Coronavirus = empty roads
Discussion
psi310398 said:
Given the other pressures facing the country and the broad restriction on movement, what would the overall public interest argument against HMG simply universally and unilaterally suspending the requirement for an MOT for six or twelve months be?
I think that would be the sensible solution. Let’s see if it happens. My car is an absolute pain to get through the emissions test if not driven properly for a week before the test. I’m worried that it might not get through if I SORN it then just drive it to the test garage.
s following the rules and not leaving their houses.sharepointalex said:
Been watching this topic to get people's opinions on getting out for a drive amid this chaos. Kind of wish I hadn't just bought a new M340i given I won't have much time to drive it now!
I pondered this last night and have deduced that my driving will be limited to - driving to the supermarket (possibly taking the long way round to make it more fun) and doctors to pick up medicine and that's probably it.
I run every other day and will still do that as part of my '1 a day' and it has to be in the evening as we have a 4 year old a toddler in the house, that plus working and home schooling means a daytime run is out of the question. Was thinking I could drive somewhere remote and then do my run, probably less risky than running around the local neighbourhood as I wouldn't see any one....
Interestingly I did a walk with my 4 year old this morning to get her out, only a few people about and we kept away from each other, surprisingly more traffic on the roads than I expected...
Look at volunteering to help the nhs? They need 250000 people, and there's driving roles using a car. I've just signed up, you can toggle your availability on the app.I pondered this last night and have deduced that my driving will be limited to - driving to the supermarket (possibly taking the long way round to make it more fun) and doctors to pick up medicine and that's probably it.
I run every other day and will still do that as part of my '1 a day' and it has to be in the evening as we have a 4 year old a toddler in the house, that plus working and home schooling means a daytime run is out of the question. Was thinking I could drive somewhere remote and then do my run, probably less risky than running around the local neighbourhood as I wouldn't see any one....
Interestingly I did a walk with my 4 year old this morning to get her out, only a few people about and we kept away from each other, surprisingly more traffic on the roads than I expected...
Ferrying people to and from appointments and collection of things for people self isolating etc.
https://www.goodsamapp.org/nhs
wazztie16 said:
sharepointalex said:
Been watching this topic to get people's opinions on getting out for a drive amid this chaos. Kind of wish I hadn't just bought a new M340i given I won't have much time to drive it now!
I pondered this last night and have deduced that my driving will be limited to - driving to the supermarket (possibly taking the long way round to make it more fun) and doctors to pick up medicine and that's probably it.
I run every other day and will still do that as part of my '1 a day' and it has to be in the evening as we have a 4 year old a toddler in the house, that plus working and home schooling means a daytime run is out of the question. Was thinking I could drive somewhere remote and then do my run, probably less risky than running around the local neighbourhood as I wouldn't see any one....
Interestingly I did a walk with my 4 year old this morning to get her out, only a few people about and we kept away from each other, surprisingly more traffic on the roads than I expected...
Look at volunteering to help the nhs? They need 250000 people, and there's driving roles using a car. I've just signed up, you can toggle your availability on the app.I pondered this last night and have deduced that my driving will be limited to - driving to the supermarket (possibly taking the long way round to make it more fun) and doctors to pick up medicine and that's probably it.
I run every other day and will still do that as part of my '1 a day' and it has to be in the evening as we have a 4 year old a toddler in the house, that plus working and home schooling means a daytime run is out of the question. Was thinking I could drive somewhere remote and then do my run, probably less risky than running around the local neighbourhood as I wouldn't see any one....
Interestingly I did a walk with my 4 year old this morning to get her out, only a few people about and we kept away from each other, surprisingly more traffic on the roads than I expected...
Ferrying people to and from appointments and collection of things for people self isolating etc.
https://www.goodsamapp.org/nhs
Enjoyed reading all of the posts about employers not liking the WFH culture. I'm another that works for a large company and can relate to seeing it all of the time, depending on the line manager.
Hoping one of the very few positives that come out of this is that employers realise people can be as, if not more productive from home.
Unfortunately though it needs to come from higher up. Some manager's live in the stone ages and love to micromanage, others are ok with it. But unless it is enforced, the ones that don't like it will always get their way.
It's all that bit more baffling when companies are investing huge amounts of money in the latest tech like O365, Teams etc which are selected heavily for this purpose!
