Stonehenge by-pass is vital
As a truck driver I have regularly had to use the A303 which goes past Stonehenge, the prehistoric stone-circle monument in Wiltshire. In today’s Observer there is a piece by Tom Holland which claims...
Category: Road Life
Time to put a stop to the 20mph zone fad
Over the past few years, a number of boroughs in London have imposed 20mph speed limits across most or all of the roads under their control (which in London is all except motorways and...
Yes, we need our hands-free phones.
Last week it was reported that the UK Parliament’s transport select committee (a committee of MPs drawn proportionally from each party with seats in the Commons) had recommended that consideration be given to the...
999 (is no joke)
Last Saturday I was driving an articulated lorry down the M1 in Derbyshire, on the way back from delivering a trailer load of Mars bars to a depot outside Chesterfield, and I saw a...
The distraction of in-car touch screens
From Popular Mechanics, via OSNews: When I’m in charge of a car company, we’re going to have one strict rule about interior design: Make it so it doesn’t cause you to crash the car. ...
Autism, driving, and changes to British notification rules
Last weekend, by chance, some of us found out that people with autism spectrum disorders (principally Asperger’s syndrome) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were required to notify the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing...
How effective will the ULEZ be?
This April a new low-emission zone, the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), will take effect in central London. This will mean that drivers or owners will have to pay a charge to drive a...
Review: Garmin Dezl 580
Last year I bought, and then returned, Garmin’s latest ‘flagship’ truck sat-nav, the Dezl 780. The reason I returned it was that a major feature which I used on a daily basis, the ability...
Time to ban the “smart motorway” death traps
An all-party group of MPs has said that the roll-out of so-called smart motorways, in particular the "all lane running" (ALR) arrangement in which the hard shoulder is permanently converted into a driving lane...
Trucking, toilets and wheelchairs (a World Toilet Day post)
Earlier today I came across an article announcing some research that had been done about British workers and their access to toilet breaks, or lack thereof, published by the trade union Unite. Thousands of...
Will there ever be a London-Hull motorway?
This morning on a truck drivers' group on Facebook, I saw a link to a report on the Hull Daily Mail website (not linked to the national Daily Mail) which claimed that the proposal...
Truckers blocking London? Get real.
This morning I saw a longish interview on the BBC Breakfast show with some guy called Richard Tice, who was identified only as a spokesman for "Leave Means Leave". I didn't hear most of...
First impressions: Garmin Dezl 780
The new 7" Garmin truck navigation unit, the Dezl 780, is being released some time this month according to Garmin's website; you can buy it through Amazon now. I got mine last Sunday after...
Green light for gridlock
Today the government gave its backing to plans to expand Heathrow airport in west London by building an extra runway to the north-west of the existing site, with all the necessary access roads and...
Is there really a driver shortage?
A couple of weeks ago I had a very brief stab at being an all-week truck driver, or as they call them in this country, a tramper. The job would have involved picking up...
Why are service stations a rip-off?
Today the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, called for an investigation into what he called "exploitative" fuel prices at motorway service stations, which are typically 20p per litre above prices elsewhere (and the gap between...
Who’s more culpable for the M1 truck crash?
Last August there was a three-vehicle crash on the M1 outside Milton Keynes in which eight people were killed, all of them in a minibus which was crushed when a moving truck from behind...
If you don’t like trucks, don’t buy stuff
A member of Kent County Council has called for trucks to be banned from roads in Kent, claiming they cause "more damage than 10,000 cars" driving through his village. Seán Holden, council member for...
Cold callers getting more sophisticated
Earlier today while drinking my coffee I got a call from a woman who told me that there was some sort of payout waiting for me as a result of a vehicle incident that...
Amazon Tetris?!
Scrolling through the timeline of "somebody that I used to know", I saw a tweet which had been retweeted more than 25,000 times as of this writing and which has even been the subject...