So... What's the deal with the expensive dearth of drivers and drivers quitting the job for a better life?
Too many unpaid hours?...

No.
1: Lack of facilities.
2: Treatment.
3: Safety.
4: Bureaucratic bovine excrement (see Police & Enforcement thread).
5: Unreasonable deadlines
6: Away from home too long.
7: Cost & dCPC last straw as to why many said to hell with it.

Too many more to list.

It never has been about pay or hours. When working LGV, often hit £20-£24k p/a. HGV 2/1 £28-£34k p/a
Personally, often caused issues with managers. Actual employment was for 7.5 ton driver, however many times HGV2/1 short & got allocated their runs.
Phone blew up as I never turned up (reason 2).
Edit
This has been ongoing LONG before Brexit & Covid. Makes one think does it not?

Southwest Airlines passenger jumps from taxiing plane at Phoenix airport

The passenger, identified only as a 30-year-old man, exited the plane from a galley door at the back of the aircraft and briefly locked himself inside a fire station on the tarmac, according to FOX 10 in Phoenix.

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The incident was the latest in a surge in unruly air passengers since the pandemic started.
Last summer, a passenger jumped out of a taxiing plane at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and last week a woman at LAX ran onto the tarmac attempting to wave down a plane.

Karen missed her flight so decided...

Serious question:

What is the energy content of 44 tonnes @ 100 kmh?

Maybe this dashcam footage and pictures will answer your question.

Cheers.

[Truck crashes into the back of traffic, killing people...]

Unfortunately, that is a scenario that is forever repeated...

Can anything be done to avoid that other than taking freight off the general roads?...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

[Truck crashes into the back of traffic, killing people...]

Unfortunately, that is a scenario that is forever repeated...

Can anything be done to avoid that other than taking freight off the general roads?...

Isn't the point of autonomous vehicles to prevent that?

[Truck crashes into the back of traffic, killing people...]

Unfortunately, that is a scenario that is forever repeated...

Can anything be done to avoid that other than taking freight off the general roads?...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

You are not going to get general freight on to the railways or even water transport in some cases. The calculations on the break even point between road and rail, and there are differing methods to calculate this, would indicate the minimum distance is about 400 km. And for that to happen the freight has to be untouched and in one container for the whole journey.

Also in some cases the distance traveled would increase as the freight might have to go 'backwards' to and from the nearest rail terminals.

Also, don't forget the final 2 links in the chain - Shops & Customers.
Often did what we called stock runs. Store approx. half the load & 6/8 drops in homes.
Road haulage will always be needed.
Then again we can always go "backwards". How about using a horse & cart. :-)

Didn't one of the London breweries use horse and dray until quite recently for deliveries in and around the City of London?

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Yep & also up in Yorkshire, as seen during lockdown last year.
No driver shortage for them. :-)

Can anything be done to avoid that other than taking freight off the general roads?...

With people too lazy to go out & buy things themselves, there is more freight on the road than ever before. Along with thousands of delivery drivers driving like they stole their van in order to get it delivered in time or they get financially penalised for missing the deliver by time.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Can anything be done to avoid that other than taking freight off the general roads?...

With people too lazy to go out & buy things themselves, there is more freight on the road than ever before. Along with thousands of delivery drivers driving like they stole their van in order to get it delivered in time or they get financially penalised for missing the deliver by time.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=23109

23109. (a) A person shall not engage in a motor vehicle speed contest on a highway. As used in this section, a motor vehicle speed contest includes a motor vehicle race against another vehicle, a clock, or other timing device.

A pizza chain some years ago had an issue with this and now they no longer advertise there in X minutes.

Snigger......
Some years ago a friend of mine was out of work and saw a pizza place was advertising for people with a clean license and their own motorbike, both of which she had. She applied and got the job. Following a discussion with the shop manager it was decided she would do the remote, out of town runs, which suited her and her bike. She soon settled into the way of things, pick up the pizza, check the address and ride off into the lanes of Buckinghamshire, stop at the allotted house and knock on the door, all within the hinted at delivery time. Some customers were a bit puzzled as to how their pizza got their in time, and why the door knock was preceded by a big bike going down the gears, and the gently cooling Kawasaki 1100 sitting at their gate and the none-teenage lady i gunmetal leathers holding their pizza box out for them......

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Is this the way to restrict access

Is this the way to drive in a built-up area? What speed do you need to be doing to get that sort of lift-off?

Unbelievable. Who was the brainwave who designed that piece of stupidity?

Cheers.

Unbelievable. Who was the brainwave who designed that piece of stupidity?

More to the point:

What of the blind stupidity of the drivers blindly crashing through?


Can't be sure from the view but I suspect that the kerbing was narrowed "on the cheap" without changing the warnings and road markings...

Even so... Darwin in action!


Drive safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

A couple of things:
The posts are meant to come up VERY quickly ahead of the vehicle, not once the vehicle is on top of them (they are supposed to be inhibited from rising once a vehicle is on them)
They are meant to restrict access to vehicles that are over the width restriction, but in a couple of cases in the video they are hitting the underside of small cars.
A good many councils have stopped using the ones they had installed because of their inherent unreliability as a system. Where I live they were installed on one street in the town centre, with the bus company having equipment on their buses to prevent the post from rising, and lower them if they were already up; the bus company had to pay for these but when they renewed their fleet they "forgot" to install the equipment on the new buses. Ditto for ambulances, fire vehicles, post vans etc.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Over the past few years, have often found myself thinking of an old quote when witnessing/watching some crazy antics on the road.
"There are old pilots & there are bold pilots, BUT there are no old bold pilots"
Mainly that is often said to the young in the hope that they learn quickly. Most do, but sometimes...
...so...how is this guy still alive?

It takes a lot of brains ...
https://mynewsla.com/crime/2021/12/21/man-arrested-suspected-of-stealing-fire-truck/