Useless Information on Matrix Signs

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
61

Big Jase:

MrHappy:
Like most modern technology, we managed ok without it before.

You hit the nail on the head, Managed. Nowadays things are much much better than they were. I’m sure you never complained in a Foden with a twin splitter sweating buckets in the summer getting backache from uncomfortable seats feeling every pothole, having to wind up the trailer on the legs. I bet you hate having a topline Scania with a fully auto box with Air con,

My Dad had a Scania demo you described; He also had a Foden of the type you described (B reg); He’d choose the Foden anyday over the overpriced under powered posing pouch on wheels.
On the M40 South today between J9 and J8a, there was a 50 restriction, due (according to the signs) ANIMALS IN CARRIAGEWAY. I never saw anything except a HA vehicle doing at best 48mph, and a couple of breakdowns and the motorway wasn’t even that busy…

62

After reading all this, morons on the road, and thickos everywhere?

HGV Drivers CPC? Hell bring in a Car drivers CPC, periodic training for everyone,
More £ for Cammy & co, safer roads! job sorted,

Put the kettle on

But wait yeah, Us wagon drivers are evil, were the scum of the earth, were too big were too slow and we get in the way.

Forgot about that. :imp:

63

Mr Happy, I honestly dont know how anyone can say that the technology we have now doesn’t make things better than it was 20 years ago. In everything we do we are far better off. The reason it appears that I have an answer to everything is because I have been doing this job a long time now and I’m very good at what I do and as I’ve already said anything the HA do has been thought out, argued over and refined to make sure it works. Not one thing we do is by chance. I’ll give an example, the 50’s everyone See’s. When a job is complete and the 50’s are cancelled, what happens if you pass a 50 and seconds after it is turned off. You could potentially drive for the rest of the day doing 50 as you never see an END. What happens is the 50’s are cancelled but revert to END for 3 minutes so anyone who had passed the 50 after it was turned off will always see an end.

Muckaway, you saw signs that said 50 and ANIMALS IN CARRIAGEWAY. You said you never saw anything except a HA vehicle doing at best 48mp (bearing in mind the sign did say 50). Did it occur to you that the animals may have moved or been scared away and that the TOV was doing 48 LOOKING for the animals■■?

What would happen if you hit a Deer and we had no signs on, we turn up and said “Yeah we knew about that”. At best, you would sue us for not telling you, at worse the Deer could have entered the car through the windscreen and killed you/wife/kids.

64

the problem comes when you’ve been through half a dozen of these advisories and there’s nothing there,you do tend to take them with a pinch of salt every time you see one.hence the motorcyclist loosing her legs. :open_mouth:
there’s a new overhead sign that is so bright in the dark i thought a jumbo had crashed or something as it was brightly reflected on the vehicles on the opposite carriageway.i think it was on the m42 near tamworth,but it was nothing exciting on it when i adjusted my night vision to be able to read it.it was the new style very accurate looking writing rather than the older dot to dots.

that said though i do like the m42 with all it’s laybys and signs it’s a lot safer for breakdowns than the older motorways like the m45 where they can’t even manage a hard shoulder for most of it.

65

Other drivers that had made the trip down the M40 earlier saw the signs flashing but no animals, and saw nothing on their return trip. I expect someone saw a deer in a field (the reason the M40 bends between J9-8a is to avoid Ot-Moor, a nature reserve) and panicked, thinking it was on the carriageway. I never saw any damaged fences for an animal to get through either.

66

Big Jase:
Mr Happy, I honestly dont know how anyone can say that the technology we have now doesn’t make things better than it was 20 years ago. In everything we do we are far better off. The reason it appears that I have an answer to everything is because I have been doing this job a long time now and I’m very good at what I do and as I’ve already said anything the HA do has been thought out, argued over and refined to make sure it works. Not one thing we do is by chance. I’ll give an example, the 50’s everyone See’s. When a job is complete and the 50’s are cancelled, what happens if you pass a 50 and seconds after it is turned off. You could potentially drive for the rest of the day doing 50 as you never see an END. What happens is the 50’s are cancelled but revert to END for 3 minutes so anyone who had passed the 50 after it was turned off will always see an end.

Muckaway, you saw signs that said 50 and ANIMALS IN CARRIAGEWAY. You said you never saw anything except a HA vehicle doing at best 48mp (bearing in mind the sign did say 50). Did it occur to you that the animals may have moved or been scared away and that the TOV was doing 48 LOOKING for the animals■■?

What would happen if you hit a Deer and we had no signs on, we turn up and said “Yeah we knew about that”. At best, you would sue us for not telling you, at worse the Deer could have entered the car through the windscreen and killed you/wife/kids.

By whom? Who gets input to make sure it works? I’m afraid to say, that stating that “It works” is pure opinion on your part, i’m sure its an opinion shared by the operative that put the e-mail up on the notice board in the HA propaganda dept but i’m sorry, for every one person that agrees with your sentiment there, i’ll bet there’s 2 that don’t. Like I said before, i’m not against people earning a crust and i don’t expect you to come on here and say the HA is about as much good as an inflatable dartboard, but at the same time, you also don’t need to tell us how great it is, when everyone knows it isn’t.

