Mitsubishi Carisma 1.6 automatic. I never got stuck once. I only turned back because others got stuck!
I’ve not turned in on 3 days since I started 3 years ago, twice because of black ice, and I couldn’t get off the estate safely, The other was a few weeks ago, 3 inch of wet snow at 5 am, very localised (Lepton & Flockton), works buses stuck/crashed on two different routes and a steep hill to go down on the very long way round, not a chance. By 9am it’d disappeared (snow and most of traffic), so I went in and worked in warehouse. I do live in on top of a hill in Huddersfield and work in Wakefield. There have been times when I’ve made it in when peeps who live less than a mile away from depot couldn’t make it!
MADBAZ:
I’ve not turned in on 3 days since I started 3 years ago, twice because of black ice, and I couldn’t get off the estate safely, The other was a few weeks ago, 3 inch of wet snow at 5 am, very localised (Lepton & Flockton), works buses stuck/crashed on two different routes and a steep hill to go down on the very long way round, not a chance. By 9am it’d disappeared (snow and most of traffic), so I went in and worked in warehouse. I do live in on top of a hill in Huddersfield and work in Wakefield. There have been times when I’ve made it in when peeps who live less than a mile away from depot couldn’t be bothered to make it!
Fixed that for ya 
Well, why should they ask him? I have my car suitable for the place I live. Unlike my neighbours I drive up the hill with no problem, and then down the hill I can stop safely. The all season tires costed me 4 pounds per each more than I would have to pay for summer ones…
so folk who live on hills lanes ect should buy 4x4,s just so they can get out on the couple of times a year we get snow? again add the extra costs of tax, fuel ect? but still earn the 7-9 quid an hour the same that someone in a 1.0ltr corsa?? its a choice for everyone but I dont see why your job should have such a big influence in the decision…
story after story on here mentions working for companies never having time off ect yet when it comes down to it you all get treated the same as a number… I dare say several stob trampers have put there all into it yet when it came to redundancies was any of this taken into consideration■■?
some have said the snow was well forecasted so why was,nt things arranged, this goes bothways, why didnt the employer arrange things? different delivery dates? maybe sorting out so that drivers who live in dodgy areas take a day off…
if you got in and driving a day cab say, and then got back to yard and found it impossible to get home, i suppose your boss will put you up in an hotel ect, or would he just leave you too it?
dle1uk:
so folk who live on hills lanes ect should buy 4x4,s just so they can get out on the couple of times a year we get snow? again add the extra costs of tax, fuel ect? but still earn the 7-9 quid an hour the same that someone in a 1.0ltr corsa?? its a choice for everyone but I dont see why your job should have such a big influence in the decision…
Well, off course they don’t have to. They can this couple of times a year just walk down the steep lane and order a cab to pick them from there. It will cost them a bit, but it’s always better to pay for cab to get to work when you will have full day of work (very likely with overtime due to the weather) than to losse day’s work and set the company up.
And no, they don’t need to buy 4x4. It’s enough if they buy an all season tires which are only slightly more expensive and since there is no really hot summers in UK, they are good all year round. And they help A LOT in snowy condition (provided that you can drive 
)
if i`m in a day cab,i will get back to the yard regardless of driving time regs.my right to eat,sleep and drink takes priority over anything else
When I was a boss at a rural food manufacturer, I used to wait for the phonecall from the employees and then use my 4X4 to go and pick them up, they knew this was OK and I trusted them to make the decision.
Sometimes it was two trips, but it was worth it…They got paid and we got the produce out to the customers…And we had back haul from Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons, they always turned up.
Now, as a driver, I will always make it in, infact I relish the challenge of the snow, it makes the driving more interesting…But importantly, I know that if I let them down, there will be a lot of hassle to sort out that takes a lot of time and causes stress to others.
On Friday, my first and only collection was from a farm in the Lincolnshire wilderness, snow and fog, along with single track roads, made it all the more important to get it right…So the senses were heightened…Moreso, coming down a slight incline, on packed snow with a dyke either side and 44 ton.
I don`t see it as risking my life 
I see it as an opportunity to extend my skills and get the job done right…At the end of the day on friday, I was pleased that I had done my job safely, without incident and on time.
It is all about attitude, thankfully, most my age have the right attitude and just get on with the job, but I hate to think what the next generation is going to be like, having risk aversion banged into them at every opportunity 
Yeah, you’re right.
All that stuff about “risking your life” - come on, get real. If it’s danger, you drive with pedestrian’s pace, what could realy happen?
