Even the £80,000 cargo of oil he was carrying couldn't help him slip out of this mess.
tinyurl.com/bn43xv8 - (Daily Mail, but probably also reported elsewhere)
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He was clearly using a sat nav aimed at cars and not HGV's. He was the prat for sure.
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The link works but its the same picture as the original post. Is it just a test?
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Yes it was just a test CG;)
Remove it if you like Mods:)
Pat
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I have to say that isn't a sat nav error.
The driver was there, sitting behind the wheel, looking at the side road and the room needed to get his vehicle into it.
He decided (wrongly) he could get round from his position.
He had the option to go straight on and NOT make the turn.
Bad judgement, no common sense and bad driving.
Pat
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And only got 6 points on his licence and a £40 fine.
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unprofessional driving at its best ! It wasn't the sat nav it was his judgement ! & lack of reading road signs !
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I was driving late at night last week through the middle of nowhere in Eastern Germany. The SatNav lady informed me that I was to turn left in 500m. I could see from the display that the turnoff was just before the road crossed a railway. Up ahead I saw a level crossing, to the left I could see no visible sign of a road.
Just before the level crossing the SatNav lady told me to turn left. There was definitely no road either before or after the level crossing. I stopped before the crossing. I then noticed what looked like an overgrown footpath or bridleway off to the left running parallel and right next to the railway. This was the only route of any sort.
I continued down the road, with the SatNav lady telling me for the next couple of kms to do a U turn and continue along the green laning route she had so carefully chosen.
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Tha answer to that one Bagpuss, is to have a SatNav gentleman telling you where to go....we all know women have no sense of navigation, don't we?
Pat
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The answer for lorry drivers etc. is to use sat nav that are aimed at them with knowledge of width and height restrictions. And then to still use a bit of common sense.
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...The answer for lorry drivers etc...
A better answer is to have lorry drivers who speak the language of the country in which they are driving, or at the very least have the ability to read the road signs.
Another innovation would be drivers who have experience of the routes they are being asked to drive.
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"A better answer is to have lorry drivers who speak the language of the country in which they are driving"
Not many UK drivers, lorry or car, would be found the other side of the Channel then.
Road signs are international
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>> Tha answer to that one Bagpuss, is to have a SatNav gentleman telling you where
>> to go....we all know women have no sense of navigation, don't we?
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>> Pat
LOL, indeed.
I had a Renault Megane Coupe as a rental car recently with a built-in SatNav using TomTom software. It was possible to select the language, so I selected English. Then I could select a voice from a list of about 20. The voice list included "German Female". I tried it and, sure enough, it was a woman's voice barking instructions in English with a German accent. There was also "Dutch Male" which I didn't try.
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>> There was also "Dutch Male" which I didn't try.
"Hey man wash the rush, lesh no go dere, lesh lay back and have another schmoko"
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 13:35
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Sat nav is not fool proof - and there's a lot of fools that have it!
When navigating from near to San Gimignano to Volterra earlier this year (I have mentioned this before) the sat nav kept saying no route. I assumed this was because of the road I was on so changed the settings to also use unsurfaced roads. It then plotted a route.
The route went a slightly different way to what I might have done myself but no doubt this was shorter and I knew it would be scenic. And then before we got there it suggested I go down a really badly surfaced road. Which I didn't and carried on and it corrected itself.
It was only later I realised my mistake. It could not plot a route to the centre of Volterra initially because there are restrictions for cars. By switching the settings it let me plan a route. And in doing so it then tried to use other inappropriate roads.
Except I wasn't going to follow it's suggestions. And knew roughly where I was going anyway. I came back a different way mind.
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Mine did something similar once.
I'd been using it for walking and left it in "pedestrian" mode. I felt like such a berk for cursing it so roundly....
Back to the main thrust, there are perfectly good commercial SatNav systems, which will even vary the route dependant on vehicle (height, artic / drawbar, etc.).
Trouble is they cost quite a bit more than a cheap consumer one...
