Railway Bridge in Plymouth currently supported by lorry!

[D854_Tiger]

My youngest son has spent several £1000 on obtaining a HGV1 passed all the courses still has had no joy in finding a job, i work in a factory with several young lads in there 20's and 30's who hold class 1 HGV all claim the industry is against employment of British workers, it seems that foreign agencies can employ foreign workers to work in UK but not have to pay minimum working or living wage, soon as we leave the EU the better

 

 

I's a well known scam, not one confined to the Haulage industry, catching on at an alarming rate and in a way that the EU political system seems utterly incapable of addressing.

 

Basically, companies use an employment agency based elsewhere in the EU, say Eastern Europe, the agency employs the workforce at local rates and conditions (even in the local currency), the worker resides in the UK but (as they are paid back home) paying no UK taxes and free to use UK public services, with little or no check.

 

The employer gets cheap labour, the employee gets a rubbish wage but one not half so bad once relieved of the burden to pay UK tax and NI.

 

It's essentially the employment version of the same EU single market rules that allow companies to set up anywhere in the EU for the purposes of corporation tax, say a one desk office in Switzerland, even though they make all their profits elsewhere in the EU.

[lmsforever]

​The bridge on the A41 near Bicester used to be a regular for being bashed but since a great deal of work was carried out drivers seem to be aware of the problem.As you approach the bridge now you pass height radar if you are to high a large sign illuminates in warning plus there are plenty of signs telling you the height all in all it works.The standard of of HGV driving along with car driving has plummeted in the last few years and the growing number of people who cant go anywhere without a sat nav is growing.Seemingly geography is not taught at school anymore as peole don't no where places are in the UK .I am I glad I had a proper education plus a driving job that meant I had to drive properly .

[F-UnitMad]

... And before you suggest it's because we kept wages low by employing non-British drivers you might like to know that our drivers tended to earn a fair chunk more than the company directors!

 

Maybe, but I bet they had to put in the hours to do it!!

 

Hourly rates ARE low for HGV driving, not helped by Eddie Stobart & his ilk somehow managing to abolish overtime rates, & set just a flat hourly rate. People think drivers are protected by hours laws, but legally being able to work 3 shifts of 15 hours and 2 of 13 hours in one week, with minimal breaks in between of 9 or 11 hours, often away from home in a cab in a layby, for the grand sum of £26 per night out, and be treated as some kind of nuisance/menace/idiot by all & sundry (especially when you dare to take up space the all-important Private Motorist wants to have all to themselves) ...well it should be no surprise no one wants to do it any more.

I miss actually driving big trucks, but not the hassle, delays and hours that go with them. I'm glad to be out of it.

[Fat Controller]

Vehicles hitting overbridges are hardly a new phenomenon. In the late 1970s, I was working next to the bridge at the south end of Stoke station on Glebe Street. The bridge had replaced an earlier level crossing, and is of fairly restricted height (10'3" is shown on the approach roads and the bridge itself). Within a week, I had seen the following collide with the bridge:-

A skip-lorry with the lifting crossbar raised.

A lorry carrying baled wool (approximate height 15')

A brand-new Leyland National bus, which had left  the depot with an air-conditioning nacelle on its roof.

I have no reason to believe that this was an exceptional week. Two of the three were local vehicles.

[Dunsignalling]

I's a well known scam, not one confined to the Haulage industry, catching on at an alarming rate and in a way that the EU political system seems utterly incapable of addressing.

 

Basically, companies use an employment agency based elsewhere in the EU, say Eastern Europe, the agency employs the workforce at local rates and conditions (even in the local currency), the worker resides in the UK but (as they are paid back home) paying no UK taxes and free to use UK public services, with little or no check.

 

The employer gets cheap labour, the employee gets a rubbish wage but one not half so bad once relieved of the burden to pay UK tax and NI.

 

It's essentially the employment version of the same EU single market rules that allow companies to set up anywhere in the EU for the purposes of corporation tax, say a one desk office in Switzerland, even though they make all their profits elsewhere in the EU.

Once Brexit goes through, there will be a simple remedy.

 

It should become conditional for anyone working in the UK (and their employer, wherever based) to be paying NI in order to qualify for ANY public services.

 

The foreign agencies at the dodgy end of the market will soon lose interest.

 

John

[D854_Tiger]

Vehicles hitting overbridges are hardly a new phenomenon. In the late 1970s, I was working next to the bridge at the south end of Stoke station on Glebe Street. The bridge had replaced an earlier level crossing, and is of fairly restricted height (10'3" is shown on the approach roads and the bridge itself). Within a week, I had seen the following collide with the bridge:-

A skip-lorry with the lifting crossbar raised.

A lorry carrying baled wool (approximate height 15')

A brand-new Leyland National bus, which had left  the depot with an air-conditioning nacelle on its roof.

I have no reason to believe that this was an exceptional week. Two of the three were local vehicles.

 

 

There was a low bridge not too far from me that used to have a bus station just a few hundred yards away.

 

The bridge itself was not actually on a bus route, but was always being struck by double-decker busses in need of a haircut.

 

The problem was many of the bus drivers used that low bridge when driving to and from work.

 

It's not difficult to imagine how all it needed was a bit of auto pilot, with the all too obvious result.

 

In truth, how many of us, when driving and heading one way, have found ourselves heading another, through inattention and a default to sheer habit.

[Kris]

That Height Restriction warning sign is barely visible. plus it would be impossible to see against a low sun. 

 

At the time of day the accident happened the sun would have been quite high in the sky.

Approaching the bridge from the opposite direction, there are no warning signs at all.

