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2 hours ago, stillp said:

Yeah, they've been looking at "clot" or platooned HGV vehicles for the last 4 or 5 years. With the progress in AI they now seem to think on long haul (Scotland to Exeter or similar journeys) a combined number of vehicles (maybe up to 5) would offer rewards in reduced costs. These cost reductions would of course be more mpg with the trucks permanently "streaming" in the reduced drag area but they would still likely require a driver for the inevitable end of journey "peeling off" or transition through the various junctions feeding in and out of the motorway traffic.

Some notable problems for car drivers will be...how to overtake them ? the 3 trucks shown in the photo will have a combined length of about 70 metres with a likely 5 metre space in between, under much motorway movement with busy lanes that amount of space is very congested especially with a likely unknowing car driver deciding upon a kamikaze dive for a sliproad and trying to get between them. This very much a work in progress.

Mick Richards 

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Can you imagine the chaos these things will create overtaking on a two lane motorway or a row of potentially six or nine trucks nose to tail approacing an exit, Then you have the operators introducing efficiencies  (cutting corners) in years to come with poorly trained drivers, scary!

Trains should be on rails not public roads

George

 

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My first reaction was If it keeps them in the nearside lane great' but can you imagine a platoon driving at 56 MPH in lane 1 with a second platoon trying to overtake in lane 2 at ....56 MPH. With Mrs Miggins in her Nissan Micra trying to overtake both in lane 3 at 57 MPH, as George says they should be going by rail......so should Mrs Miggins :P

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41 minutes ago, Graham said:

My first reaction was If it keeps them in the nearside lane great' but can you imagine a platoon driving at 56 MPH in lane 1 with a second platoon trying to overtake in lane 2 at ....56 MPH. With Mrs Miggins in her Nissan Micra trying to overtake both in lane 3 at 57 MPH, as George says they should be going by rail......so should Mrs Miggins :P

Mrs Miggins should be concentrating on her pie shop business! :lol::lol:

Stuart.

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Personally I think that HGVs should be restricted to the inside lanes of motorways and dual carriageways (the only exception being to overtake exceptional loads on the motorway and tractors/mopeds on dual carriageways)

At a stroke it would resolve most motorway hold ups which seem to blight every minor incline cause by the elephants racing. Given that they are governed to a set max speed the only benefit of overtaking would be to exploit the margin of error of the governor - say 1 mph. Driving for 10 hours would barely save 10 minutes yet each elephant race can hold up 30 or 40 cars for 5 minutes - the knock on delays are huge.

Allowing them to drive in close proximity would be dangerous for other road users who may be left with small gaps. All to save the hauliers some cash. If the containers need to be that close together they should be on a train!

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4 hours ago, Andy Moltu said:

Personally I think that HGVs should be restricted to the inside lanes of motorways and dual carriageways (the only exception being to overtake exceptional loads on the motorway and tractors/mopeds on dual carriageways)

At a stroke it would resolve most motorway hold ups which seem to blight every minor incline cause by the elephants racing. Given that they are governed to a set max speed the only benefit of overtaking would be to exploit the margin of error of the governor - say 1 mph. Driving for 10 hours would barely save 10 minutes yet each elephant race can hold up 30 or 40 cars for 5 minutes - the knock on delays are huge.

Allowing them to drive in close proximity would be dangerous for other road users who may be left with small gaps. All to save the hauliers some cash. If the containers need to be that close together they should be on a train!

Because we all demand the cheapest items supermarkets and large retailers demand 24 hour stocking of their shelves with "lock key" access for the drivers (ie the stores locked but the driver has back of store access into a secure unloading area). Because of trucks carry alternative products (not many firms offer products that cater for the vast range offered by stores) many of the stores offer scheduled slots during the day and night...miss your slot at your peril ! There will be a phone call to the firm complaining along with threats about breaching contract etc...so yes, barely saving 10 minutes is and can be an important part of todays commercial life.

The brighter drivers work out that I they overtake on a righthand bend it reduces the radius of the corner and the overtaking moves are easier and take a little less time, however restricting the trucks to inside lane of motorways will only create a moving obstructing barrier, more trucks equals less overall space in between, as you've spotted in your reply.

But remember, any reduction in cash saving to the hauliers means increased haulage costs to the retailers and stores who promptly pass the increased costs onto... us. As regards trains you will find that hauliers are fully committed to an integrated goods system, the trouble is Unite just want a train system with double drivers costing  £60-70k per annum ! and a train guard instead of a televised automated system and are fighting against fully automated trains where they have been proved to be safe and efficient in other countries,...Ohh and the opportunity to remove their labour at any chance of political influence !

Can no one remember the 1970s ? Roll  On-Roll Off was the catchphrase with containers and compartmentalised loads being loded off ships onto trains and thence to trucks for final deliveries, the train unions took the opportunity to flex their muscles for financial gain and the hauliers stepped in and showed how an independent haulage force run sensibly was more efficient and far more reliable, many years since hauliers have had a strike. RoRof still exists but the opportunity for full integration was lost.

Mick Richards 

Edited by Motorsport Mickey
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Mick

I think you will find not all of the trucks are rushing to restock supermarkets.

I have a sister in law who is a director of a logistics company in Roterdam, her company transports hundreds of tons of spuds from Ireland to a McCains oven chip factory somewhere in Holland or Belgium where they are turned into bags of frozen chips, which are loaded back on a lorry and sent back to Ireland for sale.