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>> Trouble is they cost quite a bit more than a cheap consumer one...
Indeed they do, but mostly because they are being constantly updated (weekly) with restrictions, and usually integrated with routing, inventory, communication and tracking applications. Some of the clever ones will even tell the driver when he is breaking his hours.
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>> Trouble is they cost quite a bit more than a cheap consumer one...
And crashing the arctic in the original post was a cheaper option? ;-)
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And a petty fine for all the damage caused.Hungarian driving a big lorry to the UK can't speak English or read any signs.What a way to run a bussinness.
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Right, I hear your criticism and some of it's justified but not all of it.
Drivers from the UK go abroad every week and are unable to speak the language of the Country they are going to, they don't know every back street of every town in every country they visit, and have to rely on whatever they can afford.
Usually, Satnav that they have had to pay for themselves, in the case of the Hungarian, from very poor wages.
Firms will not pay for these devices either here or in Europe but still expect us to find our way around and not end up in that situation.
I have never used a lorry specific Satnav, just an ordinary Tom Tom and used together with a good Truckers atlas showing low bridges and weight limits, and a bit of common sense, it does it's job admirably.
There's a lot more to being a lorry driver than just driving down a motorway and it's not finding yourself in a situation like this that sorts the drivers from the screwdrivers.
Pat
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>> I have never used a lorry specific Satnav, just an ordinary Tom Tom and used
>> together with a good Truckers atlas showing low bridges and weight limits, and a bit
>> of common sense, it does it's job admirably.
You can download a POI with height restrictions for your TomTom
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>> What a way to run a bussinness.
What a disaster for the individual concerned. A guy without the necessary skills (or at least the necessary cunning and prudence) and not supplied with the right equipment. Probably told to get his own pratnav if he felt he needed one. 'Get one for a tenner down the pub'.
And what does all that mean where the employing firm is concerned? Conditions of labour and wage rates almost certainly grossly below any sort of West European 'union standard' or even the level of non-union payment fly-tippers like Pat get in sheaves of grubby tenners when they get back to the yard... No industrial tribunals either, just a foreman with a baseball bat so to speak. Hell Drivers anyone?
Who would be a skint Hungarian trying to feed his family? Not me if I could help it.
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He'll be out of a job now as well, and probably have to find his own way home.
They work so hard, for far less than we do, and I have a grudging respect for them.
Pat
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>> He'll be out of a job now as well, and probably have to find his own way home.
Of course Pat, that was part of what I meant. I knew you would get it because you meet these poor East European truckers at those places where truckers congregate.
But that is only part of the nightmare. When he gets home he will probably be told he owes the firm for the trailer, olive oil and bill from Colchester council. But they don't want him to work it off thanks very much. They'll just send the boys round every Friday for the vig, and God help him if he doesn't have it all.
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>> You can download a POI with height restrictions for your TomTom
And have the TomTom warn you before you approach it.
I feel sorry for the guy. Apart from financial costs he will be out of a job for sure. And was he definitely using satnav?
Bus drivers will have similar problems. This sprung to mind:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-14725229
My dad was a coach driver. He must have had a good sense of where he was and where to get to. The job 'interview' he had for his first coach driving job was to set out in an old bus and follow one of the owners in a nice new coach. Took him pretty far away (to get him 'lost') and then when they got there he told him to meet him at X. To the owner's surprise my dad was there first. And got a job. This was before I was born.
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I was weekended out once at Swindon and parked up with 3 Turkish lorry drivers.
I felt absolutely safe, was made so welcome,they took it upon themselves to look after me, I drank Turkish tea, they drank my coffee and we told tales to each other although neither spoke the others language.
They gave me Eau de Cologne and cooked me a meal, we sat on stools at the side of the trailer and it was one of the happiest memories I have.
Another insight into how others live and respect for what they do.
