A little question I would like answered please if you would’nt mind
I am new to the world of trucks and I have already found my major problem is navigation. I have no problem using a map and the majority of the route I have no probs with as I use a truckers atlas backed up with a tom tom (height poi enabled). The problem comes when I get off the major roads and need to get into the small streets. Im driving a 36 ton arctic and every where I seem to turn there is a weight restriction. I have no problem with heights as they are all marked in my atlas but the weight restrictions dont seem to be marked anywhere, even in the street atlas. It can be very frustrating and embarrassing
What do you guys do about this problem, especially when going to somewhere new
(My traffic office will send me through most restrictions without a care, so I know this is my problem).
If the restriction says “except for access/loading” on it then ignore it and go through it as is it wasn’t there, otherwise you have to find another way in, it’s as simple as that. There are no publications out there that list weight limits. Even if there was it would be out-of-date before it even got to the publishers as they’re adding more and more weight restrictions every day.
Once you start to get out and about you pick them up and remember where they are.
Quite possibly the most annoying weight restriction in the country is to found on the top side of Peterborough on a dual-carriageway. It’s actually a we-don’t-want-wagons-coming-past-our-front-window restriction rather than a weight related one, but coming down from Bourne one has to go alllllllllllllll the way round (the wrong way) the Peterborough ring road when wanting to get on to the A1. It’s a right pain in the arse, especially as the restricted bit is only about a half a mile long, mainly industrial / retail areas (iirc) and half a dozen houses and cuts about half an hour off your time to get to the A1.
(Sorry, wandered off into rant mode once again there )
most weight restrictions are not to stop heavy traffic has they may go to industrial areas, they are to stop unnessasary traffic.
Play it by ear you’ll soon get used to the idiosyncrasies of the nations road network.
" I have no problem with heights as they are all marked in my Atlas" OH NO THEY AREN’T. Only bridges on A roads and some B roads are marked and some of them aren’t that accurate. Only take the Atlas as a guide ALWAYS check the height of a bridge when you approach it.
Hi Lads & Lasses
