HGV

[oldwheels]

Heavy goods vehicles and their drivers and conditions of work have appeared on this forum several times but I have a couple of particular rants. Why can they not stay on their own side of the road? They manage to do it easily when they meet another heavy but when I appear in my motorhome they are about a foot on my side of the white line and will not move over. In my relatively fragile machine I have to stray too far over to my left to avoid a clash of mirrors at best and risk damage from the street furniture on the inside. Next why can they not measure the height of the vehicle? Connel Bridge near Oban is frequently closed for hours because tho’ the height is clearly marked some idiot gets jammed under the girders. The police are no help and simply say they have no idea how long it will be closed for. The local school seem to be able to tell parents about times. I recently had a 90 mile high speed detour when this happened. Not terribly safe as I did go through Glencoe for example but it was just a blur. Current rant over.

 

[Dirk]

They are LGVs.
They have not been HGVs for over 25 years.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Are you sure its not you that maybe cant judge the width of the motorhome?
Seriously a lot cant after leaving the car and then getting behind the wheel of a 3.5 tonner with a wide body.

Most truckers live in the mirrors and see far more than we think.

 

[Drago]

Damn the police to Hades for making some lorry drivers act stupid.

 

[swansonj]

Heavy goods vehicles and their drivers and conditions of work have appeared on this forum several times but I have a couple of particular rants. Why can they not stay on their own side of the road? They manage to do it easily when they meet another heavy but when I appear in my motorhome they are about a foot on my side of the white line and will not move over. In my relatively fragile machine I have to stray too far over to my left to avoid a clash of mirrors at best and risk damage from the street furniture on the inside. Next why can they not measure the height of the vehicle? Connel Bridge near Oban is frequently closed for hours because tho’ the height is clearly marked some idiot gets jammed under the girders. The police are no help and simply say they have no idea how long it will be closed for. The local school seem to be able to tell parents about times. I recently had a 90 mile high speed detour when this happened. Not terribly safe as I did go through Glencoe for example but it was just a blur. Current rant over.

Do you not perceive anything even just slightly ironic about finishing a post about bad driving by other drivers with a statement about your own "not terribly safe" "high speed" driving in which the scenery became just a "blur"?

 

[pplpilot]

I do approx 25-30k miles a year (car) give me roads full of LGV any day over the average car driver. Not a day goes buy where I just cringe waiting for the potential pile up caused by 'mr tailgating solutions rep who must get there 3 minutes sooner than everyone else because he is far more important than you' tosser.

 

[Slick]

Heavy goods vehicles and their drivers and conditions of work have appeared on this forum several times but I have a couple of particular rants. Why can they not stay on their own side of the road? They manage to do it easily when they meet another heavy but when I appear in my motorhome they are about a foot on my side of the white line and will not move over. In my relatively fragile machine I have to stray too far over to my left to avoid a clash of mirrors at best and risk damage from the street furniture on the inside. Next why can they not measure the height of the vehicle? Connel Bridge near Oban is frequently closed for hours because tho’ the height is clearly marked some idiot gets jammed under the girders. The police are no help and simply say they have no idea how long it will be closed for. The local school seem to be able to tell parents about times. I recently had a 90 mile high speed detour when this happened. Not terribly safe as I did go through Glencoe for example but it was just a blur. Current rant over.

I've driven over that bridge with a heavy laden LGV many times without managing to get stuck. There is also a helpful or not bright flashing sign that activates to tell you, you are over the height limit even though you aren't.
When it does happen, the detours are horrendous, but that's the price of living in such a remote part of the country. My own personal experience is on the other side when the rest and be thankful closes forcing the traffic round Dalmally which always ends up in some poor soul coming a cropper with an Lgv. That road is terrible, and much like most of Argyll roads, were not designed for heavies despite it being a major player in producing the countries timber, which must account for most of the heavy traffic. Anyone who has tried to navigate these roads know it's an impossibility to keep an artic on your own side of the road, and you really just need to accept that and drive accordingly.

There will be plenty who won't agree with most of that, but only people who have never driven these roads.

 

[oldwheels]

Reactions pretty much as expected. Worst offenders are timber lorries who hog the road but ones carrying general construction type materials are also pretty bad. I have been driving wide vehicles including motorhomes for many years so do not lecture me on width judging. The roads are ok if everybody stays on their own side. Connel Bridge is 4.1 or 4.2 metres height and is clearly marked depending which sign you believe. It is not difficult to see the signs. Agree the roads generally around here were designed before lorries got bigger and heavier so life is not easy for them but the lorries from Bonawe with road building materials seem to manage ok even on the single track bits. When I am cycling they always act responsibly.
Yes I know they are LGVs but common parlance still has not caught up.

 

[Slick]

Reactions pretty much as expected. Worst offenders are timber lorries who hog the road but ones carrying general construction type materials are also pretty bad. I have been driving wide vehicles including motorhomes for many years so do not lecture me on width judging. The roads are ok if everybody stays on their own side. Connel Bridge is 4.1 or 4.2 metres height and is clearly marked depending which sign you believe. It is not difficult to see the signs. Agree the roads generally around here were designed before lorries got bigger and heavier so life is not easy for them but the lorries from Bonawe with road building materials seem to manage ok even on the single track bits. When I am cycling they always act responsibly.
Yes I know they are LGVs but common parlance still has not caught up.

They must just be tippers if they are coming from Bonawe.

 

[Randombiker9]

I've never had any problems which HGV"S but bear in mind sometimes if it's a narrow road or near a junction/roundabout they'll have to go into both lanes (like buses as well) So if there your oncoming veichle you should give way to them (Same for buses) because they are big veichles and need to be in part of both lanes to turn sometimes. But whenever it's straight i've always seen them in there's lane or like a narrow road there's too many parked cars and they need the whole area to go straight

 

[Randombiker9]

They are LGVs.
They have not been HGVs for over 25 years.

Same thing I call them HGV's as it stands for Heavy good veichles. LGV means Large good veichles. HGV sounds more sensible to me. I suppose it depends where you live but i've always call them HGV's because what they carry heavy stuff not large stuff so it sounds more sensible.

 

[Drago]

Don't like big lorries? Don't buy so much useless consumer tat, and there won't be so many on the roads.

 

[stalagmike]

We call them artics where I come from.

We had one just this week that was trying to squeeze down our narrow Victorian street and couldn't make the corner. I asked him where he was going and he had no need to have left the main road at all. Obviously following a sat nav if some kind set for the shortest route. Me and another guy had to help him reverse back out. Quite amusing really. Luckily he didn't scrape anyone's motor.

 

[colly]

What was the point of calling trucks Large Goods Vehicles as opposed to Heavy Good Vehicles.

If it's a 'Large' vehicle it's pretty certain it's going to be bloody 'Heavy'. Maybe it's to identify the masses of 60ft long trucks weighing in at 20kg we see running about the place.

 

[Slick]

[QUOTE 5162440, member: 9609"]I think it was an EU compliance thing when all the licences changed in the mid 90s, For whatever reason HGVs changed to LGVs and they also change the class 1 to C+E, i think they also done something with 7.5 tonners so they could no longer be driven on a car licence? LGV is a bit of a confusing one for many as back in the day 3.5 - 7.5 ton was known as Light Goods Vehicle.

Nearly everyone I know refers to wagons as HGVs. (and calling them 'trucks' is just a horrible americanism - its Wagon or Lorry)[/QUOTE]
It's never ever a lorry.

The 7.5 ton thing was removing the right for anyone to drive one who didn't pass their test before January 97.