switchlogic:
As far as I can see the only thing US trucks have over European ones is living space. Let’s face it, technologically they are miles behind Europe. Give me a Scania Longline over anything American anyday.
Anyway, my advice would be not to listen to the naysayers, you seem from your post to understand that
life’s what you make it so with that in mind you should get on just fine.
If you’d ever driven a TM with a V8 two stroke Detroit in and a fuller 13 speed box the only thing you’d want to drive after that would be a cab over Pete or a Kenworth where you could have all that and a decent sleeper to go with it and more drive axles/ wheels to put the power down with and stop you with and all within Euro/Brit size regs.You’d then want to drive it without a tacho in it and on roads where you can run it somewhere near it’s top whack (a 30 year old truck that would still be as fast or even faster than that Scanny will go even without a limiter so what do their latest versions go like?).
does the USA have a “VOSA” across the pond or is it just a free for all on drivers hours etc etc
Oh no its not a free for all by any means. There are a lot of scales (weighbridges) at the side of the road and particularly at state line crossings so chances of getting your truck weighed and checked over by the D.O.T. are higher than in the UK but the attitude of the staff who man them is different to the UK. They do not come across being “out to get you” like VOSA. It is unusual to get your logbook inspected unless you are unlucky and remember it is a thing that you fill in yourself so it relies on you to tell the truth. I am not saying that you would totally falsify it but at the same time you are hardly going to fill it in showing infringements are you? Especially if you use a loose leaf one, Lol. Also the hours regulations are much more relaxed and easier to comply with.
tramp:
U must be mental! leaving the USA for this sinking ship! wouldn’t your wife want to move to america■■?!! much better option if you ask me. Bad result for cowboys the weekend ay.
hi there, let me answer you and the other two guys Steve07 and Buycrader: sometimes i do ask myself why i moved to the UK when i had everything i need it in the USofA, had a big 3 bedrooms house plus two cars, and best of all a good trucking career with a good company, my wife lived in America with me for 6 years but we wanted to start having babys and if we would have stayed in America i would have never been able to make enough money trucking locally to be able to be with her and the kids everyday, to make money trucking in the US you have got to be out on the roads for at least 2 weeks at a time, i was lucky to be with a company that only keeped me out 5-6 days and then i went home for 4 days off, but like i said i was lucky to have a good dispatcher and a good company, anyways England is not that bad as it could be worse like many other countries are.I know for a fact it is going to take me awhile to get used to the tacho rules and stuff like that but just the thought of been able to drive a big lorry again and the distances here are much shorter than back home makes me want to give it a try, i do like the idea very much of been able to do a job that i enjoy and i’m good at and be able to be home just about everyother day, back in the US if you a trucker you will be away from home for at least 2 weeks if not more unless you want to drive locally and not make enough money, another reason i love the idea of living in England is the pay holidays we all get, hell in America you have to work a whole year just to get one week off paid holiday here you get 28 days now that is lovely, plus medical is free i love that, just those two reasons are enough for me to stay and make it here in the UK, but the biggest reason i have is that i love my wife more than anything else in this world and she wants to be happy here with her family and start our own here so i respect that, also i think or thought rather that now it is my time to return the favor if you can say it that way, 6 years ago she left everything here to move to the US to be with me, she had no family or friends or anything but me over there, so now i feel is my duty as her husband to do the same, it can’t be that much of a difference to drive lorries here than it is back home, regulations may be harder or a pain in the arse with the tacho rules and it will take me a while to get used to not been able to lie on my logbooks but hey we can’t always have the whole cake for ourselfs, i’m just trying to keep a positive thinking to the whole thing, thank you so much and hope you all have a great week
Could’nt believe what you’re trying to do when I first read it but it seems to make some sense.There’s a topic on here where I’ve been arguing the case that it is possible to run long distance international work but still get a decent homelife by using more drivers to share the runs between them on a rota.It means not so much money but that topic was started by someone who was doing long distance continental work from here on a 6 weeks away 3 days home and 6 weeks away rota basis.But the bit I can’t understand is how you can’t run a decent rota in the States with those speeds and trucks which can run at them comfortably.You should be able to run from Dallas to LA or Cleveland for instance and get home again in a lot less than 2 weeks? where you could then hand the wagon over to the other driver for him to do a similar distance return run while you get some home life?.If you’re used to that type of work you really won’t like the type of UK multi drop distribution stuff which is what the British road transport industry mainly consists of now.You are going to have to go a long way and be lucky to find a firm here that will be as good as the one you were working for over there with that rota you were doing.It’s more likely that you’ll get less quality time off doing local work here than long distance either over there or over here.
