Dolly, i doubt it was me mate, I`m on nights at the moment, making sure your parcels get delivered on time (corporate parcels that is)
wholley wrote:Question for you British Truckers.
How many hours can you drive without a break?
Wholley, Legally, you have to abide by the Law which is relevant to which country your driving in. In the UK, you can drive for 4 and a half hours, before legally taking a break (3/4 of an hour). you can accumulate your break, ie, three 15 minute breaks, but this has to be done before your four and a half hours driving time. You can drive 9 hours a day, but this can be extended to 10 hours, twice a week, but obviously has to be recovered, as your only allowed to do 90 hours a fortnight legally.
Getting back to the break, i mentioned it depends on which country your driving in/to. if your in an EEC country, and travelling to another EEC country, your break is 3/4 of an hour. BUT, if your in an EEC country, and travelling to an AETR country, (non EEC) when you have driven 4 1/2 hours, you have to take a 1 hour break, on the other hand, if your in an AETR country, and travelling to an EEC country, you only have to take 3/4 hour break. Basically, you have to abide by the Laws of the country your travelling to.
thats the Legally side covered, Illegally of course you can drive for as many hours as you wish, the only problem with that is, if you get caught. Are the rewards good enough to warrant it? a few years ago, (late 80`s) i worked for a company who had big flash wagons, and you were paid a % of what the vehicle earned, so it was a carrot in front of you to,"run the wire" there are ways you can stop a tachograph from recording details ( so as to make the vehicle look as if its stationary, on break) but, this is also against the Law, and if caught, can be a hefty fine, not only for the Aimer, but the operator too. (My offences in 89/90 £250;00 per offence and £35:00 costs) of which the operator paid it all. gawd bless im.
I'm going to assume you don't have sleeper cabs,although I may be wrong on that point.When I had my truck(s)I could run ten hours a day at 55mph(Like that really happened)I know you have to deal with Tacho's
which we don't.I used to run six weeks at a time,so my tractor was my home for that time.Only way to make the money.Iv'e owned three Freightliners and one Peterbilt,never heard of a Scania,I guess thats a Scandinavian truck.Volvo are making big inroads here,Nice tractors,with the right motor.I had to pull 53ft trailers so 550hp is minimum.
Wholley.
Wholley, yes, we have sleepers here, not as big as state side, but big enough. The Scania is a swedish marque, as is volvo, then you have the German`s, MAN (mean and nasty) although today, they are getting better, and MAN currently have the biggest engine output on the roads, 600 bhp (V10 twin turbo) and very thirsty.then you have the Mercedes, bit of a nag but once again, they are catching up, and have some nice top of the range tractor units.you also have Renault, with their magnum cab and some other minor marques.MAN have recently taken over/ put money into ERF, so you tend to see a few more of those on the road now.You also have the DAF XF, from Holland, quite good wagons, and reasonable on fuel. The scurge of the road are the forever rusting Iveco Fords, although now, Ford have parted company with Iveco. The Foden is still about, although they are in league with DAF, for the smaller CF cab.You`ve mentioned the Volvo`s, quite a good wagon, and good for space in the GlobeTrotter FM, although the 16 Litre can be rather thirsty, so most are the 12 Litre models. Iveco have had a new model out for a year or so now (stralis), and i had the misfortune to drive one, it had a semi-automatic/automatic box in it, no clutch pedal, and no passenger seat, ( apparently you have to ask for one

), it`s great pulling away all you have to do in auto is floor it, i was travelling down the A14, going down a hill, when all of a sudden, the thing changed down TWO Gears, and slammed the exhaust break on. when i peeled my nose of the windscreen(no jokes please) i obviously selected semi-auto and changed back up, last time i used auto. I did some work in Pensilvania back in 96, and the company we were installing the printing press in had quite a few wagons turning up for tipping and collections, they also had big time trailers. I`ll sort some phots out and post them/e-mail them.