Here’s a pic Jeff sent me over the phone the other week. In Italy on way to Ancona.
Now that is a stunning photo - both the truck and the backgroud!
robB39:
Here’s a pic Jeff sent me over the phone the other week. In Italy on way to Ancona.
if that was a bit clearer i would have that as a desk top back ground!
Lucy:
Karl.:
yep VOSA a.k.a. The GestapoLeft school yet, Karl?
Greg I agree with some of the points you make about the way VOSA enforces and Implements the law AND on the Big boy taking all the work, but unfortunately thats the way the Government has encouraged the Haulage game(Now called Logistics solution network) to go and in some respects this has been a good thing, no longer do you see old shaggers with bald tyres no tax or op licence running on cherry ect ect flying night and day up and down the road.
I know of Thorburn’s as my dad and I used to go to truck shows and see his crew at the local ones also we delivered a Metallic Blue Globbetrotter with cream button leather trim to him, (my dad had a yellow T cabbed Scania)
I personally have no Issues with hours offences whats the problem?aslong as its not night and day stuff maybe 1 hour here or ther.The trucks and trailers are maintained and always have been to a high standard The Drivers ARE NOT forced to do anything wrong they choose to do it if they didnt want £££ they wouldn’t have done it, and we all know that some times the hours rules Impede us as they have no flexibility what so ever
These rules were brought it to STOP unscrupulous bosses forcing there staff to work in horrendous conditions (Roping sheeting in a day cab then driving all day)and paying them nothing like what they should have been getting
As far as Im concerned If the money is right and the Kit is good anyone would do it, why should you be treated like a criminal for wanting to do extra work when the majority of REAL crimes are committed by lazy jobless smack heads, who just get told off or get another ASBO !!! If you get caught doing “over time” you risk a massive fine jail and loss of licence and before anyone says its the law … people in glass houses !!! judging by some of the posts alot of people would be looking for the first aid box!!! Has nobody ever exceeded the speed limit on a single carriage road 
spoken on the phone whilst driving drove a car at excessive speeds
These rules were created in a different looking industry, now trucks and the industry (in uk)are much easier to live with/in they are safer than ever before and yet are still governed by 1960/70/80’s regulations,
At risk of getting slaughtered all 'round, I’m going to stick my head above the parapet and tell you a story.This is a VERY abridged version of what was a rather long and complicated tale, but the message holds.
Once upon a time, a good friend of mine ran 6 motors on boxes, plus a couple of fridge vans. He did all his own maintenance and was the nicest bloke you could ever hope to meet, let alone work for.
This is a good few years ago now, but we, like many others, used to be a tad flexible with the rules…You know the kind of stuff…Tipping off the card in your 8 hour break from a 16 hour split…using up that bit of driving on yesterdays card before winding the clock forward and putting today’s in…Just gaining the odd hour here and there, nothing major…
Thing is, the odd hour here or there can very easily add up, and exhaustion can creep up on you without realising it. One of the drivers came off the road and took over the maintenance, and another - me - took over the running of the wagons. We could see our mate was making himself ill, so we basically took his business off him wholesale and left him with just the vans…
But it didn’t work out like that, because now we were both doing those odd extra hours, taking the late night phonecalls, doing the invoicing on the bunk at 2am…Nothing major, just the odd hour here and there…
Our nameless mate, meanwhile, was driving fridges about, organising drivers, expanding the van fleet massively, taking on a coldstore…Nothing major, just the odd hour here and there…
Then one day, our nameless mate got flu. What he didn’t realise was that his body had become so run down that it couldn’t cope. So that flu turned into pneumonia.
Three days later Martin was dead. He was 43 years old.
It was nothing major, just the odd hour here and there…Try explaining that to the wife and 3 sons he left behind.
I have never run bent since. My life is worth more than the just the odd hour at the wheel. And so are the lives of those I have to share the road with.
I agree with both Big Dorris & Lucy it should come under the banner of Common Sense
Drivers hours are a good thing but implementing them to the letter in the UK is crazy as we don’t have the right infistructure.
If you drive in France you get nice big free parking areas and roads nice and clear of traffic pure bliss.
Jezz Clarkson once wrote that he now knows why Kent is called the “Garden Of England” as driving up the M20 is like driving over your rockery and thats were all the madness starts.
Also i have never met any driver who hasn’t commited an offence ever as its impossible not to[/b]
Giblsa:
i havent been in this game long […] I have no doubts now that Thorburns will be one of (if not THE) most legal companies in Britain now
robB39:
I know Thorburns run legal 'cos my mate Jeff drives for them and he says they’re some of the best people he’s ever worked for!. […] my mate told me they’ve always been a respectable company
Stupot:
I agree with both Big Dorris & Lucy
Impossible. We disagree with each other. 
Just in case you missed it, it was the attitude of “Just and other hour or two, it’s nothing major” which ultimately led to the death of my friend. I speak from painful and bitter experience when I tell you that there is no such thing as “common sense” when it comes to making money, and even less when that is combined with a strong work ethic. If you think I would advocate that, you have read my post very badly indeed.
As for it being impossible not to break the rules, that’s rubbish. I’m not saying I don’t have the odd infringement now and again these days, and I’m not saying those infringements were intentional - as I said above, I no longer “do” bent running. But all of my more recent, albeit minor, infringements were entirely my own fault for running too close to the wire. If I didn’t choose to run close to the wire from time to time, I wouldn’t [zb] up and wind up with infringements.
No-one’s perfect, true…But that’s not because we couldn’t be if we tried hard enough.
