Another day humming along the A14 to Birmingham today, and at least it was absolutely stunning weather. Warm and sunny, and for some reason, very little traffic.
But, further to yesterday's post, I saw the litter pickers today!!!
Thursday 8 April 2010
Wednesday 7 April 2010
Don't rubbish our roads!
One of the things that I can never quite get my head around is the amount of rubbish I see along the sides of our roads. It's obscene. Why do people feel they have to throw their rubbish out of their car (and truck) windows?
The problem seems worse during the winter when the leaves don't hide the almost grotesque number of plastic bags, bottles, cans and fag packets that seem to infest every roadside.
I was driving along the A14 again today and noticed a sign on the side of the road near the Kettering turn off. It said; "Litter picking in progress." This came as a surprise as that particular stretch has always been particularly blighted by litter, and my natural cynicism with regard to local councils, makes me thing that litter is generally pretty low on the list of priorities. So I took the time to actually look out for the "litter pickers."
Safe to say there wasn't a soul in sight for more than five miles. But what I did see were clean verges! It was blatantly obvious they had recently passed that way because the verges looked like verges rather than the usual rubbish tip decoration.
So this post is dedicated, with undying thanks, to Northamptonshire County Council for their sterling work in making at least a short stretch of the A14 a little more civilised, if only until the barbarians who prefer to rubbish our roads find out about it.
Of course, it's not only in the UK that litter bugs are prevalent, and maybe it's an Anglo Saxon thing, because the same things happens in Australia. I can remember when I was living over there, there was a Oz Government ad campaign that used the phrase; "Don't rubbish Australia." (That's where the post title came from.)
Now I see the Aussies have a new campaign, (see below) and this poster looks pretty good at pointing out the problem of using your country as a rubbish tip.
Now why can't our government do something similar? Maybe because all our highly paid MPs don't venture too far outside London, and certainly not by road, so it's a case of "out of sight, out of mind."
Shame on them. And shame on the pigs who think it's OK to rubbish the country I unfortunately have to share with them!
The problem seems worse during the winter when the leaves don't hide the almost grotesque number of plastic bags, bottles, cans and fag packets that seem to infest every roadside.
I was driving along the A14 again today and noticed a sign on the side of the road near the Kettering turn off. It said; "Litter picking in progress." This came as a surprise as that particular stretch has always been particularly blighted by litter, and my natural cynicism with regard to local councils, makes me thing that litter is generally pretty low on the list of priorities. So I took the time to actually look out for the "litter pickers."
Safe to say there wasn't a soul in sight for more than five miles. But what I did see were clean verges! It was blatantly obvious they had recently passed that way because the verges looked like verges rather than the usual rubbish tip decoration.
So this post is dedicated, with undying thanks, to Northamptonshire County Council for their sterling work in making at least a short stretch of the A14 a little more civilised, if only until the barbarians who prefer to rubbish our roads find out about it.
Of course, it's not only in the UK that litter bugs are prevalent, and maybe it's an Anglo Saxon thing, because the same things happens in Australia. I can remember when I was living over there, there was a Oz Government ad campaign that used the phrase; "Don't rubbish Australia." (That's where the post title came from.)
Now I see the Aussies have a new campaign, (see below) and this poster looks pretty good at pointing out the problem of using your country as a rubbish tip.
Now why can't our government do something similar? Maybe because all our highly paid MPs don't venture too far outside London, and certainly not by road, so it's a case of "out of sight, out of mind."
Shame on them. And shame on the pigs who think it's OK to rubbish the country I unfortunately have to share with them!
Tuesday 6 April 2010
Slip road insanity.
Wherever I drive, and it doesn't matter if it's a dual carriageway or a motorway, I can guarantee that pretty much every day I will have to take evasive action to avoid an accident with a car using the slip road joining the road I'm on.
I know when it's going to happen because generally, the vehicle joining my road is either traveling at a slower speed, or at the same speed as the faster traffic - which in my case is around 50mph. I know it's going to happen because it's so bleedin' obvious that whoever's behind the wheel hasn't a clue about 44 tonne traffic coming up on their right hand side.
It's almost as if they expect to simply drive out into the traffic and be protected by some sort of all powerful traffic angel.
Traveling down the A47 south of Norwich recently, I had a guy who expected me to brake and let him in, instead of him accelerating and filtering in where there was space ahead or behind me.
Unfortunately I didn't have the luxury of moving over as there were vehicles already overtaking me. (Bear in mind I'm traveling at 50mph with 26 tonnes of freight, so a fully laden truck on a dual carriageway is not something you'd instantly want to argue with!)