All that stuff about “risking your life” - come on, get real. If it’s danger, you drive with pedestrian’s pace, what could realy happen?
tell that to the bulker driver who went off the road near here on Friday morn… lets hope his employer thanks him for coming in and driving eh? or most likely find himself on the dole…
"On Friday, my first and only collection was from a farm in the Lincolnshire wilderness, snow and fog, along with single track roads, made it all the more important to get it right…So the senses were heightened…Moreso, coming down a slight incline, on packed snow with a dyke either side and 44 ton.
I don`t see it as risking my life I see it as an opportunity to extend my skills and get the job done right…At the end of the day on friday, I was pleased that I had done my job safely, without incident and on time."
understand this, but noone is gonna get it correct 100 %of the time and lets hope when it does go wrong no one gets hurt…
i understand when you were a manager, not sure how long ago this was, and i can only give my own experiences, I drove 7.5t for a few years about 15 years ago, the companies i worked for did respect their drivers to a certain degree… i had a breakfro driving and then did the whole hgv thing 7 years ago, since passing I have worked for a number of firms including time on agancies and i have still to come across a company that respects their drivers…
dle1uk:
So the senses were heightened…Moreso, coming down a slight incline, on packed snow with a dyke either side and 44 ton.
dle1uk:
tell that to the bulker driver who went off the road near here on Friday morn… lets hope his employer thanks him for coming in and driving eh? or most likely find himself on the dole…
You know what? You convicted me.
I got better idea. I would rather go to these guys and tell them to stay home, because what they do is irrespobsible, risky, and dangerous:
And to these guys:
And to these:
And these:
And…
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(wow, some nice pics popped out of google)
So listen you all idiots from the pictures! You should all be home! Winter driving is dangerous!!!
(but then, who will bring them fresh buns, milk and logs to fireplace?)
Think you kind of walked into this one OP. I used to work in Halifax for a 6 year period a daily round trip of over 60 miles,mostly M62 . I never missed a shift due to snow but some of the locals who lived close by would miss regularly due to being snowed in,some gen, some not.
My point is that everyones motivations are different. At that time mine was a whacking great mortgage but the bottom line would always have been safety can I get there and back in one piece (safely) and unfortunately like a lot of decisions we make as drivers, only you know the answer to that.
orys the pics you give are from countries that are used to snow and therefore geared up for it, we are not which is why we come to a standstill in snow… i would suggest that wether you would get paid is the main reason why some would or would not go in…
I live on garrowby hill and the 3 inches of snow bought the area to a complete stop on Thurs night, including a plough getting stuck and subsequent accident…
the bulker that went into a ditch was delivering to a farm in the village, guy was shook up and it wasnt his fault, the farmer though had rang the delivery company thurs evening telling them not to send delivery… but they know best…
if you say that driving in snow/ice conditions is not dangerous then ok… your decision but to me it is and extra care needs to be taken…
the bit I fail to understand is all the comments crap pay conditions treated like crap by your employer and members of public yet you will bend over backwards for the same folk who are treating you like ■■■■ just so you can wave your willy out the window and shout i,m the better driver…
are we as a country in that bad a state that the whole thing will come to a stop because of trucks not going out for one day?? if that really is the case then drivers call a strike and we can hold the country to ransom,
dle1uk:
the bit I fail to understand is all the comments crap pay conditions treated like crap by your employer and members of public yet you will bend over backwards for the same folk who are treating you like [zb] just so you can wave your willy out the window and shout i,m the better driver…
I would not work for anyone who treats me like a crap to start with. And If I had temporary (as it happened to me once) I would threat them accordingly.
Second: this is exactly my point. To drive on 3 inches of snow is not bending backwards. It is the normal thing. OK, I get the point about folks not used to drive in such condition, but you are a proffesional driver, I thought that a little more could be expected from you. And driving on few inches of snow is just that little more, nothing extreme.
Driving in winter takes also decisions about where to DO NOT go unprepared - so your lorry driver could just refuse to go.
But this example is just another example of that people here prefer to give up than to do something. This farmer instead of calling the company and panicking, could take his quad, put few bags of sand/woodchips/ashes from his fireplace/whatever, grain even, and spread it in few most dangerous places on the access road to his place.
What if the snow will stay here for week? Will he let all his animals starve because “it’s impossible to get there due to 10 cm of snow”?
That I (or many other drivers, even in UK - see coffeholic) can drive on the snow it’s nothing worth waving a willy - we are not better, we are just up to some basic standards.
But that many people here sit at home and cry about extreme conditions - well, that is something which fully entitles us to laugh at.
Orys’s attitude is the perfect example of what you look for in a lorry driver, if you were an employer looking for a bloke to drive your truck with an attitude of can do…then Orys would be on the short list and several here written off.
He has the good sense to put the right tyres on his car so he can go to work, well done Orys, those tyres make the difference between going to work and not, as he rightly says they cost a lttle more than the normal junk if purchased at the right time…its not as if winter is a big surprise it turns up every year whatever happens.
