I work for Tesco on agency and each time this happens we get a new training video to watch, or a form to sign to confirm we understand the downsides of hitting bridges and how to avoid them.
In the most recent form we had this week, it seems that an agency driver was heading back from a store in Stoke, and must have ignored the warnings from the microlise, as well as the map/risk assessment showing which route to take. Their official rule is that if you are diverted or find yourself off the prescribed route, you pull over and call the office for advice.
Iām suprised at moaster struggling with Lorryās on th a17 from kingslynn - Newark , in my experience of doing multi drops out that way it was always tractors causing the problems , though a few years ago .
As for the lorry drivers braking , 30/40 mph im not suprised , Iāve got a actress with predictive c/c ( is that what they call it ) & itās for ever braking , slowing down , speeding up , I was following a lorry on m1 the other day , thinking these other lorryās are flying , then I realised it was matching the 50 mph the lorry in front was doing , I switch it off but it resets every time you start it ,
And donāt get me started on the 4 th step , amount of time Iāve forgot & ended up flat on
My back .
Bloody hell goff , even worse the microlise warns them & they still end up hitting a bridge or something
Only time I could remember issues over risk assessments was multi drops , risk assement had you starting each drop from I.e m1 , and the shops were 5/10 mins apart , I do remember someone going back across to m1 to start every drop , think he did 15 hrs , not 7/8 hrs .
my experience of microlise at tesco as far as route is 90% of the time it didnt work. They also tell you its an aid only also the rigids i drove the microlise was mounted around your knees somewhere so you had to take your eyes right off the road and stare at it to see the route.
Do you not now get a printed risk assement from the office now with route / shop delivery area on it , is everything on
Microlise these days cooper
Iām just suprised if Iām right ( could be wrong ) that heās hit that bridge so close to the tesco dc , if he works out of there surely he knows the area , if heās come in from elsewhere how did he get in
Will remain a mystery I guess , I could see Joe Bloggs transport hitting bridge but Iām suprised at tesco , more so how close the dc is .
when i was there they had a portal you could download the risk assesments from as alot of the time they werent in the file cabinet. as far as directions go they were pretty useless as they would only take you from the depot to that particular store fine for a single drop in an artic but useless for multi drop in a rigid.
i know of at least two places that i used to deliver to that told you to drive under the canopy of the filling station to get out only issue was that most of the rigids were over 4 meters the canopies wernt.
all these forms of information take your eyes off the road and aid the possibility of missing signs and hitting something.
the other issue with tesco is they are very good at creating rules to beat you with but not so good at following them themselves
Yea, to be fair, the Microlise maps (Copilot) isnāt bad these days and judging by the letter sent around, they investigated it and it was found that the warning system for low bridges was working. Iāve not seen the warning itself in real time, but itās very clear in the training videos and should make you think about pulling over at least.
Dont be coming up with excusesā¦
Sod all that microlise and warnings type dog sh.
What about his eyes ffs?
Heās supposed to be a professional driver with a (meaningless) certificate telling him that.
His job is driving high trucks.
As a pro truck driver he should be fully on the ball about low bridges.
I donāt know about you lot, and I aint saying Iām any better than anybody else,ā¦I aint, but I even find myself automatically by nature checking bridge heights when I drive my car ffs.
It aint really to do with DCPC, deffo not microlise or any other of that type of crap.
Itās all to do with fast tracked driver training, only to pass a test, and driver calibre and criteria.
Put into the mix firms pushing drivers, some drivers unable to use their own initiativeā¦and brainā¦, and fatigue down to ridiculous expected hours on conjunction with minimal rest periods.
All that cluster ā ā ā ā of issues causes all this type of sh.
the offical line is it cuts down on paper usage and as discussed above sends a driver on a prescribed route. not so much for weight limits etc but because aunt fanny gets upset if a lorry goes past her house.
the unoffical reason is so they can use it as a tool to get rid of people that dont fit their profile and do less work passing the onus onto the driver.
Years ago I used to drive there in my car and the matrix signs went off for me it seems. Do the route in a (height compliant) truck enough times and youāll just end up ignoring the warnings, making them redundant.
But of courseā¦itās the driverās responsibility 100% anyway.
Although the truck may have been fitted with microlise the driver may have been new & may not have been issued with a logon for it, so the system may not have available to them and they were winging it
Not sticking up for. Anyone that . hits a bridge driver is always 100%at fault.
But sometimes they make it difficult for us. As if your a tramper up down the country.
Not knowing the area they you see a sign saying low bridge ahead have do a u turn stop and get a map or Google etc to find an alternative route.
Or see a sign saying low bridge 8 miles ahead and your not sure if your going full 8 miles before turning off.
They never make life easy.
Near every low bridge say Hundred meters before it there should be a metal beam with bells on or something on it to warm youā¦you hit that before hitting the actual bridge
Yeah ok, but that is why the old fashioned way that I do it works.
Iā¦
Wait for it.
Shock horrorā¦
I check a bridge height map before I attempt routes I aint sure of.
I do have a sat nav, albeit a car sat nav, but I do not totally rely on it.
Also in my truck I have had for a year it has a fitted truck type sat nav.
On a couple of occasions I have cross referenced my own already planned (or known) route with that fitted truck sat nav.
So on one occasion it was trying to send me to take an absolute impossible artic left turn at a pub off A396 to B3224 (check it on google if you can be arsed)
On another occasion (only last week) I was going to deliver to a campsite at Brean in Somerset.
I had no probs getting there, but Truck Sat Nav saidā¦
āNo route for trucksā.
So go figure.
My point is (as well as the reasons for all this type of crap that I have pointed out, ) total reliance on sat navs is another reasonā¦if not the main one.
Also the perfect storm of height being used as a substitute for length to meet dimensions regs and an often deliberately unviable motorway network and obviously desperate truck drivers then trying to make up their own even worse motorway avoidance routes.
Often to the point of queues of crawling, or bridge bashing, trucks wrecking viable routes like the A5 for everyone else.
