I love these type topics that go some way to affirming my belief that lorry drivers, in the main part havn’t got much between their ears !!!
eldor:
Are these the same people in the big 4x4’s who driver at 45-50mph on motorways making all trucks need to move out into lane two to get past and causing even more congestion, by any chance■■?
They don’t need a 4x4 going slow in lane one to do that. All they need is a +0.5 mph speed advantage over the truck in lane one and they’ll sit in lane two all day until they pass it. Like you say, causing even more congestion !!!
Had a little chuckle Saturday afternoon on my way to Teesport. M6 North bound somewhere between Preston & Penrith. Spots a HATO vehicle stopped, cones out etc. but no other vehicle infront of it. Hmmm, strange? They don’t usually hang around on the shoulder for no good reason.
Gets a bit nearer & thought it looked to be stood a bit uneven…
R/N/S tyre flat.
Are the guys changing it?
Nope, just stood around hands in pockets 
Wheel Nut:
Would it not be better if they used a strap? That red tape is not designed for towing vehicles
PMSL
Mind you, it’s surprising what can be achieved with red tape. 
There’s plenty of it available for backloads from the Brussels area… 
I think these people are employed in much the same way as anybody else. They have a boss, the boss tells them to do A, B, C etc
and not to do X, Y, Z etc. Like anything else, there might be a good reason for a rule, although maybe we can’t always spot it.
How would we react if an uninformed outsider called us a jobsworth when we stop after 4h 29m??
This is a total guess on my part, but could it be that they’re just doing their best to do a difficult job in the face of a wheelbarrow-full of regulations??
(A bit like us. )
We also have a wheelbarrow-full of regulations to govern us, and I’m sure that there’s some of those regs that we think are barmy, but we obey them anyway for fear of the consequences. I don’t know, but their job might not be all that much different to ours in that way…
How about the m/way CCTV?? might it catch them as surely as it might catch us??
At least our bosses don’t get to see the replays, whereas theirs do…
Hi I have just joined as I feel I need to respond to this post.
I must say 95% of you Drivers we come in to contact with are ok no problems but there are a few who seem to have taken a dislike to us. I just hope that that changes next time you need a lane one for an offside tyre change
darren23:
is it me, but since these t o have been put on the roads to keep traffic flowing the problem has got worse, they have these big 4x4’s , so common sense would be to put a strap around the offending cars etc and pull them off the carriage way, maybe they should employ recovery drivers instead of ex secutity officers who think they have climbed a career ladder…
As has been said by other posters there must have been a reason why they did not drag it off the carriageway example below
I was at a job the other day Accident lane 3, the usual thing. We were first there, made the area safe, As usual the other carriageway had slowed to a crawl, then a LGV driver who was travailing in lane two on that caraway, almost stops leans right out of his window and shouts at us “ Why don’t you *~%@#/g drag it off.
Well Mr LGV driver the reason is there is someone trapped in the passenger seat and we are waiting for Fire and ambo to arrive!!
I hope that that was not you darren23
Highway P:
Hi I have just joined as I feel I need to respond to this post.
I must say 95% of you Drivers we come in to contact with are ok no problems but there are a few who seem to have taken a dislike to us. I just hope that that changes next time you need a lane one for an offside tyre change
Don’t know which part of the country you are in,as that is now a big no-no (under police instructions) unless last resort for duty garge recovery, wiggle it over a bit, try and limp it to a slip/ services even carry it anything to keep running lane open and everyone’s costs down (probably not a popular view within the association of vehicle recovery operater 
) Bill for 1 driver/company =Few hundred £££ V’S a stack load of really unhappy ted’s/truckers and cars in the ensueing chaos as the network is 33% down
But that’s only a viewpoint from an ex owner operator 
Wheel Nut:
Would it not be better if they used a strap? That red tape is not designed for towing vehicles
Driveroneuk:
Had a little chuckle Saturday afternoon on my way to Teesport. M6 North bound somewhere between Preston & Penrith. Spots a HATO vehicle stopped, cones out etc. but no other vehicle infront of it. Hmmm, strange? They don’t usually hang around on the shoulder for no good reason.Gets a bit nearer & thought it looked to be stood a bit uneven…
R/N/S tyre flat.
Are the guys changing it?
Nope, just stood around hands in pockets
How do you change you tyre on your truck then? 
