Long bendy lorries - yikes

[summerdays]

I've just seen the long bendy lorry on TV ... it looks really scarey... I would hate to be passed by that - also don't like the way the wheels swing out when turning. I would not want to meet that on a road!

 

[wafflycat]

Coming soon to squash a cyclist/pedestrian on a road near you?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8387774.stm

The only UK roads suitable for those are long, straight motorways, with no sliproads... perhaps the Australian desert..

 

[Crankarm]

FFS!!!!!

That truck is an accident waiting to happen. The camera footage or the company very carefully tried to avoid showing or allow to be shown the true scale of the over hang of the trailer/wheels as it turned.

Bendy buses are currently being withdrawn so doesn't that tell us something about the safety of such long vehicles? Fine in the Australian outback or on the American plains, but on UK roads !!!!

I believe the company are driving it on the road today to test the law to see whether they are stopped by the police and prosecuted.

Denby claim that it will only be used to transport light items such as tin cans or pillows . Yeah right .....................

 

[hackbike 666]

This may seem like a stupid question but why have they removed the railings on the pavements in places in London?

Im sure they had their uses.Like stopping a ped dash out into the road at key points.

 

[thomas]

Denby claim that it will only be used to transport light items such as tin cans or pillows . Yeah right .....................

I think their point was it could only legally be used to carry light items. I kind of open it is legal...just as a two fingers to the government I don't really think it is sensible though. Maybe on motorways, if the lorry never leaves them

 

[BentMikey]

That they might, but the net result is that the motor traffic drives faster and with disproportionately less care.

Ped railings are a bad thing, and it's very good that they're being removed. Why is a pedestrian's journey less important than a drivers?

 

[andharwheel]

''Bendy buses are currently being withdrawn so doesn't that tell us something about the safety of such long vehicles? Fine in the Australian outback or on the American plains, but on UK roads''

Not up here in Aberdeen home of First bus. Plenty of these still being used. They always move off when you have are about half way along them.

 

[dellzeqq]

This may seem like a stupid question but why have they removed the railings on the pavements in places in London?

Im sure they had their uses.Like stopping a ped dash out into the road at key points.

It's because cyclists have been crushed to death against them. Including one less than half a mile from my front door.

I can see why we might be apprehensive about super-long lorries, but, with commercial vehicles, it's the care taken by the driver that is all-important. A three tonner will kill you just as easily as a 44 tonner.

My impression is that most sizeable haulage firms demand a greater degree of care from their drivers, and it's the smaller operators that employ drivers that are a menace.

 

[Crankarm]

Apparently the lorry was stopped by police as it left the company's premises. The guy owner Mr Dick Denby claims the police were waiting like "a cat by a mouse hole". Unfortunate analogy. Maybe a huge grizzley's cave would be more appropriate. Plus Denby used the offensive N word (the race word) to illustrate an analogy with a woodpile which I have never heard of. Dick Denby sounds like a thoroughly nasty piece of work who now wants to burden our roads with these even larger bethemoths.

Claiming the truck is "environmentally green" when this chap Denby clearly has a financial interest in promoting it is absolutely absurd. I would guess some large supermarkets will be hoping they are allowed on the roads.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I'd love to drive that ... it doesn't look like it handles that differently from a normal 45' curtainsider trailer. The overhang on the lorry I used to drive in my last job, both at the front and the back of the trailer, was much the same as on that; those steering axles in the middle make all the difference.
It makes sense, in many ways - although his previous design for one of these, which was two standard 45' trailers being towed by one unit, with a weight limit of 60 tonnes, made more sense, if only because you could trunk two trailers to a depot near the motorway, then split the truck into two "normal" artics to deliver the stuff to the customer's premises. Certainly when I was on palletised general haulage, which is also Denby's area of operations, we "cubed out" far more frequently than we "weighed out", even with a 16' high double deck trailer. These things would be ideal for many of the jobs I used to do.

 

[Lizban]

For towns no way, for long motorway sections with dist. centers just off them I'm happy.
But seeing as there aren't many set up like that it seems there will be no need for them - now that would a shame!

I assume that the 'green arugment' is that one big lorry is better than 2 little uns?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Claiming the truck is "environmentally green" when this chap Denby clearly has a financial interest in promoting it is absolutely absurd. I would guess some large supermarkets will be hoping they are allowed on the roads.

Clearly one 460 horsepower tractor unit towing 44 tonnes is greener than, er, two 460 horsepower units towing 44 tonnes. Or three, even, depending on the load. I'm sorry if it's difficult.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

For towns no way, for long motorway sections with dist. centers just off them I'm happy.
But seeing as there aren't many set up like that it seems there will be no need for them - now that would a shame!

I assume that the 'green arugment' is that one big lorry is better than 2 little uns?

I don't think that would be so different even around a town than a normal artic. I suppose, just as with the lorries you see on the roads now, there would be places you just couldn't go.
One big lorry is indeed better than two small ones, and certainly better than two other big lorries, which is what this thing is designed to supplant.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20091201/tuk-police-put-brakes-on-monster-truck-6323e80.html

It seems he was allowed to take it around the block, escorted by a police car. But he did negotiate a "tight roundabout" in it, so (as I suspected) it doesn't sound like it handles so differently from an artic.

 

[albal]

I dont see the problem. The nights motorways to and from brum are awash with trunkers.
Would it not be sensible to half these? As most are 'mega's' or 'supercubes', It's ideal for volume. Hardly ideal for multidrop around south east, with so much traffic on our roads you'd hardly notice it.