Weather

[Steve Q]

😮 oh no! That's not good!! Hope it gets sorted soon. 

[Scott1906]

Was speaking to a friend of mine who was up north at the time the weather was bad, and wow. I try my best to avoid driving at all if it's really really bad. I think I hardly drove at all last February in late Feb-early March when we had the beast of the east over in the UK! 

[Steve Q]

38 minutes ago, Scott1906 said:

Was speaking to a friend of mine who was up north at the time the weather was bad, and wow. I try my best to avoid driving at all if it's really really bad. I think I hardly drove at all last February in late Feb-early March when we had the beast of the east over in the UK! 

You're lucky you an choose to drive or not 🙂

I have to drive in all weathers regardless. 

[Simon P]

On 2/15/2019 at 4:04 PM, Scott1906 said:

Was speaking to a friend of mine who was up north at the time the weather was bad, and wow. I try my best to avoid driving at all if it's really really bad. I think I hardly drove at all last February in late Feb-early March when we had the beast of the east over in the UK! 

I'm a long(ish) distance trucker. When The Beast from the East struck I'd picked up a load near Manchester and was heading back home to our yard at Stirling, ie an essential journey.

All went well almost all the way up, there was some snow but nothing to worry me. Then at around 2pm I reached Cumbernauld and hit the back of a queue, which is pretty normal even in good weather, so not unexpected as there was a fair bit of snow by then. I was eventually released at around 1am Thursday morning, along with quite a few other vehicles. We had to weave around abandoned cars and vans, which was rather frustrating. During the time spent waiting we had moved up several times, each time we stopped I invited everyone parked around me into my cab. I've got a small diesel furnace fitted to my truck (all sleeper cabs have them these days). As I'm a long distance trucker I'm prepared with emergency food and have coffee, water, sugar and milk and a small gas cooker, a kettle and a pot, so was offering warmth and coffee to anyone who wanted it. One person took me up on the offer in those 11 hours. I also saw some local residents walking through the traffic with bags of food and flasks of tea or coffee presumably, none of them came to me though so I don't know what was on offer. Speaking to other truckers stuck there afterwards, I know I wasn't the only one offering warmth and hot drinks. I was a little bit annoyed at a news report on the radio on the Thursday, someone with very young children in the car was complaining that the authorities hadn't done enough to prevent the situation occuring and not enough support for him with his young children once it had occured. I don't know what his essential journey was, with very young children, but there were plenty of warnings not to drive anywhere on Wednesday in particular unless it was essential.

After we were released from the problem at Cumbernauld, me and one other truck turned off towards Stirling, I was the second truck. Just half a mile off the main road we had to stop again, A car had grounded out on top of the snow. Not much later the police turned up, asked the car driver where he intended going and asked the two of us truckers where we were going (both to the same industrial estate 5 miles along the road), we were instructed to remain exactly where we were, ie in the middle of the road, we would be sorted as much as possible in daylight, but the snow was falling and drifting so quickly they were unable to keep that 5 miles stretch open. We were then moved a couple of hundred yards into a layby once daylight appeared. The car driver was rescued and sent home. I eventually got back to our company yard around midday Friday, after hitting the queue at 2pm Wednesday. As I said, I'm prepared for most eventuallities. I'm teaching myself to play the flute (from books) and I read a lot. I'm not a tv watcher so don't have one in the truck. There was a petrol station at the end of the road, so I bought a pint of milk, but none of their consessions was open so no hot food. Soup and sandwiches then. Comfy enough bed, my flute, my kindle, internet on my phone, warm and dry. That'll do me nicely 🙂 

[Scott1906]

On 2/15/2019 at 4:43 PM, Steve Q said:

You're lucky you an choose to drive or not 🙂

I have to drive in all weathers regardless. 

Agreed, I feel blessed. I decided to work from home for a couple of weeks when the Beast from the East hit us last year, mainly because I was involved a bad crash in the snow when I was younger but also because I would drop dead if anything were to happen to my car. 

I suppose if you look at the plus sides though, you'll be a lot more used to driving in those conditions than I am so will most likely be better at handling yourself when sh*t hits the fan 😅

[Scott1906]

On 2/17/2019 at 9:44 PM, Simon P said:

I'm a long(ish) distance trucker. When The Beast from the East struck I'd picked up a load near Manchester and was heading back home to our yard at Stirling, ie an essential journey.

