Is truck "elephant racing" against the law?
Discussion
mikeveal said:
Understood and your opinion equally respected. If you can deal with these morons without annoyance then you're a better man than I.
I suspect my perception of the time spent delayed is worse than the actual figure, because being held up sticks in your mind as annoying, where as travelling freely doesn't.
That said, it is not uncommon to have bunched up traffic queues over a mile long on the A34. Multiple snail races will occur to create a rolling 56mph road block than can easily rumble along for 10 miles. It's painful, but to be fair, it probably save me a fair deal in fuel.
That's fair enough and there are clearly some inconsiderate arses about. Witness the slow overtake on the restricted section of the M42 yesterday morning by a tanker operating out of Goxhill North Lincs. UK owner driver too, so not even a 'no speak English' excuse. I suspect my perception of the time spent delayed is worse than the actual figure, because being held up sticks in your mind as annoying, where as travelling freely doesn't.
That said, it is not uncommon to have bunched up traffic queues over a mile long on the A34. Multiple snail races will occur to create a rolling 56mph road block than can easily rumble along for 10 miles. It's painful, but to be fair, it probably save me a fair deal in fuel.
andysgriff said:
I'm working back in the UK after a long spell overseas and in my humble opinion the roads are completely screwed now.
Roadworks, speed cameras, congestion, holes in the road, fuel costs, lorries and more lorries, aggressive and inconsiderate drivers, idiots with no insurance, etc etc.
Can anyone tell me anything positive about driving in the UK these days?
Yes, apparently we have women with the largest average breast size in the UK over (Europe/World - ?? I forget which) so at least when stuck in traffic there maybe something/one nice to look at.Roadworks, speed cameras, congestion, holes in the road, fuel costs, lorries and more lorries, aggressive and inconsiderate drivers, idiots with no insurance, etc etc.
Can anyone tell me anything positive about driving in the UK these days?
Additionally, lorries should be kept in lane one between 0600 and 2100 and thereby allow faster traffic to pass. I would not expect to hang around behind a fat bloke when walking or an old person struggling up the stairs. If there is space for two why not allow the faster person to pass?
Pip
Pip1968 said:
Additionally, lorries should be kept in lane one between 0600 and 2100 and thereby allow faster traffic to pass. I would not expect to hang around behind a fat bloke when walking or an old person struggling up the stairs. If there is space for two why not allow the faster person to pass?
Pip
Personally I would keep the office commutes to lane 1. The motorway IQ drops to minus figures when people go to work and come home. Even worse when people go on holiday and they drive many time further than they are used to.Pip
I have no problems waiting for a larger fella to get somewhere and would assist the the old person up the stairs or wait for them.
Wow, how odd do you get accused of following people then? I should imagine if I walked down to town following someone fat (and therefore slow moving) when I was fit and healthy they may think I was going to 'do them in'. As for helping old people up the stairs do you carry them?
I am not sure I agree with keeping commuters in lane one too as what would be the point. It would of course free the road up for me as I am not a commuter but would not be very good for the economy. HGV goods on the other hand may be moved by rail which will be all the better for everyone.
Pip
I am not sure I agree with keeping commuters in lane one too as what would be the point. It would of course free the road up for me as I am not a commuter but would not be very good for the economy. HGV goods on the other hand may be moved by rail which will be all the better for everyone.
Pip
mp3manager said:
a4cabrio said:
mp3manager said:
None of the big supermarkets are daft enough to run their own fleets. It's all contracted out.
Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons do use contractors for part of their distribution needs, but they still do the vast majority of it themselves with their own fleets
Too much traffic...Pip1968 said:
Yes, apparently we have women with the largest average breast size in the UK over (Europe/World - ?? I forget which) so at least when stuck in traffic there maybe something/one nice to look at.
Additionally, lorries should be kept in lane one between 0600 and 2100 and thereby allow faster traffic to pass. I would not expect to hang around behind a fat bloke when walking or an old person struggling up the stairs. If there is space for two why not allow the faster person to pass?
Pip
I would not expect cars capable of doing the speed limit and much more to sit in lane 1 on a motorway doing 40-50mph, but they do. I probably spend more time overtaking cars in my 56mph limited truck than I do other trucks. And I'm not exaggerating either. It seems to be getting worse as time goes on too.Additionally, lorries should be kept in lane one between 0600 and 2100 and thereby allow faster traffic to pass. I would not expect to hang around behind a fat bloke when walking or an old person struggling up the stairs. If there is space for two why not allow the faster person to pass?
Pip
a4cabrio said:
mp3manager said:
a4cabrio said:
mp3manager said:
None of the big supermarkets are daft enough to run their own fleets. It's all contracted out.
Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons do use contractors for part of their distribution needs, but they still do the vast majority of it themselves with their own fleetsAll that jazz said:
Morrisons is in-house.
Nope, run by DHL, both warehousing & fuel.http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/articles/01344-thou...
http://www.shdlogistics.com/news/view/dhl-secures-...
All that jazz said:
Tesco vast majority is done by Stobart.
Majority is Stobbies but DHL are in their too.All that jazz said:
Sainsburys I'm not sure;
DHL & WincantonAll that jazz said:
Morrisons is in-house. Tesco vast majority is done by Stobart. Sainsburys I'm not sure; think Wincanton could be involved but never had owt to do with either of them.
Stobart do not do the vast majority of tesco distribution, they run 2 or 3 distribution centres up North, Goole, Chesterfield and Widnes I think. Stobart also do a lot of trunking for Tesco, that's about it.Tesco run their own transport out of Southampton, Didcot, Reading, Dagenham, Thurrock, Welham Green, Livingston & Magor
Hardly stobart doing the vast majority is it
mp3manager said:
All that jazz said:
Morrisons is in-house.
