often end up going to the wrong place because there would be several roads with the same name. Some firms would have books full of maps drivers had drawn which you’d have to decipher and which usually left out something important or didn’t account for things like being diverted due to roadworks.
You could stop at a petrol station or ask the man in the street and they’d give you directions but they never had to drive a truck so you often came across low bridges or roads you couldn’t get a truck down and then you were knackered because you were invariably in the middle of some friggin housing estate or the middle of nowhere with no clue where you were. All of this assuming you didn’t end up somewhere like I did once in Bradistan where I needed directions but couldn’t find anyone who actually spoke English. There was the last resort of phoning up the place you were delivering to to ask for directions but I lost count the number of times the person who answered the phone didn’t actually have a clue where anywhere was in their town or how to describe how they got to work.
In short it was [zb] compared to what it is now and we’ve moved on. Things improve and Satnav is one of those things which has massively improved how truck drivers find the route from A to B.
many of the things you say are very true but one point stand out
we sure did learn the roads, unlike the sat nav moron who can not even remember the way out of a place that the sat nav took them to, we always remembered our way home, always made sure we could get turned around and not just turn up at the point and find we can not get out again
the sat nav is a lazy gadget, i can never understand why drivers who have delieverd time and time again to the same places still need to use a sat nav ? its the first thing they set up in the cab as there so scared to go anywhere without it
without them they (drivers) would be forced to remember the roads they use all over the country give me a driver that has his own inbuilt sat nav in his brain rather than a panzy who is to scared, as that is all that has happened is drivers are now dependant on them.
desypete:
many of the things you say are very true but one point stand out
we sure did learn the roads, unlike the sat nav moron who can not even remember the way out of a place that the sat nav took them to, we always remembered our way home, always made sure we could get turned around and not just turn up at the point and find we can not get out again
the sat nav is a lazy gadget, i can never understand why drivers who have delieverd time and time again to the same places still need to use a sat nav ? its the first thing they set up in the cab as there so scared to go anywhere without it
without them they (drivers) would be forced to remember the roads they use all over the country give me a driver that has his own inbuilt sat nav in his brain rather than a panzy who is to scared, as that is all that has happened is drivers are now dependant on them.
Why don’t you tar everyone with the same brush Pete! Oh you have! 
What evidence do you have that ALL drivers now can’t cope without a Sat-Nav, and HAVE to use one otherwise they would be lost?
A guess maybe? 
Yes I always set mine up no matter where I go, but I have live traffic updates on mine so why wouldn’t I?
You didn’t think of that did you?
Evil8Beezle:
desypete:
many of the things you say are very true but one point stand out
we sure did learn the roads, unlike the sat nav moron who can not even remember the way out of a place that the sat nav took them to, we always remembered our way home, always made sure we could get turned around and not just turn up at the point and find we can not get out again
the sat nav is a lazy gadget, i can never understand why drivers who have delieverd time and time again to the same places still need to use a sat nav ? its the first thing they set up in the cab as there so scared to go anywhere without it
without them they (drivers) would be forced to remember the roads they use all over the country give me a driver that has his own inbuilt sat nav in his brain rather than a panzy who is to scared, as that is all that has happened is drivers are now dependant on them.Why don’t you tar everyone with the same brush Pete! Oh you have!
What evidence do you have that ALL drivers now can’t cope without a Sat-Nav, and HAVE to use one otherwise they would be lost?
A guess maybe?Yes I always set mine up no matter where I go, but I have live traffic updates on mine so why wouldn’t I?
You didn’t think of that did you?
One question… What is a ‘Sat Nav’?
Win-Stone:
One question… What is a ‘Sat Nav’?
It’s an anagram of Savant, we have a one on here who goes by the name of Carryfast.
What’s your point? 
Win-Stone:
Evil8Beezle:
desypete:
many of the things you say are very true but one point stand out
we sure did learn the roads, unlike the sat nav moron who can not even remember the way out of a place that the sat nav took them to, we always remembered our way home, always made sure we could get turned around and not just turn up at the point and find we can not get out again
the sat nav is a lazy gadget, i can never understand why drivers who have delieverd time and time again to the same places still need to use a sat nav ? its the first thing they set up in the cab as there so scared to go anywhere without it
without them they (drivers) would be forced to remember the roads they use all over the country give me a driver that has his own inbuilt sat nav in his brain rather than a panzy who is to scared, as that is all that has happened is drivers are now dependant on them.Why don’t you tar everyone with the same brush Pete! Oh you have!
What evidence do you have that ALL drivers now can’t cope without a Sat-Nav, and HAVE to use one otherwise they would be lost?
A guess maybe?Yes I always set mine up no matter where I go, but I have live traffic updates on mine so why wouldn’t I?
You didn’t think of that did you?One question… What is a ‘Sat Nav’?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite … prov=sfla1
Will this help?
I think he already knows that tbh HS, it’s just that I didn’t want to play bloody silly games, and/or answer daft questions.
Like the savant observation though Rob. Considering you’re just a ‘forum tart’, that’s a good effort.
I can’t keep up with all your nicknames…
eagerbeaver:
Like the savant observation though Rob. Considering you’re just a ‘forum tart’, that’s a good effort.I can’t keep up with all your nicknames…
Water off a tart’s back EagerB mate
