its competition time

well its a competition but with no prizes - just your own satisfaction

here is the jist of it - i will list what i have done for the week and you have to work out how many miles i have done all week and how many hours i have driven

dead simple , i bet you struggle for few weeks on the workings out but it might give you an insight into driving a wagon for a living

i will list the answers a week later and you can see how close you were - as i said no prizes but it should be fun

start penrith - tip bradford - down to lound - park up
load lound - tip bilston - load castle vale - up to penrith - change trailers - park up
tip howden - load ferrybridge - tip penrith - change trailers - run time out heading south
tip littlehampton - load gosport - load more at larkhill - run north
tip longtown - tip newbridge - tip edinburgh - load blantyre run south
change trailers at penrith - tip grangemouth - load livingston - run home to penrith
i think i have had a quiet week - lets see what you think

i suppose i had better explain tachograph rules and drivers hours laws and such just to help you out a bit

we can only drive for a maximum of four and half hours at a time before needing to take a fourty-five minute break - this can be divided into fifteen miute segments as long as the second break before the 4 and a half hour point is 30 minutes

we can only drive for 9 hours per day - however this can be extended to 10 hours twice per week

this driving time and rest periods must be contained within the working day of 13 hours - however this can be extended to 15 hours twice per week

at the end of your day you must have a rest period of 11 hours - however this can be reduced to 9 hours three times per week

you are only allowed to drive for 90 hours in any two week period

as per the working time directive you must not average more than 48 working hours in a week - this is averaged out over a three month period

working time is time spent driving or doing other work - ie loading or unloading

the wagons are limited by law to 56mph

there you are - clear as mud - but thats how we have to do it

so off you go how many hours driving did i do for the week how many hours total and how many miles did i do

not so much road rage, but...

its been bugging me for a while this one

speed limit signs on the roads ie 30, 40, 50 etc

have you noticed that if the signs are saying 60 the traffic is doing 40 and if it says 50 the traffic is doing 30 ?

it is dead obvious this one and was stareing me in the face - which probably expains why it took me so long to figure out

have a look next time this happens to your traffic queue

so what are you looking for ?

look at your speedo - not the miles per hour - look at the kph

60 kph is 40 mph , 50kph is 30 mph

so why - its easy when you figure it out - not all the drivers on our roads took their licence in this country did they ?

as a lot of other countries do all their speed limits in kilometers they are used to kph instead of mph

i had to talk to a few non uk drivers to confirm my logic and they agreed - so there you are , and now you know

is it just me ?

coffee from garages and service stations

what ever happened to bog standard coffee when the only option was whether you wanted milk or sugar in it ?

me personally i like strong coffee no sugar with plenty of milk in it and proper milk at that not this watered down rubbish

so what happened - too much choice latte, cappuccino, flavoured syrup, frappe

lets get back to good old fashioned choice - i cant be the only one ?

this vehicle is limited to 50mph to save money and the environment

i bet you have seen this too mainly on wagons - what a stupid idea this has turned out to be - probably thought up by some suit in an office who knows bugger all about transport

this idea would work great in possibly Holland or the like - but here in the uk there are too many hills for it to work properly as at 50mph the lorries cannot get a run at the hills and end up losing speed and have to pull too hard up the hills thus using more fuel in the proccess

talking to other drivers who have had this done to their wagons they all say the same thing - their fuel consumption has gone up !!

another side effect of this is that it causes more overtaking manouvers for the rest of us thus causing others to lose speed - pulling harder - more fuel used again !!

to the suit in the office who thought it up - think again and try talking to people who actually know something about it before you do it - any more daft ideas like this and you will end up as a health and safety officer