As for modern technology making our day to day lives better, yes, in some cases it does. Just not in this case.

67

Your pretty negative arent you. It would appear you not happy about anything we do until of course it benefits you then its “Oh its not that bad”.

Many people input to make things work, on roaders, the Transport Research Laboratory, our agents (BBMM, Amey Mouchel) Off-Road staff, ACPO, sadly from what I can gather from you, no LGV drivers were asked. Its not an opinion shared by the operative, its shared by many. Whether only 1 agrees and 2 that don’t on here, in the public domain the number is more like every 1 who disagrees, 100 agree.

I’m not saying the HA are perfect. What I’m saying and what this thread is actually about is everything is done for a reason, it isn’t done to wind you up, its done to protect people. Yesterday late shift someone rang 999 and said there was a deer grazing on the verge and they feared it would walk onto the road (As they do). The informant had no idea where the deer was as they didn’t noticed the 1 metre squared blue sign every 500 metres pinpointing your location that tells you where you are other than they were between xxxxx and xxxxxx. As animals can cross the road and jump the barrier, signs are set in both directions over a 9 mile stretch.

How many drivers do you suppose drove past those signs and firstly ignored them and then said “Bloody signs, there wasn’t anything there”. Rather than appreciate we’re attempting to make you aware that a deer might run out in front of you and potentially kill you right there in the drivers seat, you’d rather tell us were a piece of crap and waste of money.

Lets not forget if the deer does kill someone, the road will be shut in both directions initially and then one side only, the road would remain shut under Police orders for perhaps 5 hours, about 100 people will be involved in the job in some capacity and it will cost the country a fortune, generate 100’s of complaints and for what■■?

With regards to your not against us earning a crust, every single one of us joined this job to help people. We have all been stuck in queues, we’ve all needed help at sometime in our lives on the roads and a lot of the time its never been there. I’ve had people hug me and start crying when I turn up as they’re so scared and happy to see us, people always shake my hand and have even offered me money. There are families that have been sat on the shelf for an hour in the rain, we come along and take the family into the services to keep them safe, there are people who have no clue what to do when they break down and we have also protected the public by reporting in to the Police or made observations of cars that have been driven erratically and have been drunk, a huge number of trucks, cars and caravans I have stopped that have loads about to fall off, lights not working on the rear or have been losing a tyre and yes I have even stopped a car travelling the wrong way up the motorway.

With the decline of the Police on the motorway, there is a huge gap left, we fill that gap (With limited powers) for a fraction of the cost of the Police and in the most part do a better job with regards to the travelling public.

If you dont like the HA, fine but just give a thought to why something is done using some common sense rather than mock it, it might not help you but it sure as hell help others.

68

Big Jase:
Your pretty negative arent you. It would appear you not happy about anything we do until of course it benefits you then its “Oh its not that bad”.

Negative - No, realistic - Yes

Many people input to make things work, on roaders, the Transport Research Laboratory, our agents (BBMM, Amey Mouchel) Off-Road staff, ACPO, sadly from what I can gather from you, no LGV drivers were asked. Its not an opinion shared by the operative, its shared by many. Whether only 1 agrees and 2 that don’t on here, in the public domain the number is more like every 1 who disagrees, 100 agree.

I’m not saying the HA are perfect. What I’m saying and what this thread is actually about is everything is done for a reason, it isn’t done to wind you up, its done to protect people. Yesterday late shift someone rang 999 and said there was a deer grazing on the verge and they feared it would walk onto the road (As they do). The informant had no idea where the deer was as they didn’t noticed the 1 metre squared blue sign every 500 metres pinpointing your location that tells you where you are other than they were between xxxxx and xxxxxx. As animals can cross the road and jump the barrier, signs are set in both directions over a 9 mile stretch.

How many drivers do you suppose drove past those signs and firstly ignored them and then said “Bloody signs, there wasn’t anything there”. Rather than appreciate we’re attempting to make you aware that a deer might run out in front of you and potentially kill you right there in the drivers seat, you’d rather tell us were a piece of crap and waste of money.

The list here is endless. Why don’t you put up a sign saying “Don’t ■■■■, you might follow through?” Or a sign saying “Roadside fast food outlets are unhealthy?”
You could go on and on, the possibles that could happen are limitless. And I don’t recall saying it was a piece of crap. But it is a waste of money, in my opinion of course.

Lets not forget if the deer does kill someone, the road will be shut in both directions initially and then one side only, the road would remain shut under Police orders for perhaps 5 hours, about 100 people will be involved in the job in some capacity and it will cost the country a fortune, generate 100’s of complaints and for what■■?

With regards to your not against us earning a crust, every single one of us joined this job to help people. We have all been stuck in queues, we’ve all needed help at sometime in our lives on the roads and a lot of the time its never been there. I’ve had people hug me and start crying when I turn up as they’re so scared and happy to see us, people always shake my hand and have even offered me money. There are families that have been sat on the shelf for an hour in the rain, we come along and take the family into the services to keep them safe, there are people who have no clue what to do when they break down and we have also protected the public by reporting in to the Police or made observations of cars that have been driven erratically and have been drunk, a huge number of trucks, cars and caravans I have stopped that have loads about to fall off, lights not working on the rear or have been losing a tyre and yes I have even stopped a car travelling the wrong way up the motorway.