You done it again Lucy
LOGICAL FALLACY! X 3
-
Questionable Cause ,“after this, therefore because of this”
Description: Variant of the Hasty Conclusion fallacy. An argument which concludes that because an event of one kind is associated with an event of another kind, therefore the first event actually causes the second event. A person has posited a Questionable Cause when they claim that type A events necessarily causes type B events when there are other plausible explanations. Perhaps, the correlation was simply accidental, or perhaps the relationship is perhaps backwards (B causes A) or perhaps some third factor is involved which the arguer does not account for. -
Hasty Generalization
Description: An argument which improperly generalizes from a sample. A Hasty Generalization may have been committed if the arguer bases a large part of the argument on a sample which is far too small to make reasonable generalizations from or may have based his or her argument on a biased sample. Both, of course, could be happening at the same time. -
Anecdotal Evidence
Description: Drawing from an extremely small and unrepresentative sample, the arguer attempts to show that his position is true.
While another individual’s experiences may help to bolster or illustrate a position, they do not represent a wide enough sample to give us credible reason to adopt a position.
ROBK
Now that’s a joke!!!
Lucy:
I’m not saying I don’t have the odd infringement now and again these days, and I’m not saying those infringements were intentional […]
I guess it all depends on whether the farmer is answering his phone for your layby reservation eh !
One of the all time TN classics and I shall be making sure you don’t live that one down!
Behave man…I send him a carrier pigeon!
Here’s a pic Jeff sent me over the phone the other week. In Italy on way to Ancona.
Thats would have been a great pic if it was clearer, I’ll see if I can sharpen it!
i have a question regarding people operating nice,tidy trucks loosing operater’s licences…
K P IDDON…?
i had the oportunity to work on thier erf’s on numerous occasions when they broke down in the midlands over a 3 or 4 year period…when you get under a truck you can normally tell if it 's having any maintenance…believe me there are plenty of large companies that are getting very little…iddons were always in good nick…(they had breakdowns of the alternator/water pump/airline type rather than whellnuts/wheel bearings etc type)the drivers were not pressured to run back with a temp repair or anything along those lines,they seemed to be a well run outfit(from a mechanic’s point of view.all of a sudden they were gone…it just seems strange…i went out to a c-reg erf that was in better condition than some 5 year old shopping trolleys on trunking work,the same driver had had it for most of it’s working life…i spoke to an ex iddon driver who said that they had lost the o license and i have to say i was very suprised.i was always impressed by this fleet,always clean and tidy and well presented.
i still see there motors
wrecktech100:
i have a question regarding people operating nice,tidy trucks loosing operater’s licences…
K P IDDON…?
i had the oportunity to work on thier erf’s on numerous occasions when they broke down in the midlands over a 3 or 4 year period…when you get under a truck you can normally tell if it 's having any maintenance…believe me there are plenty of large companies that are getting very little…iddons were always in good nick…(they had breakdowns of the alternator/water pump/airline type rather than whellnuts/wheel bearings etc type)the drivers were not pressured to run back with a temp repair or anything along those lines,they seemed to be a well run outfit(from a mechanic’s point of view.all of a sudden they were gone…it just seems strange…i went out to a c-reg erf that was in better condition than some 5 year old shopping trolleys on trunking work,the same driver had had it for most of it’s working life…i spoke to an ex iddon driver who said that they had lost the o license and i have to say i was very suprised.i was always impressed by this fleet,always clean and tidy and well presented.
were they the ones from leyland in lancashire?
dreva:
i still see there motors
me too.
Lucy I’m sorry about you friend and feel bad for his family, my dad nearly died in simaler circumstances, he to was an owner driver and also developed flu which turned into pneumonia and then into paracarditus ,luckyly my father survived and this had two massive upsides
1 my dad saw more of his family
2 HE STOPPED SMOKING AND EATING CRAP FOOD,
My Dad WAS thinking of his family when working his nuts off isn’t that’s what we all do when we do crap jobs we dont want to do■■? I also have my own vehicles and have the stress of unreliable staff damaging vehicles not answering there phones for work steeling diesel Turing up late for deliveries ect ect and when money’s tight with customers paying late and diesel at £1,17 a liter I have the added preasur of making sure they get paid aswell, you see Im thinking of there family’s aswell but they dont give a [zb] about mine and how hard It can be for me and my business partner having no wages and using our savings to make sure they get paid an time, but hey thats life int it.To many drivers still believe that Truck Driving is a 9 to 5 job it isnt ,and if you dont like it go and stack shelves in tesco’s at night and think about your family there.
Wreck tech from what Im led to believe someone was killed in there yard by a reversing vehicle, this was the catalyst for the HSE and VOSA to begin an enquiry and eventually badger another longstanding haulage company out of existence
wrecktech100:
i have a question regarding people operating nice,tidy trucks loosing operater’s licences…
K P IDDON…?
i had the oportunity to work on thier erf’s on numerous occasions when they broke down in the midlands over a 3 or 4 year period…when you get under a truck you can normally tell if it 's having any maintenance…believe me there are plenty of large companies that are getting very little…iddons were always in good nick…(they had breakdowns of the alternator/water pump/airline type rather than whellnuts/wheel bearings etc type)the drivers were not pressured to run back with a temp repair or anything along those lines,they seemed to be a well run outfit(from a mechanic’s point of view.all of a sudden they were gone…it just seems strange…i went out to a c-reg erf that was in better condition than some 5 year old shopping trolleys on trunking work,the same driver had had it for most of it’s working life…i spoke to an ex iddon driver who said that they had lost the o license and i have to say i was very suprised.i was always impressed by this fleet,always clean and tidy and well presented.
I remember reading what a policeman said, Normally the older sruffier lorries are in a lot better nick and looked after better.