So this guy simply continues to trundle along the ever diminishing slip road as I come alongside his driver's door. It takes a couple of seconds before he realises there's a truck next to him and he slams on the brakes. (Naturally with no thought for those behind him...)
When he does eventually drive out onto the A47 he's totally mad that I didn't just slam on my brakes and let him in, and intent on blaming me for his bad driving. He pulls alongside my truck and starts to move over in an attempt to cut me off! Talk about having a death wish!
Once again, when I didn't brake, and as it was his wife in the passenger seat who's face was getting closer to my spinning wheel nuts, he worked out that he was at a slight disadvantage. Eventually he drove off, never to be seen again.
But this isn't a rare occurrence. If I drive five days, I'd lay money on it happening on at least four of those days, and I can't quite work out why it's happening so often. It's not only women drivers and not just BMW's. It's not only new or old cars, and in fact it could be a van as often as a car.
Why do people have no idea how to join a faster road or motorway? Why are people so careless with not only their lives, but mine as well?
I was driving along the A14 today and in the space of ooh, 30 miles it happened at three consecutive slip roads!
Section 259 of the Highway Code deals specifically with joining a motorway. In fact here's what it says:
Joining the motorway. When you join the motorway you will normally approach it from a road on the left (a slip road) or from an adjoining motorway. You should
* give priority to traffic already on the motorway.
* check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane.
* not cross solid white lines that separate lanes or use the hard shoulder.
* stay on the slip road if it continues as an extra lane on the motorway.
* remain in the left-hand lane long enough to adjust to the speed of traffic before considering overtaking.
Seems pretty clear to me. Of course the alternative (see below) is something I dread happening, but unfortunately I expect it will sometime.
I know when it's going to happen because generally, the vehicle joining my road is either traveling at a slower speed, or at the same speed as the faster traffic - which in my case is around 50mph. I know it's going to happen because it's so bleedin' obvious that whoever's behind the wheel hasn't a clue about 44 tonne traffic coming up on their right hand side.
It's almost as if they expect to simply drive out into the traffic and be protected by some sort of all powerful traffic angel.
Traveling down the A47 south of Norwich recently, I had a guy who expected me to brake and let him in, instead of him accelerating and filtering in where there was space ahead or behind me.
Unfortunately I didn't have the luxury of moving over as there were vehicles already overtaking me. (Bear in mind I'm traveling at 50mph with 26 tonnes of freight, so a fully laden truck on a dual carriageway is not something you'd instantly want to argue with!)
So this guy simply continues to trundle along the ever diminishing slip road as I come alongside his driver's door. It takes a couple of seconds before he realises there's a truck next to him and he slams on the brakes. (Naturally with no thought for those behind him...)
When he does eventually drive out onto the A47 he's totally mad that I didn't just slam on my brakes and let him in, and intent on blaming me for his bad driving. He pulls alongside my truck and starts to move over in an attempt to cut me off! Talk about having a death wish!
Once again, when I didn't brake, and as it was his wife in the passenger seat who's face was getting closer to my spinning wheel nuts, he worked out that he was at a slight disadvantage. Eventually he drove off, never to be seen again.
But this isn't a rare occurrence. If I drive five days, I'd lay money on it happening on at least four of those days, and I can't quite work out why it's happening so often. It's not only women drivers and not just BMW's. It's not only new or old cars, and in fact it could be a van as often as a car.
Why do people have no idea how to join a faster road or motorway? Why are people so careless with not only their lives, but mine as well?
I was driving along the A14 today and in the space of ooh, 30 miles it happened at three consecutive slip roads!
Section 259 of the Highway Code deals specifically with joining a motorway. In fact here's what it says:
Joining the motorway. When you join the motorway you will normally approach it from a road on the left (a slip road) or from an adjoining motorway. You should
* give priority to traffic already on the motorway.
* check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane.
* not cross solid white lines that separate lanes or use the hard shoulder.
* stay on the slip road if it continues as an extra lane on the motorway.
* remain in the left-hand lane long enough to adjust to the speed of traffic before considering overtaking.
Seems pretty clear to me. Of course the alternative (see below) is something I dread happening, but unfortunately I expect it will sometime.
Monday 5 April 2010
Burton Latimer on a Monday.
Today, Easter Monday saw me deliver 26 pallets of fruit juice to Morrisons DC at Burton Latimer on the A14.
I was surprised at how little traffic there was on the roads, and the trip was uneventful, and as a consequence pretty stress-free.
The only downside of the trip was that I had an 04 plate Iveco Stralis to drive.
