Dieseldog…shut it…you are not from the West Country…the cyclists weren’t the ‘only’ accident… another,same driver shortly after.
I just can’t understand why any cyclist would want to ride along the A30 when there are so many parallel roads which would be far more enjoyable for cycling.
there are so many aspects to this i could comment on … but
Frys were subbie for ‘german supermarket’ based in weston .
this kraut company , lets call em ‘idle’ holds no operating licence .
the subbies sign up being promised a certain £/mile . they have to make a profit and respect drivers laws .
generally ‘idle’ work on a 2 load system . frys would be coming up from cornwall with a load of supermarket waste . they would tip this , load a local , deliver to store , load and tip waste , load a cornwall and drag it down and deliver it to store .
this sounds very simple , but all is not as it seems .
when driver gets to weston he will probaby queue for waste bays for 30 mins and another 30 mins to tip ( unlike at other ‘idles’ at weston driver has to tip and sort the waste)
when he approaches transport desk for part 1 he may find it is not his allocated load ! the ‘idle’ worker is not a transport manager , is not on operating licence , has no knowledge or skillset to allocate loads …
yet he does . if driver or Frys complain then they run the risk of getting less or shorter loads . and of course that would mean less income . Frys are really in no position to argue , and the driver even less .
and of course if ‘idles’ are being B’stards that day they may give Frys a load that hasnt even been picked yet !
all the time the tacho clock is ticking ofcourse , but why would ‘idles’ care . they clock off at end of shift come what may .
then the driver delivers part 1 to store , does the waste and goes through the whole process again for part 2 .
even this may not be straight forward as ‘idles’ have ways of making you suffer like sending a lorry with the ambient first , and when you get to store with chill/veg you cant get in !
i know 1 run frys did was a Bournemouth part 1 followed by a falmouth & redruth part 2 . by the time you have gone thru all the unloading waste / loading delivery rigmoral its barely possible to do this in 15 hours with no breaks !
and the driver who had to do this was expecting a Bristol or wells as part 1 …
but ‘idles’ little Hitler gives him Bournemouth !!
and whats the end result ■■
2 dead cyclists …
1 young bloke in prison …
1 firm banned and bankrupt …
and 1 german supermarket gets away with it scot free !!
really if they dont have their own operating licence they should be banned from using their premises as an operating center
Harry Monk:
I just can’t understand why any cyclist would want to ride along the A30 when there are so many parallel roads which would be far more enjoyable for cycling.
when was the last time you cycled up , say , the atlantic highway my luvver ■■
it is bloody murder !!
if you are looking to ride through kernow the A30 is by far and away the safest route . nasty but safest . i promise you .
truckyboy:
Drivers have sole responsibility of their driving hours Regardless of what their employers say or tell them to do. Killing cyclist is also the drivers responsibility as they shouldnt drive tired, or driving without due care. We all know cyclist can be a hazard most of the time, but there is no excuse, in fact i would say most accidents can be avoided if drivers used their discretion, drove sensibly, not too fast, and not too close, unfortunately drivers today do not use their ability to drive safely and often think they have the god given right to drive as they please, with disregard for other road users, there are many reasons why they do this either for the bosses pushing hard to complete the days work, or drivers wanting to finish at a said time so they can park up in their favourite place ( depot or overnight parking )Vosa have a role to play as well in giving drivers excessive hours and pressures such as the 15 hour day with 9 hours off regardless of distance travelled to get home and back to the depot to do it all over again. The dreaded 9 hour daily rest should be a no no in my opinion…as i have always envisaged a 12 on 12 off system, of course there will be drivers who complain they will lose money if their hours were reduced, i would go with safety over money any day, and always feel refreshed for the next days work.
Agreed the drivers hours are his/her responsibility BUT its also the Companies responsibility to ensure its drivers comply with the law.
The Company and the drivers concerned in this case should be banned forever full stop after serving lengthy prison sentences and hefty fines.
If it’s true that the TM/company director was allowing the drivers to break the rules to the extent that the driver was allowed/encouraged to do back to back double shifts the TM should be in prison as well as the driver.
scrotumscratcher:
for what its worth ,my opinion, 10hrs driving per day , 13hrs max day ,11hrs rest 45hrs weekend break if shortened paid back by week three ,none of this 90hrs per fortnight rubbish everything can be simplified ,you could work 2 out of 3 weekends or if you drove back to base and got back early enough you could work every sat , earnings improve , productivity improved stress less ,simple easy to follow rules if your heldloading tipping you might only drive 6hrs in day ,but thats up to your management to sort out as you can only go up to 13 , thats how it used to be ,much easier
agree one hundred percent regular fifteen hour days reduces the drivers concentration, and thats a fact
Armagedon:
Dieseldog…shut it…you are not from the West Country…the cyclists weren’t the ‘only’ accident… another,same driver shortly after.
■■? whats the difference where im from?? anyone daft enough to ride a pushbike along a dual carriageway wherever it is wants their head looked at.apart from the fact that obviously your a danger to yourself,then your also for being a danger to everyone else on the same road ,moreso if your one of the up your own ■■■ idiots that insist on riding 2 abreast.you cant ride a tractor on a motorway,surely theres a similar logic of common sense to riding a bike on a dual carriageway.at least you might see a tractor.
heres the link to the lycra jockey I forgot to put in the last post… I wonder who is to blame for this one…youtube.com/watch?v=HvnS7GPrVnU its been on beore,but its a belter. 