99.9% of trucks dont have spares, and I might be wrong but I think the HATO’s vehicles dont have spare due to the extra weight in the back, A spare is a heavy item when that weight can be used for more safety related equipment,
Could be wrong though so dont quote me
It amazes me how many people have an opinion on someone else’s job, and how how much better they could do it - why don’t you chuck in truck driving and become a HATO darren23, I’m sure you could do it so much better than current encumbants…
As a Recovery truck driver, I have been glad to have HATO parked up behind me on the hard shoulder, or running lane on a Dual carraigeway protecting my ■■■ while I’ve been recovering a car/van or truck (where the proffesional driver went off the road after falling asleep) - no one moves over, or heaven forbid, slows down to go past, especially trucks.
I’ve even been on a job with two wreckers, ambulance, fire and several Police cars, where a box van ran into the back of a Police car! Explain how he never saw all those vehicles with beacons on, and cones/keep right arrows etc. not to mention the queued traffic…
Flame away, I’m a big boy
Discopete:
Driveroneuk:
Had a little chuckle Saturday afternoon on my way to Teesport. M6 North bound somewhere between Preston & Penrith. Spots a HATO vehicle stopped, cones out etc. but no other vehicle infront of it. Hmmm, strange? They don’t usually hang around on the shoulder for no good reason.Gets a bit nearer & thought it looked to be stood a bit uneven…
R/N/S tyre flat.
Are the guys changing it?
Nope, just stood around hands in pockets
How do you change you tyre on your truck then?
99.9% of trucks dont have spares, and I might be wrong but I think the HATO’s vehicles dont have spare due to the extra weight in the back, A spare is a heavy item when that weight can be used for more safety related equipment,
Could be wrong though so dont quote me
You may well be right there Pete. I admit i didn’t think about that. Come to think of it, i’m sure the spare is infact missing off the rear door of their vehicles so that the safety markings can be put right accross.
(and quite possibly as you mention, weight saving)
Obviously changing a truck tyre requires a bit more heavy equipment & grunt than that of a 4x4.
Was still amusing though… weather fine, nobody hurt, etc.
Pete is quite correct.HATO’s do not carry spares because of weight and good old health and safety.We are not trained how to change wheels,so we dont. Mind you,i sweep up debris,but i wasn’t trained to use a broom!!
Regarding hgv tyre changes:we will try everything we can not to implement a lane one closure,but if the vehicle can’t be moved,a lane one it will be,but not in peak times.
HA view is,better to cause 20-30 mins congestion for a lane one closure,than have tyre fitter killed and a full m/way closure for 4-5 hours for collision investigation to carry out their duties.
The HA have now supplied Police forces with a gps mapping system that should help speed up investigation work.
We had a full closure on Saturday night and within 30 mins,we had started turning traffic round and up the wrong way to exit.
This was for a man who jumped off a bridge in front of a hgv,but missed it and landed on m/way!!!
I seen lots of these dudes on our fair motorways, and yes when in excess of the speed limit ( I imagine ) they do look like coppers… so what? If that gives them more visibility it’s all the better…
If my wife broke down on the motorway, and one of the HOTA’s stopped to look after her, i’d be grateful, regardless of whether or not he changes a flat tire…
the “officials” that annoy me are the guys in the incident support unit hi-top transits, who boot it everywhere 70mph+, untill they sit off on top of a bridge…
extrucker:
This was for a man who jumped off a bridge in front of a hgv,but missed it and landed on m/way!!!
He missed? Bugger, so still no closer to finding out the best kind of screenwash for human splat. 
Coffeeholic,you’re a sick sick man.I must have met the normal coffeeholic that day!!!
M5 was shut off last night from jcn 8 …The traffic had come to a standstill and starting to back up . The hato lads had stopped flow to put cones out , i could not see any reason why they could still filter lane 1 off and down the slip whilst cone laying was ongoing , roadworkers do it .
Anyway it’s just an observation , I nipped off at the services and drove through them and onto the slip down to the M50
extrucker:
Coffeeholic,you’re a sick sick man.I must have met the normal coffeeholic that day!!!
You just caught me on a rare good day when the medication was working.
Last year I had a trye blow out on the M62 yes the HATO did stop found that I was ok ( Simon had brought me coffee ) then took my number and left
They did phone me asked if I was still there after about 1.5 hrs which I was they then phoned the recovery and ask them to attend to me asap which they did
I was also advised by HATO to stay in the van as it was snowing
animal:
I was also advised by HATO to stay in the van as it was snowing
You see? Some people think they are daft, but they do know about the weather !!
my opinion is
that if something or someone is on the hard shoulder i want to be in lane 2
just in case they do something stupid
as mentioned there are people out there that delight in getting as close to the broken down vehicle as possible