let me explain to you why it takes two weeks out, we all know that it takes 1.5 days to legally drive from dallas texas to LA, but the reason it takes two weeks out on the road is because after you get to LA your company will then send you across country to NY and that takes another 5 days, it is every trucking company policies in the US to keep drivers out on the road going from coast to coast and back to the home terminal for 2 weeks before you are entitle to have 2-3 days off at home, trust me mate when i say i know for a fact i will be able to enjoy driving in the UK even with all the bull rules i will still be able to get home every 2-3 days
Typical wherever you are in the world there’s always the problem of guvnors who have’nt got a clue when it comes to treating their staff right.But 2 weeks on 2 days off 2 weeks on sounds slightly less bad than a 6 weeks on 3 days off 6 weeks on rota that some guvnors over here seem to want their drivers to do.I was interested to read that typical mileage rate for drivers over there I was getting around £1,500 per month before taxes to run 8,000 miles on uk long distance night work paid by the hour.But those rotas keeping too few drivers on the road for too long is one of the reasons why there’s too many drivers looking for a job and too many drivers who want to leave the one they’re in.Like here it looks like being an owner driver and choosing your own schedules is the best way over there.
switchlogic wrote:
As far as I can see the only thing US trucks have over European ones is living space. Let’s face it, technologically they are miles behind Europe. Give me a Scania Longline over anything American anyday.
Anyway, my advice would be not to listen to the naysayers, you seem from your post to understand that
life’s what you make it so with that in mind you should get on just fine.
If you’d ever driven a TM with a V8 two stroke Detroit in and a fuller 13 speed box the only thing you’d want to drive after that would be a cab over Pete or a Kenworth where you could have all that and a decent sleeper to go with it and more drive axles/ wheels to put the power down with and stop you with and all within Euro/Brit size regs.You’d then want to drive it without a tacho in it and on roads where you can run it somewhere near it’s top whack (a 30 year old truck that would still be as fast or even faster than that Scanny will go even without a limiter so what do their latest versions go like?).
In fairness the sleepers are much bigger than a Scania Longline.
The hood of a conventional allows the cab floor to be completely flat like a Magnum even though they are not high up and behind the seats there is a living area usually kitted out with a workstation and kitchen pack. At the very back are the bunks. The lower one is usually 3’ 6’’ wide.
My Pete has a 15ltr Cat engine driving through an 18spd fuller and is 600bhp. It has no speed limiter at all and runs 1300rpm at 65mph with a top speed of over 90mph if i was stupid enough to try. The technology may be crude but i would not swap it for anything except a Volvo VT 880.
does the USA have a “VOSA” across the pond or is it just a free for all on drivers hours etc etc
Oh no its not a free for all by any means. There are a lot of scales (weighbridges) at the side of the road and particularly at state line crossings so chances of getting your truck weighed and checked over by the D.O.T. are higher than in the UK but the attitude of the staff who man them is different to the UK. They do not come across being “out to get you” like VOSA. It is unusual to get your logbook inspected unless you are unlucky and remember it is a thing that you fill in yourself so it relies on you to tell the truth. I am not saying that you would totally falsify it but at the same time you are hardly going to fill it in showing infringements are you? Especially if you use a loose leaf one, Lol. Also the hours regulations are much more relaxed and easier to comply with.