Another example would be Cadbury who a couple of years back moved production to I believe the Czech Repubic, yet the main customer base is the UK so now all the chocolate travels half way across Europe to save a couple of quid for big business. 

I think any cost saving in transportation will just result in more stuff being moved around and therefore more trucks (probably bringing us useful things like a 40 ton load of plastic buckets from Bulgaria )

George

 

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29 minutes ago, harlequin said:

Mick

I think you will find not all of the trucks are rushing to restock supermarkets.

I have a sister in law who is a director of a logistics company in Roterdam, her company transports hundreds of tons of spuds from Ireland to a McCains oven chip factory somewhere in Holland or Belgium where they are turned into bags of frozen chips, which are loaded back on a lorry and sent back to Ireland for sale.

Another example would be Cadbury who a couple of years back moved production to I believe the Czech Repubic, yet the main customer base is the UK so now all the chocolate travels half way across Europe to save a couple of quid for big business. 

I think any cost saving in transportation will just result in more stuff being moved around and therefore more trucks (probably bringing us useful things like a 40 ton load of plastic buckets from Bulgaria )

George

 

Lets hope the climate change emergency puts a stop to that kind of nonsense. It may make commercial sense now, but at what cost to the grandchildrens' environment. Roll on brexit and 72 hr truck jams in Kent, that'll put a stop to long distance spuds, chocolate etc, platooning or not. 

Peter

 

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  • 8 months later...
On 8/6/2019 at 10:21 PM, Motorsport Mickey said:

Yeah, they've been looking at "clot" or platooned HGV vehicles for the last 4 or 5 years. With the progress in AI they now seem to think on long haul (Scotland to Exeter or similar journeys) a combined number of vehicles (maybe up to 5) would offer rewards in reduced costs. These cost reductions would of course be more mpg with the trucks permanently "streaming" in the reduced drag area but they would still likely require a driver for the inevitable end of journey "peeling off" or transition through the various junctions feeding in and out of the motorway traffic.

Some notable problems for car drivers will be...how to overtake them ? the 3 trucks shown in the photo will have a combined length of about 70 metres with a likely 5 metre space in between, under much motorway movement with busy lanes that amount of space is very congested especially with a likely unknowing car driver deciding upon a kamikaze dive for a sliproad and trying to get between them. This very much a work in progress.

Mick Richards 

 

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Wouldn't it be cheaper and more effective in various ways, for all this freight to go back on freight trains? However many carriages are as many HGV container loads, right?

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10 hours ago, DavidBee said:

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more effective in various ways, for all this freight to go back on freight trains? However many carriages are as many HGV container loads, right?

David, "all this freight to go back on freight trains" it's NEVER all been on freight trains.

Even when the road network was appalling in this country (still is in many places) in the late 1940s and 50s the road haulage industry delivered far and nationwide. As the Beeching cuts removed many communities from the rail network the supply of provisions and any freight was transferred to the roads and the road haulage network expanded to accommodate them. The "lets put more freight on trains" thought process reached it's zenith in the 1970s when Ro Ro deliveries (Roll on Roll off) were commenced as the container ports were being expanded, for example Felixstowe. A container from anywhere in the world would be lifted at the port and craned directly onto a train with many others and delivered direct to it's destination and dispersement point. Then loaded upon smaller trucks/vans the freight would be transported to end users or outlets. However the continued railway union agitating upon the labour used (they wanted more) and pay (they wanted more) caused a revaluation upon the practice and advisability of channelling the majority of freight through a bottleneck which had somebody else in charge of the tap ! This again caused an expansion in road haulage which absorbed the traffic and where a couple of thousand separate firms and many owner drivers competed against one another and offered levels of service far beyond what nationalised industries can/wanted to supply. 

You will not find anybody in the road haulage industry arguing against rail freight. It's acknowledged as being the best and least congestive way of large scale multiplied container traffic being moved and in the more congenial labour relations we have today rather than that of forty years ago works. However the reduction of track in the Beeching years still means large tracts of the country needs road haulage to deliver items to final destinations or local shops and of course road haulage has a single overriding advantage that rail cannot offer. When was the last time that road haulage caused any product you wanted held to ransom by an obstructive workforce or union that was prepared to freeze the country and beggar the economy so it's union employees could work less hours...receive more pay etc etc. Have a think...we'll wait.

Mick Richards

Edited by Motorsport Mickey
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I blame the Motorways!

The Lancaster and Kendal canal could be reinstated, if it were not for the M6 that crosses it in several places, leaving six inches above the water surface.

That's just one example!  Bring back the canals!

John

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38 minutes ago, john.r.davies said:

I blame the Motorways!

The Lancaster and Kendal canal could be reinstated, if it were not for the M6 that crosses it in several places, leaving six inches above the water surface.

That's just one example!  Bring back the canals!

John

where you have low bridges why not have submersible narrow boats :blink:

 

Roger

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As a HGV driver not a good idea to have wagons doing the job of a Train, as for keeping us on the inside lane most times we have to move out is for a slow car or one doing 40 in a 50 limit through road works and cars  also don’t know that there is a inside lane. And since the lockdown there are less accidents involving HGVs but there are still plenty of us still driving. 
 

Mike Redrose Group 

 

 

 

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Agree Mike no car should be slower than an HGV. They just get in the way. 
H

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