Lorry Drivers Please Service Your Vehicles!

What's so hard with the maintenance of these vehicles?

I'm starting to get sick and tired of finding the reason I've been stuck in traffic for an hour is due to a broken down lorry. It's all I every hear on the traffic report."Delays due to a broken down lorry".

T Raymond

Reply to
T_Raymond
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Maintenance of HGV's is legally controlled, an HGV has to have an alternating service/inspection every six weeks or 10,000km, whichever comes first and HGVs are at least as reliable as cars and probably more so. Any problems caused when an HGV breaks down will be caused by the fact that it can not be pushed out of the way, as a car could be, and anybody of average intelligence or above would realise that without having to have it explained to them.

Hope I have managed to explain this to you in a way that you can understand.

Vince

Reply to
Knight of the Road

I'm doubtful that you have, although the vast majority of people would understand perfectly well.

Of course, just to add, vehicles break down due to unforeseeable defects like like a flat tyre or other component breaking.

Reply to
Brimstone

Is this also true of lorries from Poland and other foreign parts?

T Raymond

Reply to
T_Raymond

irrelevant in a "UK.rec." hierarchy news group...

Reply to
loopy livernose

snipped-for-privacy@l20g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...

Not if you live in the South-east of the UK...

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

They're maintained far better than cars are. The ones where I worked did

800 miles PER DAY. They're not doing a piddly 30 mile commute.
Reply to
Conor

Yes although other former Eastern Bloc countries aren't as strict.

Reply to
Conor

The lorry isn't the problem - its the 30,000,000 cars on a small island.

Reply to
Conor

I do not know what Poland's procedure is, but I can assure you firstly that it will have one- Poland is not a third world country- and secondly that the German BAG (like our VOSA but with Nazi attitude) would deal with unroadworthy Polish trucks long before they got here. But in any event it is not in any operator's interest to have an unreliable vehicle because the truck is not earning if it is not moving.

Delays caused by breakdowns of HGVs are likely to cause more disruption than those of cars firstly because it is not possible to push a stricken vehicle out of the way as it is with a car and secondly because there are far fewer mechanics and recovery vehicles for lorries and so they are therefore likely to take longer to reach a stricken vehicle than the local AA van or franchaised garage, since they are likely to have started from further away.

Vince

Reply to
Knight of the Road

Q: So why do so many FAIL the MOT test?

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A1.1, 32.4% fail initial test. 20% of trailers fail initialtest. Operators with single vehicle are the worst with 40.3% failingthe initial test followed by fleets under 5 vehicles at 34.2%. Brakeshold positions 2 thru to 5 in the top ten reasons list. A: Cos they don't give a monkeys until it fails the test.

Q: Why are BRAKES at 9% for HGV and 20% for trailers both TOP of the Top ten prohibition defects in table 1.30?

A: Cos they don't give a monkeys until they are faced with it being taken off the road or has to be tested.

Motorcycles Class 1 and 2 have lowest initial test fail rate of 19.3% (but rate is increasing so they should take more care) Class 3 and 4, Cars and light vans are a bit worse than HGV at 36.6% but considering the inept ownership, lack of legally controlled alternating service/inspection etc it's very much better than the achievements of single vehicle HGV operators, comparable to small fleet and HGV overall. Class 5 PSV 32.9% Class 7 3-3.5 tonne LGV are utterly pants at 45.6% initial fail. There have been suggestion that MOT should be every 2 years but looks like LGV need testing twice a year. You can bet that the single operator light van that comes in the car class is just as bad.

AND most telling of all "Vehicles that are not covered by statutory testing (including mobile cranes, diggers and non-HGV trailers) had a prohibition rate of

72.5%."

So next time you see a JCB lurching along at 30 mph on the D-C or a farm tractor with a trailer full of spuds/turnips/grain doing 20mph, just think there's a 3 in 4 chance it has no brakes, knackered steering arms and no brake lights. Instead of prohibition, 1 in 10 found with defects needs taking out and shooting, it would encourage the others to shape up.

Reply to
Peter Hill

"Peter Hill" wrote

formatting link
Table A1.1, 32.4% fail initial test. 20% of trailers fail initial> test. Operators with single vehicle are the worst with 40.3% failing> the initial test followed by fleets under 5 vehicles at 34.2%. Brakes> hold positions 2 thru to 5 in the top ten reasons list. A motorcycle has two brakes, one on each axle.

A car, mine for example, has four brakes, two on each axle.

An articulated lorry has twelve brakes, two on each axle, and a far more complex (and fail-safe) system than a motorcycle or car.

If you are suggesting that the reason a vehicle with twelve brakes is more likely to fail an MOT test than a vehicle with two brakes is because it is less well maintained, then you are so simple-minded that I don't see the point in debating with you.

Vince

Reply to
Knight of the Road

formatting link
Table A1.1, 32.4% fail initial test. 20% of trailers fail initial> test. Operators with single vehicle are the worst with 40.3% failing> the initial test followed by fleets under 5 vehicles at 34.2%. Brakes> hold positions 2 thru to 5 in the top ten reasons list.>

Because it is far far stricter.

Err, no. It would have had 8 safety checks inbetween MOTs.

Wrong. A lot of those are for air leaks. And before you bleat on about it, the truck has a compressor so its not like a car pissing out brake fluid.

That's because a lot of them are horse boxes and white van man who isn't subject to the same requrements for safety checks.

Reply to
Conor

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>

In addition to that, they're designed to fail to locked on. And most of the fails are for minor air leaks which doesn't matter a shit because the lorry has a huge fooking compressor run off a 12l diesel engine which is just about capable of keeping the brakes OFF if you have one of the main pipes let go. Compare that to a car which has a set amount of brake fluid and once thats gone, there's no brakes.

But not to worry, Peter will no doubt say its all bollox.

Reply to
Conor

It happens that Conor formulated :

However the modern dual circuit system means that either both circuits have to fail at the same instant, or there has to be a failure of the pedal/ pedal linkage for all braking to be lost.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Which are all being slowed down by too many lorries trying to overtake each other even though the daft bastard in the trucks don't appear to comprehend that truck top speeds are limited.

There ya go, full house.

Reply to
Pete M

Remind me how well you can brake with basically one front corner whilst maintaining control of the vehicle. Sure makes steering real interesting.

Reply to
Conor

Not really. No trucks and you've no fuel to drive your cars. You'll remember the fuel blockades?

And on A roads, I seem to be held up by cars more than lorries.

And there's only 450,000 registered in the UK, many of which are lease hire firms and stuck in yards. Hell, the Armed Forces and Police have several percent of that. Leconfield alone has over 1500.

Reply to
Conor

Crabwise. Been there, done that - I'm still here!

Reply to
Ian Dalziel

Too bloody right. Traffic's a million times worse than it was 10 years ago. That's why it's even more important to be more than a bit strategic in terms of when you travel, and where you live relative to work, and other things you might wish to drive to.

Reply to
AstraVanMann

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