What happened to the good old Tommy spirit lads, i see precious little of it around.
Hard times are coming lads, you want a reputation for being able not just another bod who vanishes when the going gets tough, good repute still gets you good jobs.
EDIT, interesting you mentioned the farmer Orys.
Back in the early 80’s probably '82 we had a serious winter one year, freezing for weeks and i had to take offal to a pig farm near Yarmouth, one of the three blokes who did the trip every 8 hours.
The place was snowed in to buggery, but the farmer in question dug several miles of lanes out so we could get in and he or his son escorted us probably 5 miles from the main road in and back out again 3 times a day obviously at 8 hour intervals for probably 2 weeks through the drifts.
His attitude and gratitude spurred us on to making damned sure his pig food always got through, we looked after each other, thoroughly decent chap he was by the name of Roy Dunthorne.
Mind you they proper trucks in those days, up to a days hard work.
Juddian:
Orys’s attitude is the perfect example of what you look for in a lorry driver, if you were an employer looking for a bloke to drive your truck with an attitude of can do…then Orys would be on the short list and several here written off.He has the good sense to put the right tyres on his car so he can go to work, well done Orys, those tyres make the difference between going to work and not, as he rightly says they cost a lttle more than the normal junk if purchased at the right time…its not as if winter is a big surprise it turns up every year whatever happens.
What happened to the good old Tommy spirit lads, i see precious little of it around.
Hard times are coming lads, you want a reputation for being able not just another bod who vanishes when the going gets tough, good repute still gets you good jobs.
I would think that you are having a laugh at me, if not that you are propably right, as I know I had never any problems to find work and I know that many of the people I used to work for would like to see me back in their team (I know, they sometimes call, both agencies and employers).
As for my tires: I think you are wrong. I don’t buy right tires so I can go to work. I buy right tires so I can go whenever I want or need to.
He has the good sense to put the right tyres on his car so he can go to work, well done Orys, those tyres make the difference between going to work and not, as he rightly says they cost a lttle more than the normal junk if purchased at the right time…its not as if winter is a big surprise it turns up every year whatever happens.
exactly my point, why should the employee get prepared for an employer that can not■■?
but the farmer is the customer why should he be dictated to by the haulier?? perhaps he was contacting them to say i have enough feed till next week so deliver to those in need ect, prob is alot have problems in respect they clear the snow they can be held responsible, this is a problem with our parish council as they wont give the insurance so a local farmer can scrape the lanes…
think i,m the one laughing as last years snow i stayed at home got paid, and didnt waste any of my hard earned money setting off 3 hrs early to get to work… and i,m still on good terms with my boss!
but again read through the replies to the op, wheres the so called tommy spirit? the words of advice? the questions of just where he exactly does live■■? we know it was a wind up but the guy could have just passed his hgv and generally concerned about the conditions which btw advice from motoring associations and police was not to go out unless neccessary…
Jesus christ…what is up with british drivers? a few inches of snow and the country grinds to a halt!!.No wonder we are the laughing stock of most of europe.LEARN TO DRIVE.
dle1uk:
exactly my point, why should the employee get prepared for an employer that can not■■?
Who said I am preparing for an employer? I preparing for myself, so I can go whenever I want or need. If it’s work day I will go to work. If it’s day off, I will go to the hills for some winter hillwalking for example. If I am out of milk, I will go to the shops. If I want to visit friends in Edinburgh, I will go and visit them.
but the farmer is the customer why should he be dictated to by the haulier?? perhaps he was contacting them to say i have enough feed till next week so deliver to those in need ect, prob is alot have problems in respect they clear the snow they can be held responsible, this is a problem with our parish council as they wont give the insurance so a local farmer can scrape the lanes…
This is sooo British. “resonsible, insurance”. If he don’t need feed, he can call them and cancel the delivery, good enough. If he need, they shoudl work together to get it delivered. Simple.
Its like in this BBC reportage I linked in other thread news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8457957.stm when the hotel owner says that people cannot get there, because they cannot make last 300 yards to his place and how much momey he looses. It’s hilarious. 1 hour of work, three buckets of ash from his fireplace, and he is the only hotel in neighbourhood making fortune on the guests who cannot reach other places…
But I guess he was not insured to do so, and it was not his job, not his responsibility, he is paying taxes to have it done and he was thinking about children!
think i,m the one laughing as last years snow i stayed at home got paid, and didnt waste any of my hard earned money setting off 3 hrs early to get to work… and i,m still on good terms with my boss!
Good for you. But when your company goes ■■■■ up because of this attitude, please don’t blame Eastern Europeans for it.