PalenQ

NPR just reported on plans for big lorries to clog central London today - to protest escalating fuel costs and demanding the government relax the 65% of the price of diesel that is taxes (according to NPR)?

Q- i wonder if these lorries have paid the congestion fee to make their protests?

Guess it's not a good day to do the Hop on Off buses or TfL buses?

NeoPatrick

Just for the "Brit-speak" deprived among us, there will be a lot of big trucks in London today!

bilboburgler

when you guys say big do you mean unusually large or are there are wide range of small lorries, articulated?

Not a good day to try and sail out of St Vaast I hear on the radio either

Cholmondley_Warner

There's a convoy of lorries on the A40. That's about it.

mnapoli

I say bravo to the truckers! Many truckers and other businesses are facing ruin because of the high fuel costs. We should all have the courage to demand some action!

Cholmondley_Warner

What action? Do you want us to become cheap fuel junkies like the yanks?

The truckers should pass on their price rises and we'll all be paying a bit more at the shops.

PalenQ

It seems Britain has a paltry amount of goods shipped by rail compared to Continental countries (who also lag vs the U.S. in this regard - perhaps due to shorter distances, etc)

But why not take some of these lorries off the road and piggy-back them on rails to a depot where they are put back on the trucks?

suppose this is NOT what the lorry drivers want however.

nona1

I say bring the canals back into proper use! Very efficient means of transport (albeit a bit on the slow side).

nona1

Oh, they are considering it

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/Generat...mp;MENU_ID=276

Cholmondley_Warner

I say bring the canals back into proper use! Very efficient means of transport (albeit a bit on the slow side).>>>>>>

I have also thought this. They seem a great way of moving heavy, non urgent freight around. Also for hsitorical reasons a lot of things like cement works and aggregate merchants are near canals.

I wonder why they don't.

PalenQ

I wonder why they don't.>

perhaps because of the mega industry of folks touring the canals in those quaint canal boats - not sure it would be as romantic with big barges blowing by - and assume any canal use would have to involved big barges like in Holland to be economical

RM67

''It seems Britain has a paltry amount of goods shipped by rail compared to Continental countries ''

A year or two back didn't Royal Mail stop using rail freight services? (part of the general 'improvements' package which means we only get one delivery a day now, and can't phone the depot to arrange redeliveries or redirections any more either - ah, progress!'

PalenQ

The only freight trains i see in my extensive rail travel in U.K. are very heavy freight trains - like coal, cement - very heavy goods and not general freight cars like in many other countries

Usually along the tracks on the Continent there are still railway sidings for freight services and even industries still with freight sidings

these seem far and few in Britain though there may be dedicated freight rail lines i don't see.

Dukey

Pal, please don't forget that in some places a lot of "goods trains" may actually move at night.

PalenQ

Dukey - good point

but not in Britain because that's when they do 'essential track work' like on 'signalization' that they have been doing every since i've been going there

funny that the train infrastructure gets worse every year it seems

GeoffHamer

Most English canals are narrow canals with locks 7 feet wide. They can take a narrow boat which can carry about 30 tons of cargo, needs two crew and moves at walking speed. The main route from London to Birmingham, the Grand Union Canal, has locks that can take two narrow boats side by side, and there are a lot of locks, requiring manual effort. By lorry, one man can move 40 tons, averaging at least ten times the speed of a narrow boat.
In Germany, Belgium or the Netherlands, the waterways are much bigger and modern barges typically carry two or three thousand tons of cargo at a time. They can offer an efficient transport service, but the English canals cannot

alanRow

Can lorry drivers set the cost of fuel against their company / personal taxes?

Dukey

Well, all i can say is the last time I was in central London I foolishly decided to take a cab from Covent Garden to Liverpool Street station around 8 AM.

As we crept along i was reminded of a certain poster here who used to lecture us about the "hole in the ground" known as the Tube and how you got to "see so much more"if you took the bus.

Unfortunately, I didn't take the speedy bus but a taxi which seemed to be perpetually behind one of those "speedy" busses.

After 45 minutes we got within sight of the station and the driver suggested we walk the rest of the way.

We managed to make our way past several speedy busses doing so.

So, if all those truck drivers are 'crowding" the city my question is, did anyone really notice?????

Cholmondley_Warner

Can lorry drivers set the cost of fuel against their company / personal taxes?>>>>

It's a business expense and as such can be claimed against tax.

The same would apply if it is a fleet lorry.

PalenQ

dukey - that reminds me of the claim that, at least until visionary London Mayor Red Ken Livingstone instituted the Traffic Calming Congestion Charge, that traffic in central London moved at speeds on the average at less than horse and buggies did at the turn of the last century

The report said Cardiff was being targeting by Welsh lorry drivers as well