Driver thought ( or didn’t ) 4m high under 13’3’’ high bridge what could possibly go wrong.
Who was it who said it’s all dependent on fifth wheel table height.
Here we go again…
Obviously traction of a Continental trailer load ? driver ‘thought’ it was running at 4m ?.
Would explain it.
That was a good effort v a strong bridge.
is it me or does the video look as if the container is a dang sight higher than 4" than the bridge
4 M will go under a 13.3 bridge ■■■■ easy lol
Ever since I started driving I always set sat nav height to lorry+2 inches so if I was 13ft the bridge would have to be 13’2 for me to give it a try
The problem is if the driver ‘thinks’ it’s a 4m high truck but it actually ain’t it’s well over 13’3’‘.
Or if the council ‘thinks’ it’s a 13’3’’ high bridge but it actually ain’t it’s less than 4m.
Now with free HGV licence, just collect two packet tops
I think CF is mostly correct.
What appears to be a UK unit with the ECS box and skellie.
The ECS trucks do run at 4.0m with Euro-type 2 axle units and a low-ish 5th wheel height.
With a 6 wheel UK truck and a higher 5th wheel, it is higher.
Worth noting that the box (although 9’ 6") is sitting just on the top of the trailer wheel guards, unlike UK skellies with 6" of wasted steel there.
Look at these one with box almost level with top of cab, and one like an air brake.
But bottom line, the driver is 99.99% surely in the wrong.
i dont think the cost has much to do with it. its the passing the buck between trainers and employers that is part of the issue.
The boot camps could of bridged that gap and taught useful skills but didnt for what ever reason
ive never done container or skely work. are the heights of the containers marked on them ie if its 8’6 or 9’6 and are skelies marked up so with a 5th wheel height of x you will have a bed height of y
Cost of what?
What have Boot Camps got to do with it? I’d wager all the bridge-bashers in these pictures are not “Boot Camp graduates”.
Did you come through the Boot Camp system? If not, how do you know what they are, or are not, taught?
My only involvement with these Boot Camp people is occasionally being asked to help prepare them for their Mod 4 - part of which quite literally involves running through the potential answers to the questions they will be asked - “dumbing down” of the HGV licence has never been more in-your-face than that.
From what I’ve seen, about 50% or more should never be allowed near a vehicle, and I’m not just talking about the candidates with three-inch nail extensions trying to demonstrate how she’d use a chain with binder without breaking these expensive stick-on claws.
Bottom line it is the driver’s responsibility to check the height of the vehicle before taking it on the road; Operators responsibility to provide one of these sticks below (£90 from Amazon)
And if you need to be taught how to use one of these sticks, should you really be given the keys to a wagon? Operators responsibility to check if you are this much of a numpty before handing the keys over.
Containers are marked up, and if not the numbers are coded.
Ignoring that, a 3 metre tape measure will reach from top to bottom of a box, and then measure from base of box to the ground. Two minutes tops.
Try it with lift axle up and down too.
Edit to link
2nd digit; 2 for 8’6" 5 for 9’6".
you picture /comment clearly implied that the licenses were given away for little cost to the holder.
I paid for my class 2 and at the end of the week had a bit of paper that said i could drive them. However i knew the far side of bugger all about torsional strapping and how to load a rigid/weight distribution etc or operate a tail lift nor could i operate a tacho in other words the very basic things an employer may expect me to be able to do.
All we did for the mod 4 was get shown straps load bars etc and shown how to operate them on a metal frame nothing about how to tell the difference between a 1 tonne strap and a 5 tonne strap for example. When i got my first driving job the company put me with a van driver to learn the job (adr stuff and paperwork etc) for three dys when i couldn’t operate the tacho i was told why didnt you do it on your lessons (vehicle i learnt in still had an analogue tacho fitted).
For my class 1 i did it through boot camp having worked for the provider on their agency for 2 years. I had to compleate so many hours of classroom learning that could be done online via zoom or in the classroom. There were things like how to secure a load and how to couple up eyc. I put my name down for them, and went into the class room to do it. Strapping a load was the same as when i did my class 2 and hooking up was watching a video with the comment of you will learn this on your lessons.
In both cases of training providers they were on rog’s list and both of them had the kit to do it practicaly.
It would of been far more benefical to me to sit and play with a mock tacho. or actualy go out to the yard and strap up half a dozen pallets that were different heights etc. And yes i would of paid extra for that.
Some are, not all. My inference was that HGV entitlements these days are as common as the old fashioned cereal box givaway gifts.
Yes, same here, and this was long before Mod 4’s and DCPCs etc. I had to approach friendly-looking drivers and look for a bit of assistance. That was just the way it was.
Good, because there’s no such thing as a “1 tonne” or “5 tonne” strap, they’re measured in terms of daN. You also need to know the difference between frictional and direct lashing, and SHF, STF, LC, etc. All that stuff comes as “on the job learning” (or gets taught as part of DCPC if you go to a place that actually gives a darn about their course content)
Again, I wasn’t taught much of anything about tachos, again this is post-qualification training.
No driver training school is going to spend your paid-for-truck-time going over tachos or load security, nor would many candidates want this, they just want to be in the truck.
