Robin

Do you like horseracing?

I presume the senior personnel at GNER do because I saw they were sponsering a race at York on Friday.

Now Im not going to find out how muchthat cost (too little time) but they will get free admission and a hospitality box, and the chance to present trophies.

Why they want publicity there is a bit curious. Viewers from most parts of the country would be unable to take their trains as they are not in the area covered by GNER. And its not as though you would catch a different train in the timetables because you had seen their logo at a racecouse or any other sporting venue.

The train operating companies recieve subsidies from the government,and its a bit rich for the directors to use some of that money to get freebies where the farepaying passengers and taxpayers have to pay full price.

In the rail magazines they print that GNER, which is owned by Sea Containers,is near the end of its own financial line.Is that now surprising?

Robin

This is the post I was thinking about, Cookie65.

cookie65

Yes Robin still interested in the whole idea of a separate group within UKIP that can tell the Party what Transport wants/needs, not a lobby more an advisory group.
I simply ran out of time. have formed a branch and a website for it in the last month or so, so that has been my priority.
Am at conference on saturday,are you?. not there on Sunday as going on holiday for two weeks .
you can e-mail me on john@ukiptameside.com to save clogging the forum,
the same applies to anybody else with an interest in road haulage.

cookie65

Road haulage was a mess in this country up until the 70s. although I disagree with their right to impose them EU laws have had a massive impact on the industry some of them to the good.

So on Jubilee day which laws, mores etc, would we scrap and which would we retain?

Robin

Sorry Cookie65 only just saw this.

One law should be Give way to traffic aproaching from the right That is IN the ROUNDABOUT. Not in the road leading to the roundabout.

Illegal parkers having a reduced no blaims if their vehicle is hit.

Illegal to use fog lights at rear above speeds of 25 mph.

C_steam

Go on, explain, I'm missing something.

Robin

Fog lights are to be used in greatly reduced visibility. If there is greatly reduced visibilty then people should be driving slowly.
People are putting these stupid annoying lights on at all times when there is no reason too. They put them on because it is raining, there was a bit of mist, it`s nightime, the sun`s gone behind the clouds.
So you see on our roads, especially dual carriageways and motorways, some ++++ driving with these lights on at speeds in excess of 70. By using these lights they are actually adding danger, not reducing it.
By making a law that these lights cannot be used above a certian speed, some people will realise what their function really is, and some others need guidance because they are not good drivers.

cookie65

Fog-lights are yet another EU rule that is completely useless in this country.
I can count on one hand the amount of times in millions of miles I have used my fog-lights. There used to be a distance quoted in the highway code but I cannot remember what it was, and it now states when visibility is seriously impaired.
I have found myself following fog-lights in fog and then realised I was too close, pulled over and had a kip until the conditions were better(saving driving time). IMHO more lives have been lost by braking because of fog-lights making someone thinking the car in front is stopping, or by dazzle, than have ever been saved by them being used correctly in foggy conditions.
I dread to think of the cost of retrospective costs of fitting them when first introduced, or the cost of millions of vehicles fitted with them from new.

Robin I was thinking more along the lines of Speed limiters,Tachos,WTD,Operators licences and vehicle maintenance. What should we retain, Amend or scrap.

Robin

Cookie 65,

For trucks;

Speed limiters out. I never bothered with them in my Dutch reg truck (?)because I wanted more relaxed driving. Coming to a slower vehicle? simply boot it down to 65 or so,overtake and move back in, ease off back to 55 or whatever.
(To those who say "why do you overtake when it takes miles to do so ?", I would agree if there were never any timetables in life. Imagine coming to unload at a place but being told the fork lift driver had just that minute gone home. It happens. take the pressure off us and we can go as slow as we like-but then why is the other traffic behind getting fustrated ? what is their hurry ?Appointments ? Well its the same for a truck driver. If your appointment/delivery is for 8 o clock,its the same being late in a truck by one minute as it is being late for a sales meeting by one minute.)

WTD-easy to understand when you watch videos about it-then immediate confusion up the road.Self employed not subject to it UNLESS they only work for one supplier.Juries out with me.
Vehicle maintanance-The Dutch dont require mandatory ops centres or maintanance agreements. One reason for this is the Dutch authorities, via their equivalent VOSA which is NIWO,reckon that hauliers would keep their vehicles in fine fettle to keep a good service for their customers.Not always being strapped for cash like British hauliers because they dont have an organisation like the Department against Transport to wage war on them ,it becomes a normal commercial decision. Definate amendments needed.
Tachos. A neccessary evil,I suppose,but fairness not bullying should be used when analysing them.
In fact I would forbid any action being taken against a British haulier/driver if it`s not taken against a foreigner.
Speed cameras;Most scrapped.

Pat_Pending

....The Mothers Union discussed the same subject at their annual conference in May.

....They suggested setting up a joint protest group but weren't keen on Mother Truckers Against Road Taxes as a working title.