Those log books over there are just like the ones that we used here before tachos came in.The old version of vosa used to do silent checks at the roadside without stopping you and then ask questions later at the firms’ base and check the records and books to see if driving was being booked as something else.But usually it was rare to need to book driving as breaks or other work as breaks anyway with the higher speeds we were doing then.There’s an old story that the original tachographs were made because Hitler wanted to keep a close check on what his supply drivers were doing?.
Just out of intrest what weights do they run at over there? I was in California/Nevada/Arizona on holiday this year and on some fairly minor hills many of the trucks were coming to a near standstill. Now I’ve pulled some really daft weights before and the good old V8 Scania still pulls up quite severe hills like a train.
I think I’d still stick with the Scania. You can keep your bonnets! That said I do plan to go to Canada to work for a bit at some point, so who knows, I may change my mind.
switchlogic:
Just out of intrest what weights do they run at over there? I was in California/Nevada/Arizona on holiday this year and on some fairly minor hills many of the trucks were coming to a near standstill. Now I’ve pulled some really daft weights before and the good old V8 Scania still pulls up quite severe hills like a train.
I think I’d still stick with the Scania. You can keep your bonnets! That said I do plan to go to Canada to work for a bit at some point, so who knows, I may change my mind.
‘Minor hills’ like the sierra nevada which are something like the alps but perhaps those new generation of drivers don’t know how to get down the box into the lower range on a fuller so they just leave it in top.
switchlogic wrote:
As far as I can see the only thing US trucks have over European ones is living space. Let’s face it, technologically they are miles behind Europe. Give me a Scania Longline over anything American anyday.
Anyway, my advice would be not to listen to the naysayers, you seem from your post to understand that
life’s what you make it so with that in mind you should get on just fine.
If you’d ever driven a TM with a V8 two stroke Detroit in and a fuller 13 speed box the only thing you’d want to drive after that would be a cab over Pete or a Kenworth where you could have all that and a decent sleeper to go with it and more drive axles/ wheels to put the power down with and stop you with and all within Euro/Brit size regs.You’d then want to drive it without a tacho in it and on roads where you can run it somewhere near it’s top whack (a 30 year old truck that would still be as fast or even faster than that Scanny will go even without a limiter so what do their latest versions go like?).
In fairness the sleepers are much bigger than a Scania Longline.
The hood of a conventional allows the cab floor to be completely flat like a Magnum even though they are not high up and behind the seats there is a living area usually kitted out with a workstation and kitchen pack. At the very back are the bunks. The lower one is usually 3’ 6’’ wide.
My Pete has a 15ltr Cat engine driving through an 18spd fuller and is 600bhp. It has no speed limiter at all and runs 1300rpm at 65mph with a top speed of over 90mph if i was stupid enough to try. The technology may be crude but i would not swap it for anything except a Volvo VT 880.
There was only one thing which could make that 13 speed fuller better and that was putting the splitter on the lower range of 5 it’s taken them long enough to do it by the look of things.
switchlogic:
Just out of intrest what weights do they run at over there? I was in California/Nevada/Arizona on holiday this year and on some fairly minor hills many of the trucks were coming to a near standstill. Now I’ve pulled some really daft weights before and the good old V8 Scania still pulls up quite severe hills like a train.
I think I’d still stick with the Scania. You can keep your bonnets! That said I do plan to go to Canada to work for a bit at some point, so who knows, I may change my mind.
ok the first answer is about the weight it is around 80,000 pounds combined gross weight it can’t be no more than 80,000 or you get a big fine, and as far as you liking the big bonnets you just wait and see for yourself, after you been in one of the big rigs in Canada or the US you will defo not want to go back to the shoe boxes they have in Europe
switchlogic:
Just out of intrest what weights do they run at over there? I was in California/Nevada/Arizona on holiday this year and on some fairly minor hills many of the trucks were coming to a near standstill. Now I’ve pulled some really daft weights before and the good old V8 Scania still pulls up quite severe hills like a train.