In the old days everybody abused the hours rules, it was just the done thing, I admit I was there with the rest, so let’s get that out of the way first.
What baffles me today is why would ANY driver do it when the penalties are so high…you get jailed ffs, and rightly so when it involves death.
Whether the lack of legal rest actually was responsible we will never know, but if he had the full amount of legal rest, ran legal, and the same accident happened, would he have been jailed.
I don’t know about you lot but if I was asked, or even pleaded with to break the hours rules in the job today, it would be a definite ‘NO’ .
If I was told or threatened to, it would be a definite ‘[ZB] OFF’
What have you got to lose, you have the law on your side ffs, and if they sack you, who cares it’s a ■■■■ employer anyway 
.
On the other hand it may not be a timid no ■■■■■■■■ type of driver, it may be one of the type that goes along with it for financial gain, they are the worst imo,.Thankfully the longer they do it they WILL be caught at one point.
The 80s are long gone, things and times change, the driver deserved jail, the operator deserves the ban…end of.
As for the cyclist, I sympathise with (some of 
) the points made about road unsuitability, and whether he should have been there or not.
The guy was either fearless, naive, or suffering from appalling bad judgement.
Whatever it was he did not deserve to die.
Btw dieseldog…I for one aint gonna jump in your net 
At first I thought this thread was about a new chocolate bar being banned 
I am with the Dog and Harry on this.
WTF are two lycra men doing cycling along there? Yes of course tacho rules should be adhered to.
But when you decide to cycle along a dual carriageway, I am afraid you are taking a huge risk.
TheYoungTrucker:
how did men do one hitters to spain and Italy years ago on a regular basis and not kill anyone??
You call yourself ‘Young trucker’ well I was just that also around that time. I can’t be sure or completely recall, but I would bet my bare arse in a dogger’s wood, that at least one did.
scrotumscratcher:
for what its worth ,my opinion, 10hrs driving per day , 13hrs max day ,11hrs rest 45hrs weekend break if shortened paid back by week three ,none of this 90hrs per fortnight rubbish everything can be simplified ,you could work 2 out of 3 weekends or if you drove back to base and got back early enough you could work every sat , earnings improve , productivity improved stress less ,simple easy to follow rules if your heldloading tipping you might only drive 6hrs in day ,but thats up to your management to sort out as you can only go up to 13 , thats how it used to be ,much easier
I agree with the guy with the itchy scrote. 
Sort these long days and complicated hours regs out…job sorted then.
When the law attempts to force yards to have “maximum length shifts” and suchlike - those hard-up yards will try and turn a profit out of it by “extending shifts” or getting planners to be “over efficient” on back-routes, so the truck is always running as full as possible and empty over as short a distance as possible. This much makes sense.
What doesn’t make sense is attempting to have only two drivers planned for 12 hours using a truck in each 24 hour period. It would be better to plan 2 for 8-10 hours, with a clear 2-4 hour gap between the scheduled finish to for one driver before the next driver needs to be taking it over. This allows plenty of time for things like “getting stuck in traffic” on the return leg to the yard.
Trying to get everything “back to back” in my mind - leads eventually to incidents like this…
I believe the only other profession where attempts are made by “planners” to get workers to hour-up back to back with their opposite shift worker - are Casualty Doctors.
TheYoungTrucker:
truckyboy:
Drivers have sole responsibility of their driving hours Regardless of what their employers say or tell them to do. Killing cyclist is also the drivers responsibility as they shouldnt drive tired, or driving without due care. We all know cyclist can be a hazard most of the time, but there is no excuse, in fact i would say most accidents can be avoided if drivers used their discretion, drove sensibly, not too fast, and not too close, unfortunately drivers today do not use their ability to drive safely and often think they have the god given right to drive as they please, with disregard for other road users, there are many reasons why they do this either for the bosses pushing hard to complete the days work, or drivers wanting to finish at a said time so they can park up in their favourite place ( depot or overnight parking )Vosa have a role to play as well in giving drivers excessive hours and pressures such as the 15 hour day with 9 hours off regardless of distance travelled to get home and back to the depot to do it all over again. The dreaded 9 hour daily rest should be a no no in my opinion…as i have always envisaged a 12 on 12 off system, of course there will be drivers who complain they will lose money if their hours were reduced, i would go with safety over money any day, and always feel refreshed for the next days work.
I wonder did eddie stobart have 12 off when he started out■■? I wouldn’t have thought so. Probably more like 2 off, nobody knows the ins and outs of the case, the truck will always be blamed regardless, how did men do one hitters to spain and Italy years ago on a regular basis and not kill anyone??
Answer the question about one hitters to Spain etc, is amphetamines, or certain cold products off that time (Contact 400 springs to mind) Speed was fairly readily available because at the time it was used as a slimming pill. You could tell if they had been taking, couldn’t stand still, couldn’t shut up talking, the odd one would be aggressive. And I know one who was involved in a collision that killed 2 guys in France, to be honest I don,t know on that occasion he was doing a one hit, but he did do them on many occasion. All for £325 a trip, it was a long time ago. Some would just chew on caffeine pills you could buy almost anywhere, they used to complain it would raise there heart rate and because they “overdosed” on them they would get headaches.
Think I saw one of Fry’s Mercs last week still pulling for LIDL but without any lettering on the unit. Suspect they will continue somehow.
Cosmic:
Think I saw one of Fry’s Mercs last week still pulling for LIDL but without any lettering on the unit. Suspect they will continue somehow.
Pretty sure they said they would be appealing so that would delay any action the TC would want to take.