Pat
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>>Bus drivers will have similar problems. This sprung to mind:
>>www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-14725229
The first time I ever took a coach to Conwy, I didn't know about the arch. I merrily swung left at the mini-roundabout at the end of the bridge and my heart dropped when I saw the arch. I couldn't back out so had to give it a go. I got through, but only just. I doubt that you could have slipped a piece of paper twixt my mirrors and the arch.
Last edited by: Badwolf on Tue 20 Dec 11 at 20:18
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Lets not get too carried away here. There are some very professional trucking companies in Hungary, some of them multi national. They have to abide by EU employment law, H&S, and working regulations. This Hungarian truckers standard of living has shot up in recent years.
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>>They have to abide by EU employment law, H&S, and working regulations.<<
The EU countries pay a passing token glance at those things Z, it's only the UK who take everything to the letter of the law.
Pat
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>> This Hungarian truckers standard of living has shot up in recent years.
I hope you're right Zero. I don't doubt that the firms are professional. But I doubt very much whether the working conditions for employees are as good as they are in western Europe. Why for example would a firm employ an inexperienced non-English-speaking driver and not give him a proper pratnav? The reason is obvious.
Former communist, socialist and state-capitalist countries tolerate, by accounts and in my limited experience, a mode of labour relations that ranges from exaggeratedly correct to openly thuggish.
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Used to AC, Used. Its changing rapidly.
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My experience of employment law in Hungary is that it is very strict, in theory at least. Salaries also sky rocketed up to 2008, but the 40% devaluation of the Forint compared to the Euro put paid to people's purchasing power.
A lot of people there are in big trouble as they took the opportunity of low interest rates before 2008 to mortgage themselves to the hilt in Euros and Swiss Francs and the repayments have now more than doubled. I know of middle class hungarian families where both partners are doing 2 or 3 jobs trying to make ends meet.
Hungary is not really comparable with other ex-communist countries as there was always trading with Austria and Germany, even pre-1990. The level of embedded corruption which blights the old Warsaw Pact countries also doesn't seem to be as widespread in Hungary.
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"He'll be out of a job now as well, and probably have to find his own way home.
They work so hard, for far less than we do, and I have a grudging respect for them."
I'm sorry pat I'm not sure I quite agree, he was paid to do a job properly ! he should of focused more. If the pay is poor then may be he should of found an alternative job. If he cant afford a proper sat nav then he should use a proper map and read the road ahead.
When I was driving benders & coaches we never had phones or sat nav's and I used to drive to the middle east never did get a truck or coach stuck anywhere ever apart from in snow ! Stranded on the M1 once for 3 days in snow. Never ever caused massive damage to buildings !
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You missed my point completely IJ.
In my first post on this thread I made my feelings clear and agree entirely with your sentiments of this incident.
>>They work so hard, for far less than we do, and I have a grudging respect for them."<<
This observation was made about EU drivers in general, and my experiences of working with them.
>>If the pay is poor then may be he should of found an alternative job<<
If only life were that simple IJ....but it isn't in the real worl, is it now?
This driver wasn't lacking a proper satnav, he was lacking common sense but some of the blame lies with Waitrose.
He was delivering to their store.
Now I happen to know that Waitrose's own delivery drivers get issued with printed instructions to access the 'back door' (which is quite different to find than the car park) of every store they deliver to.
These are English drivers working in their own Country.
Surely if a firm is going to buy direct from abroad then those same printed instructions should be issued with the POD's and CMR?
Simple procedures like that could make the job so much easier, and safer for all concerned.
Pat
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Cassel in France is a hilltop fortified town, one of the exits is through a medieval gateway - which according to the local bar owner is regular victim of "misguided" truck drivers, mostly Germans delivering to a local works - not unique to the UK or eastern Europeans badly paid or otherwise. By the way aren't UK truck drivers badly paid compared to other Euro countries ?
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Compared to the Dutch we are:0
They have a good pension and sick pay scheme, we don't!
Compared to the old Eastern Bloc countries though, we are rich and our conditions of working are way ahead.
Pat
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Yet another prat nav mistake - rtj70