 

The angle that the bridge crosses the road would put the height of the bridge on the North bound carriage way at over 16ft, so not requiring hight marking. 

[Jonboy]

 

It's essentially the employment version of the same EU single market rules that allow companies to set up anywhere in the EU for the purposes of corporation tax, say a one desk office in Switzerland, even though they make all their profits elsewhere in the EU.

When did Switzerland join the EU?

[peanuts]

The foreign agencies at the dodgy end of the market will soon lose interest.

 

many of the agencies advertising in poland  and other eastern european  countries for uk companies are subsidiaries of british agencies so no doubt will already be looking/lobbying for a legal loophole to allow there practices to continue unabated .can you see the likes of Stobarts wincanton etc wanting to become even less competitive with wabberras xpo and other foreign companies that are steadily eating into theyre market share ?

[Talltim]

Seemingly geography is not taught at school anymore as peole don't no where places are in the UK .I am I glad I had a proper education plus a driving job that meant I had to drive properly .[/i]

;-)

[lmsforever]

;-)

 

Pardon?

[Coryton]

When did Switzerland join the EU?

 

So far as I know it's not formally in the EU, but is a quasi-member thanks to a set of treaties giving freedom of movement, membership of single market etc. all set up so that in principle they can't pull out of one without the rest. 

 

There was a low bridge not too far from me that used to have a bus station just a few hundred yards away.

 

The bridge itself was not actually on a bus route, but was always being struck by double-decker busses in need of a haircut.

 

The problem was many of the bus drivers used that low bridge when driving to and from work.

 

It's not difficult to imagine how all it needed was a bit of auto pilot, with the all too obvious result.

 

In truth, how many of us, when driving and heading one way, have found ourselves heading another, through inattention and a default to sheer habit.

 

I used to live somewhere with a bus route that was operated by a single decker in the evenings and double deckers during the day. The single decker route passed under a rather low canal bridge. The double decker route took a diversion.

 

I was always a bit concerned about a driver changing from the evening to the day shift forgetting which route to take.

 

I never saw it happen.

 

If I remember correctly, the bridge had a heavy duty gantry on the approach so it would have hit that and not the bridge - possibly not much consolation to any passengers upstairs though.

[lmsforever]

Local dairy and milk company has all its lorries driven by drivers from the EU   sign of the times I think? Think Talltim rather rude.

[corneliuslundie]

I winced when I read that post by lmsforever post (having been an English teacher and an editor), but assumed it was sticky finger rather than intentional. I know I am lucky if I get a post longer than two lines without my fingers hitting a wrong key or two along the way.

Anyway, let's stick to low bridges (if you know what I mean!). There are plenty to choose from.

Jonathan

[royaloak]

I do not understand why there are no "clang" bars like on the entrance to low height supermarket car parks. Hit that first rather than the bridge.

And they fall down into the path of the other traffic on the roads, or they are strong enough to rip the front of the roof off the truck which falls into the path of other road users/ onto pedestrians!

[royaloak]

Given that it's been mentioned that the bridge in question is on a change of gradient, is it one of those where the nominal clearance, as marked on the bridge, gets eaten up when a long vehicle, itself nominally OK heightwise, hits the upward slope immediately beyond?

No, the marked height is the maximum height which will fit under the bridge, although it is on a rising gradient it is a constant gradient.

 

The sign says 15ft, and the trailer is clearly 16ft, while it was under there several 14ft6in buses went past it without incident.

[royaloak]

Just for the sake of accuracy does anyone actually know the nationality of the driver or the amount of experience he or she has had?

Local accent going by my mark one ears..

[corneliuslundie]

The issue of changing gradient was certainly an issue in Harpenden. A short vehicle would be OK but a long one would hit the bridge even though there was the stated clearance. But surely, that is something "professional" drivers should be aware of?

Mind you, we have plenty of "professional" drivers going through Newtown and there is a clearly marked alternative route for high vehicles, but we still get several each year stuck under the railway bridge on the Llandrindod Wells road, and that is on he flat (or flat for this part of the world). If they can't manage that I wonder how they manage with the rest of the road which in places is more like those you find in Swiss valleys.

Jonathan

[BG John]

My formerly 9'9" high motorhome has never hit a low bridge, because I'm intelligent enough to avoid them. However, its height was reduced by a totally unmarked tree branch in a car park, that removed the TV aerial!

[dhjgreen]

P&H now have more form for bad driving

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-39856808/crazy-trucker-reversed-on-roundabout

[phil-b259]

​The bridge on the A41 near Bicester used to be a regular for being bashed but since a great deal of work was carried out drivers seem to be aware of the problem.As you approach the bridge now you pass height radar if you are to high a large sign illuminates in warning plus there are plenty of signs telling you the height all in all it works.The standard of of HGV driving along with car driving has plummeted in the last few years and the growing number of people who cant go anywhere without a sat nav is growing.Seemingly geography is not taught at school anymore as peole don't no where places are in the UK .I am I glad I had a proper education plus a driving job that meant I had to drive properly .

 

I believe that Network Rail spent a considerable amount of money lowering the road / raising the bridge (it totally screws up the Chiltern main line - which is no longer a single track outer suburban line terminating at Banbury, if it gets hit) and that all the radar stuff is a hangover from the situation before the clearances were increased.

[EddieB]

Might be worth mentioning that there's a feature article in the current issue of Railway Magazine - which identifies that Network Rail does try to recover costs from haulage companies but includes a FOI response that shows a lack of prosecutions for strikes in Leicestershire over the last five years.

[Killian keane]

This sort of thing seems to be typical in the anti-rail-league...