All went well almost all the way up, there was some snow but nothing to worry me. Then at around 2pm I reached Cumbernauld and hit the back of a queue, which is pretty normal even in good weather, so not unexpected as there was a fair bit of snow by then. I was eventually released at around 1am Thursday morning, along with quite a few other vehicles. We had to weave around abandoned cars and vans, which was rather frustrating. During the time spent waiting we had moved up several times, each time we stopped I invited everyone parked around me into my cab. I've got a small diesel furnace fitted to my truck (all sleeper cabs have them these days). As I'm a long distance trucker I'm prepared with emergency food and have coffee, water, sugar and milk and a small gas cooker, a kettle and a pot, so was offering warmth and coffee to anyone who wanted it. One person took me up on the offer in those 11 hours. I also saw some local residents walking through the traffic with bags of food and flasks of tea or coffee presumably, none of them came to me though so I don't know what was on offer. Speaking to other truckers stuck there afterwards, I know I wasn't the only one offering warmth and hot drinks. I was a little bit annoyed at a news report on the radio on the Thursday, someone with very young children in the car was complaining that the authorities hadn't done enough to prevent the situation occuring and not enough support for him with his young children once it had occured. I don't know what his essential journey was, with very young children, but there were plenty of warnings not to drive anywhere on Wednesday in particular unless it was essential.

After we were released from the problem at Cumbernauld, me and one other truck turned off towards Stirling, I was the second truck. Just half a mile off the main road we had to stop again, A car had grounded out on top of the snow. Not much later the police turned up, asked the car driver where he intended going and asked the two of us truckers where we were going (both to the same industrial estate 5 miles along the road), we were instructed to remain exactly where we were, ie in the middle of the road, we would be sorted as much as possible in daylight, but the snow was falling and drifting so quickly they were unable to keep that 5 miles stretch open. We were then moved a couple of hundred yards into a layby once daylight appeared. The car driver was rescued and sent home. I eventually got back to our company yard around midday Friday, after hitting the queue at 2pm Wednesday. As I said, I'm prepared for most eventuallities. I'm teaching myself to play the flute (from books) and I read a lot. I'm not a tv watcher so don't have one in the truck. There was a petrol station at the end of the road, so I bought a pint of milk, but none of their consessions was open so no hot food. Soup and sandwiches then. Comfy enough bed, my flute, my kindle, internet on my phone, warm and dry. That'll do me nicely 🙂 

Wow!! I would have honestly given you a medal for going through this. How did you do in terms of keeping a level head when stuck in the traffic for all those hours? I suppose you're probably used to long queues if you're a trucker and do mammoth journeys on the regular, but I normally lose my head if I'm stuck in traffic for 1 or 2 hours - never mind the length of time you were stuck on the roads! Then again, if I've got a good podcast on then that usually helps ease the frustration. 

I think in terms of authorities advising people not to drive unless essential when the weather is dire, too many people have that "it won't affect me" mentality whereby they seem to think the weather is less likely to affect their driving and that they're less likely to get stuck in queues. Very kind of you to offer warmth and coffee to the other motorists in the traffic jam though - I would have been more than happy to come and listen to some flute playing over a nice warm brew. 

I bet it felt like a blessing when you finally got home on Friday evening!

Thanks for sharing, 

Scott. 

[Simon P]

No need for a medal. Keeping a level head is one of the requirements for the long distance work in particular. Not that I'm perfect by any means, I've lost my head on many occasions, but not at a situation like that one. The weather isn't under anyone's control, that situation developed because of the weather (and some not great driving by somebody). There was nothing to be gained losing my head, not even venting frustration really, because it was clearly going to be a looooong time to sort all out.

Next week I'm off to Munich for my final delivery, then Passau to reload for home. Middling distance work. The longest trip I've done was loading from Aberdeen, for delivery to Taranto in the South of Italy. Loaded Tuesday lunchtime ish, delivered Taranto Friday teatime 😄

[Steve Q]

On 2/22/2019 at 1:51 PM, Scott1906 said:

Agreed, I feel blessed. I decided to work from home for a couple of weeks when the Beast from the East hit us last year, mainly because I was involved a bad crash in the snow when I was younger but also because I would drop dead if anything were to happen to my car. 

I suppose if you look at the plus sides though, you'll be a lot more used to driving in those conditions than I am so will most likely be better at handling yourself when sh*t hits the fan 😅

True! It's when idiots pull out on you in the ice and you're struggling to stop is a major issue. 

[Simon P]

Ahh, now that I would 'vent' at. This is a regular run for us, Stirling to Passau via Rotterdam, Frankfurt and Munich. We do it week in, week out, 50 weeks a year, under all conditions. By the time I get back to Stirling on Thursday, I'll have driven over 2000 miles. My 4 year old truck has got just under half a million km on the clock, I've driven almost all of them. None of this makes me a good driver, but a very experienced one. Overtaking a long line of cars in Lane 1 in snow, I do it cos my experience tells me I can, but Mr BMW (or Merc, Volvo or Audi) decides that if I can, he can. Quickly followed by them having a brown trousers moment and slowing straight back down again, usually right in front of me. They never decide to let me pass and then follow, it's always pulling out just in front of me. On a dry road not a problem, but in snow and ice I'm hoping I can slow down quickly enough without losing all traction.