Please. You can speak for yourself on this point, but people go to work to earn a living. I deliver lots of goods that help people but I do it because I need to earn a living.

With the decline of the Police on the motorway, there is a huge gap left, we fill that gap (With limited powers) for a fraction of the cost of the Police and in the most part do a better job with regards to the travelling public.

If you dont like the HA, fine but just give a thought to why something is done using some common sense rather than mock it, it might not help you but it sure as hell help others.

Again, all you have shown is that you are able to justify your existence by giving examples of some of the incidents that happen on our roads. As I said, i’ve got no problem with fellas like yourself earning a living, but to suggest that you do it to help people is a bit too much for me to take.
I’m slightly curious however as to why you are on tnuk. Do you drive part time for someone or have you previously? Not saying of course that you shouldn’t come on here, but I don’t really understand why you would choose a truck drivers forum if you’re not one. And then try and convince the members that your organisation is great.
You clearly love the job and there’s nothing wrong with that, however you come across as some kind of Deep South preacher trying to convince everyone that without the HA the world’s gonna end, where would we be without it?
And me, mock :open_mouth: Like I said, come on this forum doing your job and you have to expect some ■■■■ taking :unamused:

69

Well we all know the worlds gonna end next year hut don’t worry, we’ve built the Hindhead tunnel to survive in.

I have my LGV, I’ve driven all over the country in 44 tonners old and new of all makes and styles and still dabble occasionally around London when I’m not working here so I’d like to think I’m entitled to comment and have a valid view seeing the road network from both sides of the fence.

Praise the lord.

70

Big Jase:
A recent serious job we did meant having 2 carriageways closed, 2 on slips closed and a services exit closed too. That would have been 5 Police cars and up to 10 officers. Who deals with the crime when they are sat doing nothing getting abuse from passing drivers as to why the road is shut?? Now we do it for half the Police cost we still get criticised. I dont mind the abuse, I just chuckle but if you want to sit in the queue for 6 hours then just tap me on the shoulder and ask & i’ll let you through. If were ever got rid of, dont complain when the Police cant get to your house to deal with a burglar down stairs as the Police will be too busy to help blocking a road.

Do they use metal probes to indoctrinate you at the HA?

The HA Vehicles are simply a cost cutting exercise that has been proven to be a bad mistake, there are so many poor dangerous drivers on the roads as they have nothing to fear anymore, the specialist Traffic Police were all but disbanded in most of the British county forces.

These extra policemen and women were not retrained to be on the streets fighting crime, they were retired or replaced with community support officers whose only power appears to be to confiscate alcohol and give teenagers a stiff telling off.

If the proper police officers cannot get to my street to protect an 86 year old woman being mugged before she died of her injuries or they cannot deal with a burglar, it isn’t because they are sat blocking the road junctions. They are sat in the police station filling out forms and watching local scum write incriminating evidence on facebook.

71

Wheel Nut:
The HA Vehicles are simply a cost cutting exercise that has been proven to be a bad mistake, there are so many poor dangerous drivers on the roads as they have nothing to fear anymore, the specialist Traffic Police were all but disbanded in most of the British county forces.
These extra policemen and women were not retrained to be on the streets fighting crime, they were retired or replaced with community support officers whose only power appears to be to confiscate alcohol and give teenagers a stiff telling off.

Mmmm not sure if i should comment but i think the first line may sum it up well i’m afraid, as more Gov’t cutbacks bite the Hato’s will be doing less, it may be controversial but scrap the Hato’s and transfer their budget to the police, the only problem is the cash won’t be ring fenced for use on motorway’s/trunk road and you may end up with more delay’s on the upside if they weren’t doing so much paperwork for every job they could actually do proactive poice work whilst waiting for incidents rather than being a ‘purely reactive’ service, possibly like the ambulance service. At least the BIB and fire can go out and proactively try and educate people and prevent incidents.

Sorry what’s that lot got to do with matrix :smiley:

72

On the M62 today Jct18 delay ahead now I was off to Manny airport so could go either way at that Jct but never said which way :smiling_imp:

73

Big Jase:
Well we all know the worlds gonna end next year hut don’t worry, we’ve built the Hindhead tunnel to survive in.

I have my LGV, I’ve driven all over the country in 44 tonners old and new of all makes and styles and still dabble occasionally around London when I’m not working here so I’d like to think I’m entitled to comment and have a valid view seeing the road network from both sides of the fence.

Praise the lord.

Well you know what they say about those who sit on the fence. Splinters in the arse. No doubt the HA has a procedure on “How to deal with shards of timber embedded in the posterior in a roadside emergency situation.”

I think thats me done. I may have peaked too soon with ^^^^^^^^^^^^ that comment, i’m certainly not going to top it, so i’ll quit while i’m in front, thankyou and goodnight :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: