Gritting lorries.

Anyone in the Hertfordshire highways area seen a gritting lorry actually
spreading grit?

None of the gritters that have past me going the other way in the past week
were actually spreading anything, I'm starting to wonder if they're just
cruising the routes with empty lorries just to look the part.

 

Yes. Several.

Or maybe you're on a route back to the depot, so they can refill?

 

Nothing to do with there not being a depot to replenish the lorries on
every street corner, then...

 

Well, you'd have thought they'd plan a circular route which takes them
via places to collect salt / grit, so they spend the bare minimum amount
of time running empty....

 

Who says they aren't?

There may well be a case now for a more even distribution of depots...
but in the meantime they'll be working with what they've got at their
disposal.

 

We're talking about local councils and the Highways Agency here....

(We have had the bin collection cancelled for the 2nd week in a row -
allegedly they can't get to us. Yet Parcelforce and UPS can....)

 

Not entirely sure it's quite the same humping relatively warm, dry
parcels from a van to your door as collecting frozen cold rubbish /
pushing weighty wheelie bins around on ungritted roads / pavements...

If only they had more gritting crews out there, eh... ;-)

I might be wrong, but I don't believe councils have drivers sat around
on full pay for however many weeks of the year gritters aren't needed.

So maybe, just maybe, some of those that usually drive the bin lorries
are out driving gritters at the moment?

 

You mean the ones they won't touch unless they're placed on the
pavement, adjacent to the road...

What really takes the piss is that they won't collect anything that
isn't inside the bin, so I don't know what they expect us to do with it
all next week, when both bins are full.

Agency drivers? - probably plenty looking for work as other jobs have
been suspended due to the weather.

I haven't seen all that much gritting going on, either - apparently,
they didn't buy enough, so have had to curtail all gritting aside from
major routes. Which explains why the village / town centre is still
under a foot of the bloody stuff.

 

The ones working to the rules set out by their employer and for which
they'll not get cut any slack if they breach them and then end up
injured?

I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying I understand why they feel the
need to work to rule, no matter how petty / seemingly thick the
rule(s) in question are.

I suspect this will be relaxed for a week or two.

If it isn't, go forth and justifiably whinge.

You reckon?

A friend runs an agency that specialises in supplying drivers to
various distribution centres, (people like Waitrose, so very relevant
to the drivers 'your lot' look to bring in), amongst other things, and
with the majority booked up well in advance.

If his drivers can get out to work anywhere, it'll be out to do the
jobs already booked.

Aside from that, if anything they're more in demand than usual at
present because of the extra demand during the lead up to Xmas.

How many miles have you done over the last few days?

That's a different matter.

If you've limited resources, makes sense... why you have limited
resources in the first place is questionable, mind.

Well what do you suggest then - they focus on your specific pissing
ground rather than anyone elses?

Maybe they should have more resources on standby to meet this demand,
but it'll cost - are you happy for council tax bills to go up to cover
the cost?

Fully aware that some of these costs should, (or at least you'd hope
they would), be offset by the country not losing quite as many
'billions' it's reportedly losing as a result of the disruption the
weather is bringing at present, mind.

 

Should be a few of those on hand right now given they're apparently
working to rule at present, or least they were in London recently.

 

There are a lot of runs being pulled / cancelled at the moment.

Iin the last week, I've done over 500 miles (not my usual mileage, but
still a fair amount)

I'd suggest that town centres with roads through them should be clear
and also suggest that where a single-carrieageway A-road is a 'rat run'
between 2 dual carriageways, it should be a priority.

We pay rather a lot in council tax, for which I seem to get pretty much
**** all in return.

 

One passed my house on Saturday morning, when it wasn't very snowy, or
snowing. None since, even the A505 Baldock bypass seemed not to have
been gritted this morning. I came back from Cambridge via Barton and
that road certainly hadn't seem *any* grit.

 

Yes - see below.

The drivers concerned are effectively self employed, so have every
reason to want to get to work.

I'll rephrase that; how many miles have you done in the last few days
since the snow came down?

How do you know it isn't?

'Because it hasn't been gritted'

See below...

That doesn't really answer the question...

I heard a chap ranting about how it was all the councils fault
everything came to a grinding halt round here on Saturday, because
they'd not gritted the roads.

Given how much snow fell in such a short space of time and how cold it
was, the gritting done earlier in the day was always going to be
ineffectual, even if you'd done a lot more of it; the colder it gets,
the less effective the salt, and it was cold enough Friday night /
Saturday morning for me to find I couldn't get into the car without
the assistance of warm water.

I don't believe there was anything the council could have done to get
things moving any quicker than they did, not least because you can't
salt / plough something liberally coated with stationary traffic...
and even if you do, as above, the salt isn't always that effective if
the temperature is that low.

 

100+ miles today.

But, given the recent temperatures, gritting should have been going on
for a lot longer than just this weekend.

I think the point here is - we had a lot of snow on Friday. I can accept
things being fucked up on that day.

There was a bit over the weekend, and a morning of it today - all of
which was forecast.

But the main routes appear to have been largely untouched - either
because they don't have enough salt, or have the lorries, or the
drivers.

I care little for the reason, but do care that the council collect a lot
of cash from people and seem to give very little back in effective
services.

 

Sounds scarily like Cheltenham. Given that they knew the snow was coming we
saw not a gritter all weekend. I saw a map on the Gloucester County Council
website (or was it Gloucestershire Highways) which showed the major routes
which would be gritted. And they weren't. I can appreciate them not having
the resources to grit minor routes but not to grit a major A road or the
access to the A&E department (again on the map).

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Speedgazebo MOTP

We haven't seen hide nor hair of one for a week or more. The road
through the village is hard-packed ice and snow.

 

Seen no evidence of gritting in Essex at all. Herts looks rather
better, IME[1]


[1] Well SWMBO in fact, she went to Waltham Abbey last night and
indicated a very clear boundary.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

all of them usually

other workers will be HGV trained too[1], to cover the gritting rotas.
Tacho rules were only suspended for a couple of days so councils will be
running out of driver hours

[1] my b-i-l was a stonemason for our local highways dept., mainly
renovating ancient bridges. He was persuaded to take his HGV test so he
could be drafted onto the gritter rota.

 

When my bro was paid by the council the ploughs were an attachment to
the gang lorries, there was only a couple of specialised gritters, It
was all hands out and loads of OT for this sort of weather for anyone
with the appropriate driving licence.

 

Exactly... which it's no real revelation that the bins aren't being
collected at the mo.