I know a driving school who used to run a full day of all this post qualification stuff, they’d even created a snappy acronym for it, I thought it was a sound idea, and all done either one-to-one or in very small groups, but they dropped it because of lack of interest from candidates.
Full disclosure: IMO Boot Camps and (all) online courses are - insert word that would be blocked by the forum censor, but it’s the thing you don’t want to step in.
Boot Camp providers are simply in it for the money (fair do’s, it’s a Capitalist society we live in): Their candidates are “owt for nowt” with usually minimal commitment required or shown (no offence intended to yourself). The providers get their funding just by getting your glutes on their seats, including virtual, online seats. They farm out the driver training to (hopefully) proper driving schools, who often think “OMG… not one of them” when they have to deal with BC candidates. My contact installed a simulator for BC candidates due to excess ineptitude (ie bashing trucks)
As far as I know, Rog’s list wasn’t a recommendation list per se, but a list of “Who has had a “thumb’s up” from at least on TN’er”. See “OMG” point above as to why your “custom” may not have been as “valued” as you might have liked
Mock tachos are a problematic issue for reasons I have had explained to me by people even more geeky than myself; hence they are usually online simulators. Stoneridge have a free-to-access simulator; Siemens VDO require a subscription.
And, a proper driving school would most likely have arranged for you to do this extra stuff, but “shy bairns get nowt”, and if you did not enquire directly with them, then they are not going to offer it for the typical BC candidate that I have met.
The company i did my boot camp through was an agency and a driving school themselves. The way they worked it was that once you passed your test you could join the agency and be put with my mate for on the job experience where you not only learnt the job but you drove the appropriate vehicle. However as a “learner” it was unpaid and lots moaned like the clappers.
You said a company offered it but dropped it because of lack of interest but what if it was made part of the test. If i get a roadside check and i havent done the required manual entries i as a driver am for the high jump but if no one has shown me how to operate the tacho im bound to make mistakes as a newbie.
i did ask about tacho operation and how to properly strap loads when i did my class 2 that i paid for and was told you should be shown that on the job.
different topic but a friend of mine works in a manufacturing plant they have 2 inch square stock they have to drill holes in. guess how many that turn up with college qualifications that have no clue about cutting speeds or try to hold the work with their bare hands. point being are the courses upto snuff
there is a supermarket rdc near me that run the boot camp with their own driver trainers. You can apply with just a car license however they will teach you everything i believe you start off in the warehouse learning how to load the trailers then they teach you coupling and reversing once you have mastered that and have done a few weeks shunting with a trainer they take you out on the road and put you though your test. then you go out and do the job with the trainer etc etc. If you want to work for them with a class 1 licence already they require 2 years solid experience.
the clinic in me thinks the only reason they are doing this is because they then have a supply of indentured drivers that cant move on for a fixed period for very little input as most can be claimed through the boot camp scheme.
4 mtr is 13 ft 1.5 ins so 1;5 ins to spare, the chances of a marked bridge being that height is very unlikely as that’s the safe height to go under, so a bridge marked 4 m in the UK could be 13` 5`` at least.
Blackwall Tunnel was always marked 13. 4 now for whatever reason its now 4 mtr lol You could get under it a 13.6 if you used your head without hitting the tubes / rubber hoses 
So was safe at 4.1 m, most probably still is ? But Ram Jam needs the cash to fund his mates. for all these hotels lol.
I’ve never come across anything like that myself; it’s two completely different gigs and I think it’s not a good mix, like being a thrash metal band but also wanting to try your hand at Be-bop, and probably ending up being bad at both
What? Making getting an HGV licence harder rather than easier to get? I don’t see a problem with that, but it’s not the way the world is going, which is towards dumb and dumber.
“College qualifications”? Some people study “Textiles” some choose “Particle Physics”, others do “Drama” or (my favourite joke degree where I have met IRL a graduate of) “American Studies”, which was basically reading Stephen King books and watching horror movies. Again, it’s all dumbing down left right and centre, Blair’s New Labour decided they wanted 50% of all school leavers to get a degree, so degrees got dumbed down.
Any intelligent employer understands that unless a degree is relevant to their work, all it means is that the candidate can stick at something for three years and not come away empty handed.
Supermarket gets funding to run boot camp, costs are therefore simply the peripheral set up costs, if even that, as they will already have a training budget. Company accountants can probably allocate these training budget costs as tax deductible running costs.
In the meantime, can use candidate for other work during the scheme, while training the driver to do a half decent job up to their specification. Once qualified drivers are no doubt tied in for a period of time but are now qualified and experienced and got paid for both. Not hard to see why that project got the green light.
Alternatively, candidate could sign up to a low-quality boot camp and be fobbed off with “I CBA to teach you this, someone else will have to do it”, and candidate ends up with an HGV entitlement, but crucially, nowt to go with it, like the thousands of other luckless newbies stuck in a mosh pit, desperately trying to get a start with some company, any company, gimme a chance pleeeessssse! Wah! I thought I’d be driving milk tankers on 80k a year…
I don’t see the Supermarket BC as cynical at all, it’s a far better option than the alternative BC
Tnet CSI me and Franglais are in agreement must be a record.Driver is toast.But sure I got flamed for daring to suggest that fifth wheel height can be a deal/bridge breaker.