The economy needs just-in-time deliveries

TheFactory

Kennyboy66 wrote: »

If you had driven a lorry you would know there a blind spots particulalrly on the off side & low down.

Most HGV's have blind spot mirrors either side, a mirror on the front that allows you to see the entire lower front of your lorry and one above the NS door that allows you to see down to the kerb.

In my honest opinion I find it is the cyclists that cause the problem, rush hour on embankment is an absolute nightmare, they swarm around you on all sides and make it very difficult to drive safely, the amount I see cycling through red lights is unbelieveable. Cyclists should need licencing, numberplates and training to cycle inside certain zones, until this happens nothing will change.

custardy

TheFactory wrote: »

Most HGV's have blind spot mirrors either side, a mirror on the front that allows you to see the entire lower front of your lorry and one above the NS door that allows you to see down to the kerb.

In my honest opinion I find it is the cyclists that cause the problem, rush hour on embankment is an absolute nightmare, they swarm around you on all sides and make it very difficult to drive safely, the amount I see cycling through red lights is unbelieveable. Cyclists should need licencing, numberplates and training to cycle inside certain zones, until this happens nothing will change.

and again. This solves all the problems for presently licensed road users?

Loughton_Monkey

Back in 1969, I got a holiday job (as a student) driving a 3-ton lorry for a soft drinks firm. All around Nottingham but mainly the Derbyshire Dales.

Nice job for a student, especially delivering to pubs so that 3 or 4 free pints were the norm, but I cursed the hills - often literally standing up in the cab with my whole weight on the brakes to get the thing to slow down. Quite a few 'near misses'.

Arriving back at term time, I got a mate in the bar to weigh a crate of similar soft drinks. I then calculated the weight of my usual 'load' and found it to be >6 tons. Let alone the weight of the lorry itself!

Luckily for the cyclists, very few of them were about in those days riding up and down the roads to Buxton, Bakewell, Matlock and Darley Dale!

You may think it rather "bad" for a drunken student to be on the road in an old, badly maintained lorry, more than 2X over weight. But the worst thing was that probably, I was earning less than the equivalent of minimum wage!

TheFactory

custardy wrote: »

and again. This solves all the problems for presently licensed road users?

By increasing the level of proficiency and awareness of presently unlicensed road users?

CLAPTON

TheFactory wrote: »

By increasing the level of proficiency and awareness of presently unlicensed road users?

training for cyclists may well be a good idea

as is training for car drivers on how to drive near cyclists and children

Generali

wotsthat wrote: »

I do the same, always turn left on red, take up only the space I need, and try to be considerate to other road users.

I've had virtually no issues with other road users personally. My main problem has been with carelessness - non malicious but being knocked off by a nice person isn't much of a consolation.

You on Strava (https://www.strava.com) gen? Also, interesting guy in Adelaide who's a vegan and seems to be making a fortune posting youtube videos - mainly trolling anyone that thinks eating 30 bananas a day might be a tad obsessive.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_K0S2GbXYI9Fc77d6oRE7w

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyR3pFHGQZbHTXxsqLaC-oA

I am on Strava although I don't use it much. I tend to use it when I'm out with the Generalissimos as they always want to know how fast and far they've gone.

I used to use it a bit and it's quite fun to see how fast (slowly) I get up the hills. I just keep forgetting to set it and there seems little point in collecting some of the data.

If I ever get a new phone I might attach the old one to my handlebars and use it as a bike computer.

custardy

TheFactory wrote: »

By increasing the level of proficiency and awareness of presently unlicensed road users?

right over your head
so the presently licensed ones follow the letter of the law now?

custardy

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Back in 1969, I got a holiday job (as a student) driving a 3-ton lorry for a soft drinks firm. All around Nottingham but mainly the Derbyshire Dales.

Nice job for a student, especially delivering to pubs so that 3 or 4 free pints were the norm, but I cursed the hills - often literally standing up in the cab with my whole weight on the brakes to get the thing to slow down. Quite a few 'near misses'.

Arriving back at term time, I got a mate in the bar to weigh a crate of similar soft drinks. I then calculated the weight of my usual 'load' and found it to be >6 tons. Let alone the weight of the lorry itself!

Luckily for the cyclists, very few of them were about in those days riding up and down the roads to Buxton, Bakewell, Matlock and Darley Dale!

You may think it rather "bad" for a drunken student to be on the road in an old, badly maintained lorry, more than 2X over weight. But the worst thing was that probably, I was earning less than the equivalent of minimum wage!

yeah low earnings are so much worse than drink driving ....

bugslet

As I was - at the grand age of 5 - my Dad's drivers mate in 1969, I can tell you that the way things were done back then are most definitely not the way things are done now.

Overloads, ghosting, bad maintenance still happens, but it's the exception, ot the rule and the targetting of bad hauliers is focussed now, which is why you get a high count of failure on a police clampdown.

bugslet

theEnd wrote: »

How on earth are lorries allowed on the roads when they can't see around them? A car wouldn't be allowed. If cycling was just invented and you could only see forward (or some of the side, as long as you're not turning) it'd be banned straight away.

As i said to you before, we can see an awful lot, there are a couple of places on the left and low that are difficult to see. If I was a cyclist, I'd avoid being near them where possible. part of the trouble is that no matter how many mirrors you have, by the time you check mirror 1 and get o mirror 8, the scene in mirror 1 has changed.

skivenov wrote: »

The transport industry would love to be able to run more stuff at night, they'll get there faster and use less fuel. However, a lot of supermarkets have "no night deliveries" clauses put in place when they applied for planning permission due to people living in the area.

You'd have to turf this out of the window to put all freight delivered by road onto night time deliveries

http://www.londonlorrycontrol.com/

Personally as a haulier, I don't want night time deliveries ( though I don't do city deliveries on the whole), I work hard enough during the day, why would I want to have drivers ringing me up at night with problems?

I don't see a huge issue with some sort of cyclist training. As one of the lads on trucknet said, he tries to pull up at lights and junctions and keep the trailer/truck hard up by the kerb, then you still get people 'cycling' by pushing themselves along the kerb and staying there on the left of the vehicle. Some cyclists are aware, some aren't and it's the ones that don't have a clue that terrify drivers.