I think I’d still stick with the Scania. You can keep your bonnets! That said I do plan to go to Canada to work for a bit at some point, so who knows, I may change my mind.
ok the first answer is about the weight it is around 80,000 pounds combined gross weight it can’t be no more than 80,000 or you get a big fine, and as far as you liking the big bonnets you just wait and see for yourself, after you been in one of the big rigs in Canada or the US you will defo not want to go back to the shoe boxes they have in Europe
And if you’re ever unlucky enough to be invoved in a big accident that bonnet and engine out the front will save you a lot better than the thin air which is all that’s between you and the wagon you hit if you’re driving a cab over.Yank mate you’ve not even started here yet and you’re missing home already.I hate to say it but I told you so.Give me a conventional any day too but they won’t let us use them.
you can have my passport and driving licence.
and i’ll have yours.
you can live in this [zb] hole, and i’ll be in sunny texas.
but seriously, if you are looking for a decent employer, who lets you do your job. think Ireland, because the decent ones have gone out of england.
hahaha if only was that easy to do bro, i just try to keep an open mind and a very positive way of thinking, i know it will never be as it was back home in the US and those big Texas roads and speeds but i will have to get use to the things here, i will do just fine, now as far as you mention jobs or companies in Ireland, i need to find a company that is a decent one and has a depot or terminal near to where i live so i wont have to be driving my own car too far to get the lorry plus if they have a depot near my town or home i will be able to park the lorry there when i go home on me days off, any help you can give me on that info i will gladly appreciated
You can’t get paid by the mile by law here unless you’re an owner driver.
Just a quick note to point out that the above is a total myth. I’m paid mileage, and I know a good few other firms that are too. I prefer it that way, to be honest.
The law actually states that mileage money is only illegal “If drivers are encouraged to break the law”. Since we are not, then it’s not illegal. You also need to be guarenteed a minimum, however paltry, which again we are. It’s peanuts, mind, and I’ve never had a day where I’ve had to fall back on it.
The company I work for are closely involved with VOSA on other stuff, so it’s not as if they aren’t aware of the pay scheme. They’re aware and they’re happy with it.
You can’t get paid by the mile by law here unless you’re an owner driver.
Just a quick note to point out that the above is a total myth. I’m paid mileage, and I know a good few other firms that are too. I prefer it that way, to be honest.
The law actually states that mileage money is only illegal “If drivers are encouraged to break the law”. Since we are not, then it’s not illegal. You also need to be guarenteed a minimum, however paltry, which again we are. It’s peanuts, mind, and I’ve never had a day where I’ve had to fall back on it.
The company I work for are closely involved with VOSA on other stuff, so it’s not as if they aren’t aware of the pay scheme. They’re aware and they’re happy with it.
Thanks Lucy if only I’d known that when I was running 8,000 miles a month on night trunking I’m sure that I might have been able to get my wages up to more than around the £7.50 per hour which I was getting in that case.No wonder it’s a myth that the Guvnors like.You might have made a lot of drivers’ day if they’re on long distance work with that one.I think Yanktrucker said he was getting 38 cents a mile over there?.That would have almost doubled my wages.
limeyphil:
if you work for a decent firm, they would let you take the unit home.
that is really good to know but the only problem is i wouldn’t know where to park the lorry for my two days off since they don’t have any truckstops around where i live, maybe i can park it in the local industrial state but i wouldn’t feel safe leaving it there, i rather find a company near to me so i can drive my car and to and from the truck
Kenny1975:
If you follow Limeyphils advice and work for a “decent” irish company you will never be short of a place to park your truck.
Places like Switch Island, Carlisle, Stafford to name a few
none of them places are anywhere near me, i live in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and at the moment we live in a 1bedroom flat so defo no room for a lorry hahahaha
