admiles

The other thing that always staggered me in ships planning/ops was that, until the advent of VGM (Verified Gross Mass) recently no one really had any accurate idea of how much weight was being loaded and critically, where on board, it was being loaded. Lots of safety margins being built in but even so an exact science it wasn't.

When I worked for Hapag-Lloyd I remember we had a maiden voyage/call party in Southampton for the then biggest container ship (can't exactly remember which one now) and she was 4400 TEU. Would have been in 1991 ish. Looked huge from the quayside. Little did I know quite how big they'd get! Those ladders aren't getting any shorter.....that or I'm not getting any younger! 🙄

He was driving the tipper truck that lost its cab and caught fire. Quite how he survived is beyond me. Even 56 mph (his max) will seem fast when hitting stationary traffic. It's a miracle he didn't kill more people. A little unfair I feel to blame the whole of truck based distribution. How many millions of truck miles are completed safely by competent, safe HGV drivers? And just in time distribution makes zero difference, the guy was on his phone. That can happen for any driver/journey if they're stupid enough. Sadly somethings these things happen. Human nature will see to that.

Really can't see the seller did anything at all wrong here. In fact it's very good of them to take the item back and refund you. You can hardly blame them for you being unaware of the rules regarding import duty and VAT in imported goods. Technically HMR&C can take enforcement measures if you have imported goods into the UK and then refuse to pay the due import taxes though I suspect they wouldn't bother with such a small amount. I think that one can be filed under "ignorance is no excuse of the law"...

All freight between the EU and UK is still heavily disrupted. Most mail is taken via road and is subject to the same delays and disruption. The whole system is one huge, badly planned and implemented mess. People are leaving the industry in droves as they've simply had enough.

...and again it'll have lost the very thing that made it great in the first place. It's engine, the soundtrack from it's flat 12, it's heart. It's not about speed in any way.

I couldn't agree more. I think you either get it or you don't. I can imagine some heathen asking me to convert my 1932 Morris to electric...

I live in a three bedroom, three story "townhouse" or terrace which has a reasonably small roof area and with even that the quotes I've been getting are in the £10-£12k range (without batteries) so for us the figures just don't stack up. Maybe prices have increased massively since you've had yours installed?

Strange how its a menu option on my M140i and the X1 I drove on Tuesday but not an M4. Can't see many premium German brand customers switching to Korean or Chinese cars any time soon tbh. Different sector of the market.

My BMWs list price was something like £39923 for exactly this reason. I bought it at just over a year old and specifically looked for one in the lower tax band.

Makes sense as the battery only has to power a smallish motor to spin the compressor and a fan to circulate the air. Very little current draw compared to powering the "traction" motor.

Good "wriggle out of covering the cost of a replacement battery within the warranty period" clause maybe? Seems odd that you effectively lose the use of 40% of the battery capacity.

I'd imagine at 141 mph by the time you've seen the van it's waaaaaaay to late!

Likewise the brand new (35 miles) X1 I'm using today while my car is being serviced will also fold the mirrors with a long button press and it also has the option in the menu to enable auto folding (as does my car).

Interesting. So it's very roughly a 50% charge and a full charge in the ID3 will give you 400 miles?

Just out of interest how many miles will that £16.16 get you roughly?

That genie has long since escaped the lamp and there's no getting it back in. People want their ordered items delivered quicker, not slower. Think Amazon Prime with same day delivery in many places. It's hugely successful. While I get the sentiment I really can't see people wanting to trail along to their local (or not so) station to collect parcels. Plus many stations these days simply don't have the space for handling facilities. And that's before you get into the issues of line capacity and parcels carrying trains sitting blocking platforms whilst being loaded/unloading.

Although the lease cost might be more for a diesel the fuel consumption will be a reasonable chunk less so that helps make a case with the company. We pretty much get a free reign provided the total cost is under a certain limit. The thing that might kill off the diesel idea in the BIK rate compared to the hybrids. That's the only reason we have the C-HR at the moment because everyone hates it with a passion!

The comparison is interesting. Sadly I'd be confined to self-charging hybrid if anything as no charging available at home or work. I also suspect the lease would be too expensive for a PHEV version too. A normal diesel is still looking favorite for the C-HR replacement. Edit: Just checked and the Kuga is a good £170 p/m more to lease than the C-HR so no way I'd get that signed off! If I'm honest I'd prefer a normal hatchback as I've never really seen the point of SUVs.

I hate to be a nay-sayer but I'm honestly struggling to see the benefits of a hybrid car. We have a hybrid Toyota C-HR at work and it seems to be the worst of both worlds. Very low range on electric and the engine cuts in over about 18mph(ish) so even driving around town it's nearly always running on petrol. It's fuel consumption is woeful for a 1.5 litre smallish car, about 35mpg (my 6 cylinder BMW is more economical). Its heavy so eats tyres and brakes and it's very sluggish. I'm really at a loss to see why anyone would opt for this over the straight petrol version. The worst bit is I might be lumbered with it after I move positions within the company I work for until the lease is up in Feb 2023. I've looked at straight electric as a replacement but it's a non-starter with no charging available at home or work so it's likely its replacement will be a diesel.

I'd put a reasonable amount of money on the cause of that accident being the tractor bouncing out of control on the uneven road surface. Tractors with large balloon tyres and limited (or zero) suspension can react quite violently to certain undulations in the road surface when traveling at speed (most big tractors top out at 50kph). In effect they can pogo themselves off the road. Seen it a few times here in rural Suffolk.

Can only think you're talking about just mail/parcels? I was thinking about HGVs in a more general setting such as container, distribution and bulk deliveries. Nothing EV out there so far that will cope with those.

Ok I read your comment as banning HGVs (as in all HGVs) from suburbs. My bad! What I will say though is I haven't yet seen a workable, economic electric HGV yet. There are lots of problems with the weight of the batteries killing payload capacity, range, where to charge and of course cost. Force hauliers to switch to even more expensive vehicles and guess what happens to haulage rates....and cost to the consumer.

I can assure you it's not just posted/couriered items. Commercial freight is also a total mess adding huge amounts of delay and costs. The sooner I can retire the better!

There are an awful lot of commercial premises that take deliveries based in the "suburbs". I'd suggest legislating HGVs out would be impossible.