Hoping one of the very few positives that come out of this is that employers realise people can be as, if not more productive from home.
Unfortunately though it needs to come from higher up. Some manager's live in the stone ages and love to micromanage, others are ok with it. But unless it is enforced, the ones that don't like it will always get their way.
It's all that bit more baffling when companies are investing huge amounts of money in the latest tech like O365, Teams etc which are selected heavily for this purpose!
Just seen the request for NHS volunteers. Although recently retired I still have a valid enhanced DBS certificate. Just got over the lurgy that has the similar symptoms of the virus, so don't know whether I've had it or not. I'm prepared to help, but only if I can be tested to see if I've had it. Note it says social distancing applies and you can have time off if you have symptoms! Anyone know if they test?
Tabs said:
Just seen the request for NHS volunteers. Although recently retired I still have a valid enhanced DBS certificate. Just got over the lurgy that has the similar symptoms of the virus, so don't know whether I've had it or not. I'm prepared to help, but only if I can be tested to see if I've had it. Note it says social distancing applies and you can have time off if you have symptoms! Anyone know if they test?
Anti-body testing kits have been ordered but from what I read, and what I’d imagine to be the case, they will go to key workers first.I’d like to think volunteers would come somewhere down the pecking order between key workers and the general public.
But implementing that could prove challenging. Given how vast swathes of the general public have been behaving up to now, it’s not inconceivable people would sign up to be a volunteer just to get a test and then offer no help.
There’s also evidence coming from Iceland, where they have intense mass population testing in place, that they’ve found mutations of the virus and even someone who caught two different strains at the same time.
I suspect the view to take right now, is volunteer for any public facing role if you are prepared to take the risk of catching the virus, potentially even again.
And if you’re not, then offer yourself in a non public facing role.
Tabs said:
Just seen the request for NHS volunteers. Although recently retired I still have a valid enhanced DBS certificate. Just got over the lurgy that has the similar symptoms of the virus, so don't know whether I've had it or not. I'm prepared to help, but only if I can be tested to see if I've had it. Note it says social distancing applies and you can have time off if you have symptoms! Anyone know if they test?
You can help in various ways including phoning vulnerable people to check if they're OK. This is done from your own home so testing won't be necessary.Riley Blue said:
You can help in various ways including phoning vulnerable people to check if they're OK. This is done from your own home so testing won't be necessary.
^. This.I have a current enhanced DBS certificate and full availability but as I had to leave my cars in Italy I apparently cannot perform the trickier tasks as I have no transport of my own available. So I've signed up for the phoning option.
I'm sure it could be sorted but they will have the devil's own job just getting a quarter of million volunteers onboard so it is not worth raising the issue at the moment
Dog Star said:
It gets worse in my case.
In the UK in my team - there is me and one other guy, and the rest of the team are all in Gibraltar.
The other guy in the UK lives ten minutes from the office, yet he is allowed to work from home every day, all year.
We do the same job. I have an hour and a half drive each way. I have to be in the office. I really don't have anything to do whatsoever with the office in the UK aside from exchanging pleasantries with them, I don't work with them.
All my interactions with the rest of the team - and the other guy sat at home a few miles away - is done by Bluejeans and Slack. This works fine. When I am WFH I communicate with the team by Bluejeans and Slack. There is NO DIFFERENCE (although at home my cat sits next to me on his own office chair).
I have taken to simply not going into the office and not mentioning it - nobody cares or has noticed. If I'm having a call with any management outside my immediate small team I leave the camera off.
I know that the manager a couple of levels up isn't too chuffed about my oppo doing WFH all the time, but he can't really rescind it. He's gone so far as to call me and ask if it causes a problem for me. Why he doesn't like it is a mystery to me - he's 1500 miles away and doesn't know where we are. It's presenteeism, pure and simple.
It's a farcical situation - I'm meant to spend 3 hours a day driving, spend a fortune on fuel and parking, get up at 5.45 in the morning etc all so I can go and sit on my own in a big open plan office listening to music with my headphones on instead of sitting at home (in a proper office, I might add) with the exact same setup (same 3 monitors, same keyboard, mouse and dock, same camera etc) listening to music with my headphones. What an absolute joke.
