Ask a Highways England Traffic Officer anything

[BossHogg]

None, can't afford them after seven years of pay freezes. I take my own stuff with me. I have a stash of tinned stuff in my locker for days when I fancy something warm.

[BossHogg]

What are your previous jobs? there's a guy who works with me whose operational experience was in retail.

[BossHogg]

Yeah right! Elfin safe tea would have kittens!

[BossHogg]

They probably couldn't see the vehicle from their location and assumed the back log was normal rush hour traffic. As soon as they are aware, they'll drag the car to the hard shoulder or nearest emergency refuge area.

[BossHogg]

You can't see the whole scene on the left side of the picture, there's probably a closure on that side too, the horsebox may be loaded.

[BossHogg]

gothatway said:

That looks like quite a manky old horsebox. I wonder what happened - hope any livestock are ok as it won't have been their fault.

And one for the Traffic Officers ... I remember being told that if you have livestock on board a lorry or trailer and are stuck in a motorway stand-still that you can contact AHVLA/DEFRA who will arrange for you to be escorted off the motorway (if possible). Any truth in that ?

We've recently completed animal handling courses to enable us to deal with horses and dogs, we'll be trained with livestock and swans next. We have an list of contact numbers for each type of animal we attend.

[BossHogg]

It could have been his way of greeting people, one of my managers is from Birmingham, he addresses us as kid. I address people as mucker.

[BossHogg]

I used to carry a spider wheel brace to lend to motorists who wanted to change a wheel themselves but had no wheel brace. I got told in no uncertain terms to lose it or face disciplinary action.

[BossHogg]

In roadworks with hard shoulder running, there is free recovery in place. Our job is to protect the scene, however, if there was a slip road so close as you explained, I would clear to that slip - unless- the engine has blown and dumped all its oil on the road. Then it would have to remain closed untill recovery has taken place so the road surface can be cleaned.

[BossHogg]

I've phoned 999 in the past to report debris, the police operator didn't understand the marker post location, I had to tell them to pass it to traffic/highways, they will know what it means. Now I just ring my own control centre and get them to pass it to the nearest control centre to where I am.

[BossHogg]

We did trial winter tyres, however, it was discovered the tyres we routinely use were good enough for all seasons.

[BossHogg]

I've been hijacked!
https://www.whatcar.com/news/highways-england-patr...

[BossHogg]

Shiv_P said:

Did they ask you to upload that?

Bit cheeky if they didn't IMO

A bit of warning would have been nice, only found out today in work when colleagues were talking about it!!!

[BossHogg]

Most slip roads have two lanes, we'll taper the closure from the outside lane inwards to the slip road coning off the hard shoulder to prevent traffic continuing down the main carriageway. I say outside lane as we only have 3 lanes on my patch, I appreciate other areas have 4 5 and 6 lane stretches.

[BossHogg]

No, the licence states our control designator is HA, it's stayed the same. It might change when we leave airwave, but that's to be decided by pay grades far higher than mine.

[BossHogg]

That's nice that you had a good experience with our service, wasn't there a more suitable location to clear you to instead of closing a lane?

[BossHogg]

That's understandable, I wouldn't have moved it either.

[BossHogg]

We use sepura, take everything in during training, if you're not sure, ask questions.

[BossHogg]

Email me some details and I'll speak to one of my colleagues that assists on recruitment to see if he can find anything out for you.

[BossHogg]

I did my assessment in Oct 05, heard nothing until 1st May 06 and was told me I was on the shortlist, they phoned me back 36 hours later offered me the job subject to medical which was a day later and started training on the 9th!