One for the lorry drivers . . .
Passed an artic on the M1 last night with a very flat tyre on the trailer, flagged him down (eventually) and pointed it out.
What is the accepted way of flagging down a lorry?
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Not a good idea - it's what hijackers do.
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I could see an inner tyre on the back axle of a smallish lorry was flat. We stopped a little way up the road in a jam, so I got out and told the driver.
"Yeah, I know" was his disinterested reply!
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few years ago I was following an Artic along the M25 near Sevenoaks and noticed the Tail -lift had sheared from its mountings one side and the whole tail lift was swinging about horrendously, i flashed him for 6 miles but was ignored and had to hold well back because if the lift had come completely of it would of been horrendous, called the police on the hands free and they caught up with him and stopped him by the M3 !
I hate to think what would of happened if the whole tail lift assembley had dropped onto the road at 56MPH !
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It's a difficult one to answer because most lorry drivers will not stop when flagged down for fear of losing the load in the back, or the vehicle itself.
Personally, I always carried on until the vehicle flagging me down had gone and then sropped for a full inspection of tyres, load etc.
The way to signal a flat tyre to a lorry driver is to show the palm of the hand downwards in a pushing motion, but shysters know that as well.
If there is a phone number on the vehicle it's always best to call that and ask them to contact the driver.
Pat
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Thanks for that, had not thought of the hi-jacking angle but it explains why he didn't get out of the cab until I had spoken to him - and he could see I was the only one who got out of the car, and had seen the flat tyre.
Not likely to have got an answer from the company after 8pm though.
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...Not likely to have got an answer from the company after 8pm though...
You might have been surprised.
I think Pat's mentioned on here before that a lot of transport firm yards operate almost 24 hours a day.
Last edited by: Iffy on Thu 2 Jun 11 at 17:42
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Most operations are 24/7 now and those who are not, seem to have call divert and make the Transport Manager take the mobile home with him, so you may not have been very popular!
Pat
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Does that also mean that the days of hitch-hiking are now also long gone?
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More or less, Rattle.
Most firms have strict 'no passengers' rules in place and tellus it's for insurance purposes, although we don't entirely believe that:)
Pat
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I know one of my mates often gets free lifts from his brother in law who is a lorry driver, but I guess there is no danger of hijacking.
Actually with the injury claims the way they are, I could imagine them being a clause in the insurance policies which states something like passengers must work for the company.
Probably is mostly an excuse though.
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>> What is the accepted way of flagging down a lorry?
It's probably easier if you're driving one yourself... I flagged down a LHD lorry on the M6 once, as the nuts on one of its trailer wheels had worked loose and the wheel was shimmying alarmingly from side to side. I was driving a 7.5 tonner at the time and the artic in question overtook me in the now-completed roadworks at junction 5.
I called the Highways Agency Cone Hotline as it was the first number that came to mind, they told me to call the Central Motorways Police Group and gave me an 0300 number for them. I phoned the CMPG and told them what I'd seen, their advice was "Flag him down, then!". I had a Bluetooth earpiece so was able to stay on the 'phone to them throughout what followed...
The roadworks restrictions meant the hard shoulder was blocked off and the 3rd lane was narrowed, so I held back until the end of the cones and then drew up alongside the artic (he was 56mph limited, I wasn't). I hooted to get his attention, waved to him to pull over, then accelerated ahead of him, moved over into lane 1 in front of him and across to the hard shoulder with my left indicator and then my hazard lights on. Fortunately he got the message and pulled over behind me as we slowed gently to a halt.
The lorry was registered in Iran so unsurprisingly the driver spoke no English, but with copious gesticulation and by leading him to inspect the loose wheel I was able to get the message across. The nuts were all still present but undone by three or four turns, and all the holes in the wheel had elongated where they'd been loose for so long.
As we inspected the offending trailer wheel (on the offside, with heavy traffic passing only a foot away or so at 56mph!) I heard and then saw a Police Volvo estate haring the other way at mega speed - the operator in my earpiece then told me the crew had seen me and would be there in two minutes. As there was nothing more for me to do I cleared off and left the trucker to sort it out with the police :)
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Thu 2 Jun 11 at 18:56
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It's difficult enough trying to get the attention of an ordinary motorist.
I once caught up with a car carrying a large rubber semi-rigid dinghy on the roof. Most of its fastenings were trailing loose and the dinghy was rearing up in the air looking as if it were going to tear loose at any moment.
I pulled along side the car and my passenger waved at the driver and pointed up at his roof.
Despite being only a few feet away and with someone waving in his face, the driver refused to make eye contact and carried on.
I gave up and overtook him. In the mirror I could see other drivers flashing and waving, but he took no notice.
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There is a quarry just outside town, and it is unnerving how many times i`ve seen wagons with a large rock wedged between two of the rear tyres. yet you never seem to hear of any instances where they have been flung out at things behind! but i`m sure they are!
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Had a tipper lorry throw half a housebrick at me before, luckily it shot over the roof and landed in the gap between me and the car behind.
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I once passed a Transit pick-up which was loaded with three or four telephone-box style Portaloos.
They were upright, and as I passed, one or two started to wobble.
It was on the M62 towards Hull - the road to nowhere - and there wasn't much traffic.
I accelerated a little more and watched in the mirror as first one, then the rest, fell off the back of the Transit onto the motorway.
I imagine one of the reasons the Portaloos were loaded upright was because they were full....
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>> It was on the M62 towards Hull - the road to nowhere ...
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Oi!
It is somewhere :)
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...Oi! It is somewhere :)...
Last time I was in Hull was to see a pre-season friendly against the mighty Spurs.
I asked a mate who follows Sunderland AFC home and away for directions and a few pointers.
He told me where the ground was, and then added: "The fans are an odd bunch, they don't see many visitors.
"It's on the road to nowhere and no one ever goes there unless they have to."
To be fair to my pal, he said Sunderland was much the same.
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..Last time I was in Hull was to see a pre-season friendly ...
How long ago? Was the game at Boothferry Park (now demolished) or at the KC Stadium?
We have been known for a long time as a fish-n-chip shop at the end of a railway line :(
The fish-n-chips are good though :P
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...How long ago?...
A few years now, but it was at the KC.
I think Peter Taylor was the Hull manager, which may be why our lot were prepared to journey to the frozen north.
He used to play for us and probably still knew a couple of our staff - he played with Ray Clemence and he was our goalkeeping coach at the time.
Jermain Defoe scored for us, and I think another ex-Spur - Nick Barmby - came off the bench for Hull.
Have you still got those funny phone boxes?
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... Have you still got those funny phone boxes?
HaHa Yes! The cream ones. Still a few around, although the recent ones are the 'draught up your leg' ones which are open about 2-feet at the bottom.
As for the football team, I'm not a true Hull City supporter, although I do check the results. After a poor start to the season, they managed to drag themselves up the table and narrowly missed out on a play-off place. And Nick was our super-sub who played a useful part for the last 30 mins or so in several games. I think he has been offered a coaching role now. Oh well - next season!
Sorry - thread drift.
I've never tried to stop a lorry, either by flagging down or other means :)
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>> wagons with a large rock wedged between two of the rear tyres
I drove a plant hire co. Transit pickup in the mid 90s. It had a single wheel rear axle (as opposed to twin wheel) for precisely this reason - it spent a lot of its time on building sites and the back wheels would otherwise have been picking up half-bricks daily.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Sat 4 Jun 11 at 10:41
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Flagging down a lorry - Chris S