Nope, run by DHL, both warehousing & fuel.http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/articles/01344-thou...
http://www.shdlogistics.com/news/view/dhl-secures-...
All that jazz said:
Tesco vast majority is done by Stobart.
Majority is Stobbies but DHL are in their too.All that jazz said:
Sainsburys I'm not sure;
DHL & WincantonDHL have nothing to do with store distribution or fuel distribution for Tesco, Norbert Dentressangle do Tesco fuel, stobart have a minor role in the big picture at Tesco
Wincanton do run some Sainsburys DC's but the majority are run by sainsburys themselves
a4cabrio said:
Morrisons run their own transport for store distribution, fuel could well be a contractor
DHL have nothing to do with store distribution or fuel distribution for Tesco, Norbert Dentressangle do Tesco fuel, stobart have a minor role in the big picture at Tesco
Wincanton do run some Sainsburys DC's but the majority are run by sainsburys themselves
Errrr...DHL have nothing to do with store distribution or fuel distribution for Tesco, Norbert Dentressangle do Tesco fuel, stobart have a minor role in the big picture at Tesco
Wincanton do run some Sainsburys DC's but the majority are run by sainsburys themselves
Wincanton handle Morrisons "M Local" contract, they also do Asda, send units to haul Sainsbury night store deliveries and oooop north do all of Co-op too.
ND I believe do Co-op down south but I have never seen them have anything to do with Tesco. Agree that Tesco have begun to do a lot of in house stuff but again, all the fuel delivery I have seen has been Stobrats with the odd subby from Brit European and some Isle of Man store work via Graylaws Transport.
As for Sainsbury, outbound around here is done both in house, by Wincantons and also by Mark Thompson transport who provide ten trucks a day out of Haydock, the returned rubbish is then recycled on site by Kuehne Nagel.
Running a supermarket DC and the logistics of said DC are two different things, each supermarket runs all of the respective DC, transport companies organize how things that are needed to be done then get done, for instance did you know that Stobrats rent some of a multimodal Wincanton site near the Daventry Tesco site for overflow and storage? Therefore it's possible that a load sat in that yard is almost 3rd hand as far as responsibility goes, oh and Maritime are also now on site at Tesco too.
On the other hand, from what i have seen, a manufacturers DC tends to be more in the control of the transport company, as seen up here by say Heinz, the contract is with Wincanton who have built a huge warehouse and DC next to the factory, Heinz is reliant on the site for distribution to the point where if the contract were to end the new hauler or Heinz would have to buy or rent the site from Wincanton, I am led to believe the same applies to Coca Cola over in Wakefield where Stobrats have funded the new buildings at the DC, if they have then it's one of the few good things they have done as you now load via the back doors and don't have to sit at the side of the road pulling the curtains back before you go on site!!!!
With DHL and Wincanton you have companies that hold massive contracts but tend to use said companies livery with maybe a mention on the side of a unit, with Stobrats and ND they tend to use there own branding so stand out more as a transport company. I think people would be staggered at the sheer size of DHL!!
NorfolkInClue1 said:
...life is too short to stress about that extra 2 mph......
Which is fair enough if that is the difference in your average speed: one slightly quicker truck vs another truck. Unfortunately not all truck drivers take the same view and indulge in elephant racing. However,the difference in speed from 70ish to 50ish IS significant to journey time - where the elephant racers often try to overtake each other on the A34 are the hills, so the trucks are not necessarily running at their vmax - and there are lots of hills on this road!
I have lost count of the number of times it happens on the A34 Winchester to ~ Didcot: a journey I have made the majority of days for the last 2 years or so. The hill between the Ilsley's and Chilton is one of the worst, but actually has a restriction on large vehicles in the outside lane - which a noticeable percentage of them ignore. It is there for a reason, their elephant racing on this particular hill has been a factor in the accident rate in the area. More than once on that stretch I've had delays of an hour plus due to an accident, often caused directly or indirectly by slow moving vehicles moving into lane 2 to go round an even slower moving vehicle. Sometimes I've almost been in sight of my office but can't get there for 1/2 hour or more!
Thankfully, from a commuting point of view I'm soon to be spared the A34, although I'm sure I'll still use it occasionally. I'm moving closer to work in a couple of weeks - and whilst I considered moving to places a moderate distance east and west of the office: I didn't want anything south of the office that would mean I'd still be gambling with the frustrations of the A34.
This thread is divided between those that get frustrated with elephant racing and those that are in trucks and for whatever reason think it is perfectly reasonable to take 2 miles to overtake each other at fractional speed differences - that is not going to change by any of our rants! Oh...also those debating who hauls for which supermarket!
Btw; I do agree with part of what I snipped from your post - life is too short to get stressed about it. Sadly whilst I can mostly stay in that mode - over 30k miles a year, so I'd be having ulcers or something if I didn't! I can't help getting frustrated with some of the overtake attempts - e.g. 2 miles on the Newbury bypass and both trucks were from the same company!
I still say - it's amazing how many trucks are on the m'ways and trunk routes at night, yet the roads still remain clear and free, roadworks and roadwork closures aside.
I don't think there are many/any more hgvs on these routes by day, yet by day the roads grind to a halt. At night, in car or hgv, you can easily make progress and generally romp around the country.
Why? What is the difference? If the hgvs are the cause of congestion, why do roads grind to a halt at 8am having been clear for the previous 13 hours?
I don't think there are many/any more hgvs on these routes by day, yet by day the roads grind to a halt. At night, in car or hgv, you can easily make progress and generally romp around the country.
Why? What is the difference? If the hgvs are the cause of congestion, why do roads grind to a halt at 8am having been clear for the previous 13 hours?
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