Now I don't really consider myself "picky" but I do like a neat, well designed, ergonomically well thought out truck. After all, it's what I do for a living and I spend a great deal of my life behind a steering wheel.
Well forgive me, but this has to rank as one of the worst trucks I've ever driven.
True, it was a little underpowered. It was also not very well cared for. (A hire truck to fill in whilst work is booming!)
I have never seen such a confusing dash board, built with the cheapest plastics Iveco could find with the result that they were just hard and tacky. And despite what you might think, not very hard wearing either.
Here's a picture of a Stralis dash. And look at how "thrown together" it looks. There's hardly a smooth surface to be seen. And this is a clean one! It looks in pristine condition compared to the shitbox I had to drive today.
The seat was too close to the steering wheel and the tilt adjustment on it was broken, so it felt as if I was going to slide off it and onto my knees all the time. The lift axle switch had been pushed through by some over eager previous driver, who couldn't get the lift axle to actually lift. It wouldn't perform for me either.
There was simply no rhyme or reason for where the switches were located and the central "electrics" screen had so many flashing lights and incomprehensible labels, it looked as if it was trying to compete with Blackpool.
The cloth on the seat and bunk were seriously cheap, and the bunk itself was very narrow. And the hump over the engine didn't encourage moving about the cab....
There was nowhere to actually stow my documents, and the drinks holders, apart from being in the wrong place were too shallow to hold a paper coffee mug. And believe me, it's bad enough when your papers go sliding across the dash, but when a mug of hot coffee does the same thing, a.) it's not a pretty sight and b.) it seriously pisses me off!
Having spoken to a few other drivers (who normally drive the standard fleet issue of Mercs or Scania's, there's no one I can find with a good word to say about the Ivecos, although I understand the Italians love them.
Sorry Iveco, but how about getting the people who design your truck, to have some understanding of how trucks are used. Or better still, send them to ask Scania some questions. No wonder I hear they are virtually giving the damn things away at the moment. They may be cheap, but there certainly are NOT cheerful!
The best I can say is that it did the job. Just.
Would I buy one? Well put it this way; whilst I concede they do have a certain fussy appeal from the outside, if I never saw another Iveco Stralis ever again, it would be too soon!
I was surprised at how little traffic there was on the roads, and the trip was uneventful, and as a consequence pretty stress-free.
The only downside of the trip was that I had an 04 plate Iveco Stralis to drive.
Now I don't really consider myself "picky" but I do like a neat, well designed, ergonomically well thought out truck. After all, it's what I do for a living and I spend a great deal of my life behind a steering wheel.
Well forgive me, but this has to rank as one of the worst trucks I've ever driven.
True, it was a little underpowered. It was also not very well cared for. (A hire truck to fill in whilst work is booming!)
I have never seen such a confusing dash board, built with the cheapest plastics Iveco could find with the result that they were just hard and tacky. And despite what you might think, not very hard wearing either.
Here's a picture of a Stralis dash. And look at how "thrown together" it looks. There's hardly a smooth surface to be seen. And this is a clean one! It looks in pristine condition compared to the shitbox I had to drive today.
The seat was too close to the steering wheel and the tilt adjustment on it was broken, so it felt as if I was going to slide off it and onto my knees all the time. The lift axle switch had been pushed through by some over eager previous driver, who couldn't get the lift axle to actually lift. It wouldn't perform for me either.
There was simply no rhyme or reason for where the switches were located and the central "electrics" screen had so many flashing lights and incomprehensible labels, it looked as if it was trying to compete with Blackpool.
The cloth on the seat and bunk were seriously cheap, and the bunk itself was very narrow. And the hump over the engine didn't encourage moving about the cab....
There was nowhere to actually stow my documents, and the drinks holders, apart from being in the wrong place were too shallow to hold a paper coffee mug. And believe me, it's bad enough when your papers go sliding across the dash, but when a mug of hot coffee does the same thing, a.) it's not a pretty sight and b.) it seriously pisses me off!
Having spoken to a few other drivers (who normally drive the standard fleet issue of Mercs or Scania's, there's no one I can find with a good word to say about the Ivecos, although I understand the Italians love them.
Sorry Iveco, but how about getting the people who design your truck, to have some understanding of how trucks are used. Or better still, send them to ask Scania some questions. No wonder I hear they are virtually giving the damn things away at the moment. They may be cheap, but there certainly are NOT cheerful!
The best I can say is that it did the job. Just.
Would I buy one? Well put it this way; whilst I concede they do have a certain fussy appeal from the outside, if I never saw another Iveco Stralis ever again, it would be too soon!
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