I'll keep on doing this until someone actually notices - they'll either do nothing or make me do the 3 hours commuting, in which case I'm off. Life's too short for this kind of tosh.
The government really needs to incentivise WFH; why spend billions on green eco policies, upgrading roads and so on, when you can probably reduce peak road use by about 15% or so by getting people off the roads who don't need to be there. That way the "bums on seats" bellend companies can actually pay for their practices.
(on this same topic - my car is on 15000 miles a year which I'd normally use up. My year runs to 8th December - so I'm 4 months past that and just hit 14000. It won't be much more by autumn with this virus business).
It’s trust and also possibly individuals from a different generation. In the UK in my team - there is me and one other guy, and the rest of the team are all in Gibraltar.
The other guy in the UK lives ten minutes from the office, yet he is allowed to work from home every day, all year.
We do the same job. I have an hour and a half drive each way. I have to be in the office. I really don't have anything to do whatsoever with the office in the UK aside from exchanging pleasantries with them, I don't work with them.
All my interactions with the rest of the team - and the other guy sat at home a few miles away - is done by Bluejeans and Slack. This works fine. When I am WFH I communicate with the team by Bluejeans and Slack. There is NO DIFFERENCE (although at home my cat sits next to me on his own office chair).
I have taken to simply not going into the office and not mentioning it - nobody cares or has noticed. If I'm having a call with any management outside my immediate small team I leave the camera off.
I know that the manager a couple of levels up isn't too chuffed about my oppo doing WFH all the time, but he can't really rescind it. He's gone so far as to call me and ask if it causes a problem for me. Why he doesn't like it is a mystery to me - he's 1500 miles away and doesn't know where we are. It's presenteeism, pure and simple.
It's a farcical situation - I'm meant to spend 3 hours a day driving, spend a fortune on fuel and parking, get up at 5.45 in the morning etc all so I can go and sit on my own in a big open plan office listening to music with my headphones on instead of sitting at home (in a proper office, I might add) with the exact same setup (same 3 monitors, same keyboard, mouse and dock, same camera etc) listening to music with my headphones. What an absolute joke.
I'll keep on doing this until someone actually notices - they'll either do nothing or make me do the 3 hours commuting, in which case I'm off. Life's too short for this kind of tosh.
The government really needs to incentivise WFH; why spend billions on green eco policies, upgrading roads and so on, when you can probably reduce peak road use by about 15% or so by getting people off the roads who don't need to be there. That way the "bums on seats" bellend companies can actually pay for their practices.
(on this same topic - my car is on 15000 miles a year which I'd normally use up. My year runs to 8th December - so I'm 4 months past that and just hit 14000. It won't be much more by autumn with this virus business).
Previously when I’ve been WFH my FIL oh yea WFH a wink etc. It’s that sort of thing the underlying view your not doing anything.
wazztie16 said:
Look at volunteering to help the nhs? They need 250000 people, and there's driving roles using a car. I've just signed up, you can toggle your availability on the app.
Ferrying people to and from appointments and collection of things for people self isolating etc.
https://www.goodsamapp.org/nhs
Brill thanks! Have just signed up :-) Ferrying people to and from appointments and collection of things for people self isolating etc.
https://www.goodsamapp.org/nhs
Interestingly found this article on Sky last night - https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-can-i-walk-...
Michael Gove saying that you are unlikely to be stopped just for going out for a drive. That being said I believe some cars were being stopped in Nottingham.
I'm using my one form of exercise or any shopping so far for a drive and venturing further out for the exercise where there are less people. Also read somewhere else this is ok, it's all about using common sense basically.
sharepointalex said:
I'm using my one form of exercise or any shopping so far for a drive and venturing further out for the exercise where there are less people. Also read somewhere else this is ok, it's all about using common sense basically.
Haven't been for a drive yet, but we're using our exercise slot by doing a long walk with the dogs at 9:00 in the evening. Togged up, headtorches on, and out as a family for 3-4 miles through the woods and over a nearby country park and disused airfield. Even at that time of evening, it's normal to come across other dog walkers or the odd runner, but we haven't come across another soul all week. And my 13 year old daughter pointed out yesterday that even the usual constant background traffic hum of the nearby motorway and major trunk road is notable by its absence. It really is like we have the world to ourselves.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff