JCB's (aka rolling road blocks)
Discussion
Am I alone in thinking that these are more dangerous than your average motorist with a slightly over enthusiastic right foot?
My dislike of these stems from more than just the frustration of getting stuck behind them nearly everyday.
Their ability to turn a freely moving road into a mass of braking vehicles is surely dangerous.
Anyone else think that they should not be permitted onto major roads such as dual carriageways during peak hours?
My dislike of these stems from more than just the frustration of getting stuck behind them nearly everyday.
Their ability to turn a freely moving road into a mass of braking vehicles is surely dangerous.
Anyone else think that they should not be permitted onto major roads such as dual carriageways during peak hours?
Just to really set the cat among the pigeons.
I work for a general builders and although I rarely drive our Mechanical Digger (ours isn't a JCB although it is almost a carbon copy) on the roads, I often have to grab a lift with it to get onto whichever site it happens to be going to.
The Majority of Builders and those in the trade (Plumbers, sparks, brickies etc) start work at 8.00am, therefore most are heading to the site from the yard by 8.15. I am every morning in a van or the digger by 08.10.
I know our driver is very concious(sp?) of long queues building up behind him, sometimes these are unavoidable, but he will where possible pull into a suitable place and allow the queue to pass, this does however remove time spent on a Job, and we have deadlines to meet as well you know.
As for pulling out into a line of braking cars, they have no choice, MD's are usually have a top speed circa 40mph, there is no need to drive quickly digging a hole! Acceleration is non exiestant but sometimes the MD is crucial to the job, so work usually stops til it arrives, if it spent 10 minutes at each junction it came waiting for a huge gap in the traffic to pull out, it would never make it onto the sites. It's one of those unavoidable little problems you get with a 5 tonne vehicle.
My work did look into trailering the MD to the site's, but it ways 5tonne which is very heavy and we now understand why most MD's are moved by road, the logistics of doing such a thing 2 or 3 times are day is too costly and very time consuming. Trying to find a usable van with a towing weight of over 5 tonne, and a capcity in the back that can hold the spares it needs is difficult and expensive.
What I am trying to say is that the Driver doesn't want to be in that position as much as you don't, but it can't be helped. He's trying his best, and probably going as fast as he can, he can't help it that they only make slow MD's!
I work for a general builders and although I rarely drive our Mechanical Digger (ours isn't a JCB although it is almost a carbon copy) on the roads, I often have to grab a lift with it to get onto whichever site it happens to be going to.
The Majority of Builders and those in the trade (Plumbers, sparks, brickies etc) start work at 8.00am, therefore most are heading to the site from the yard by 8.15. I am every morning in a van or the digger by 08.10.
I know our driver is very concious(sp?) of long queues building up behind him, sometimes these are unavoidable, but he will where possible pull into a suitable place and allow the queue to pass, this does however remove time spent on a Job, and we have deadlines to meet as well you know.
As for pulling out into a line of braking cars, they have no choice, MD's are usually have a top speed circa 40mph, there is no need to drive quickly digging a hole! Acceleration is non exiestant but sometimes the MD is crucial to the job, so work usually stops til it arrives, if it spent 10 minutes at each junction it came waiting for a huge gap in the traffic to pull out, it would never make it onto the sites. It's one of those unavoidable little problems you get with a 5 tonne vehicle.
My work did look into trailering the MD to the site's, but it ways 5tonne which is very heavy and we now understand why most MD's are moved by road, the logistics of doing such a thing 2 or 3 times are day is too costly and very time consuming. Trying to find a usable van with a towing weight of over 5 tonne, and a capcity in the back that can hold the spares it needs is difficult and expensive.
What I am trying to say is that the Driver doesn't want to be in that position as much as you don't, but it can't be helped. He's trying his best, and probably going as fast as he can, he can't help it that they only make slow MD's!

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