Longer lorries on UK roads

[Ant]

This is an issue we need to articulate.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Concerns, too, about EV loading in multistorey car parks.

I've read that as well but if a multi storey was built 50 years ago then cars are already much heavier than they were then, so why only get worried about it now?

Dunno. Cars bigger, change in styling to [bigger] SUV, perhaps adding EV batteries is a final straw?

Or perhaps it's anti-EV scaremongering?

Is this like the "they built the library but didn't account for the weight of the books" thing?

[roadster]

If the revenue collected from HGVs went back into maintaining the roads all would be OK. But sadly roads are getting worse day by day and HGVs soon find out any weak spots and demolish the surface. If you want to experience HGV driving in the virtual world I recommend the game Snowrunner which is a bit more challenging and imaginative than Euro Truck Simulator. This is the cheap way of seeing things from the truck drivers perspective.

[Slenver]

If the revenue collected from HGVs went back into maintaining the roads all would be OK

That sounds much like anti-cyclist 'But I pay road tax!' logic though. Tax hasn't worked like that for nearly 90 years.

[Slenver]

I've read that as well but if a multi storey was built 50 years ago then cars are already much heavier than they were then, so why only get worried about it now?

Maybe it's finally time to make car park sizes match actual contemporary cars rather than Morris Minors and Ford Anglias

[Mr. Dazzle]

TBF they do in new car parks, IME. They also often paint foot wide white lines, presumably because the now obese population can't squeeze through a narrow door gap

[The Spin Doctor]

Torygiraffe tells us that since EVs are 20% heavier than ordinary cars, all the bridges are on the verge of collapse anyway.

Concerns, too, about EV loading in multistorey car parks.

I've read that as well but if a multi storey was built 50 years ago then cars are already much heavier than they were then, so why only get worried about it now?

Reasonable question. Depends on the margin for added loading when the car park was built. Judging by the state of my local Sainsbury car park five years ago, the tarmac wasn't capable of supporting an ICE saloon. You could get round it in a multi-story by actually widening the parking bays so that it's possible to open the doors after parking. Cars have got wider not just heavier.

Back to bridges. On main roads, it's not an issue. If a bridge is capable of supporting a bus, let alone a fully loaded HGV I doubt there's much worry about if two EVs follow each other in the same space. The worry will be the bridges built centuries ago on back lanes.

[Beancounter]

As a new driver, driving up the inside of an artic on a roundabout was one of those 'Oh, won't do that again' lessons. Luckily I didn't end up squashed, but it was close!

My missus still does this on occasion. Ironically she won't drive down the DCW/MW sitting next to one but will go onto a RB next to one.

[The Spin Doctor]

As a new driver, driving up the inside of an artic on a roundabout was one of those 'Oh, won't do that again' lessons. Luckily I didn't end up squashed, but it was close!

My missus still does this on occasion. Ironically she won't drive down the DCW/MW sitting next to one but will go onto a RB next to one.

I've NEVER understood why so many drivers actually slow down as they get alongside the coach or truck they are passing... just longer exposed to danger, particularly when it's a LHD.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Mrs Ds old Mk1 MX5 would disappear completely in the spray alongside lorries on wet dual carriageways. She would drop a gear and floor it to over take them

[Bigjawa]

There are already trucks on the road that are heavier than 44t and longer than 18m, except they have STGO plates. Where I do a lot of my driving in my tiny wee 18 tonner, there are a lot of companies making huge screening machines, some of them are upwards of 50 tons. seeing a low loader with about 6 axles before 3 or 4 on the unit is pretty common.

I used to drive these things in Belfast.



They're 18 tons empty and 65 feet long. Rather worryingly, because the "trailer" isn't detatchable, they can be driven on a plain D licence, when I did the training, I was one of only two drivers who could reverse the bloody things.

It's the worst job in the company, so all the new drivers with fresh tests, are being shoved out on the most awkward buses to drive.

Beware of a lorry carrying peat, I was behind a truck on the weighbridge that weighed in at 47000, his paperwork said 44, it was a chucking down day so I assumed that the extra 3 ton was water soaked up.

[Yorick]

There are already trucks on the road that are heavier than 44t and longer than 18m, except they have STGO plates. Where I do a lot of my driving in my tiny wee 18 tonner, there are a lot of companies making huge screening machines, some of them are upwards of 50 tons. seeing a low loader with about 6 axles before 3 or 4 on the unit is pretty common.

I used to drive these things in Belfast.



They're 18 tons empty and 65 feet long. Rather worryingly, because the "trailer" isn't detatchable, they can be driven on a plain D licence, when I did the training, I was one of only two drivers who could reverse the bloody things.

It's the worst job in the company, so all the new drivers with fresh tests, are being shoved out on the most awkward buses to drive.

Beware of a lorry carrying peat, I was behind a truck on the weighbridge that weighed in at 47000, his paperwork said 44, it was a chucking down day so I assumed that the extra 3 ton was water soaked up.

Quick mental arithmetic says it would need nearly 3" of rain

[JackyJoll]

They’d have has these longer lorries years ago. They were waiting for longer Yorkie Bar technology to catch up.

[Bigjawa]

They’d have has these longer lorries years ago. They were waiting for longer Yorkie Bar technology to catch up.

When I was a kid in the 70's I saw the original Yorkie ads and told my mum I wanted to be a lorry driver when I grew up, wanting a son in university this didn't please her, but she started buying me Yorkie easter eggs every year.

She still buys me the Yorkie eggs and I never went to Uni.

There's worse jobs than being a trucker.

[JackyJoll]

Longer lorries can carry more goods in fewer trips

The murder rate of prostitutes will plummet.