prof beard wrote:
This figure may only be relevant if the NUMBER of foreign truck drivers hasn't also increased?
A valid point, but one then has to consider the wider implications that might affect the routes that they travel. Drivers, all drivers, and particularly foreign drivers are extremely 'cost conscious' and if road improvements are causing delays, then they will adjust their route accordingly. For instance, with the current roadworks at the top end of the M25, traffic from Kent, heading for the Midlands or North-West, would be more likely to use the Southern route and then the M40 rather than the M1. The data relates to Oxfordshire! And I presume was compiled relating to the period of the improvements of the Western section of the M25? One route, which I sometimes used, was to go South on the M3, cut through Bracknell to the M4, and then onto the A34. Unbelievably, it only added about 20-30 minutes to the journey time.
As to them being less courteous. I don't think so. In a foreign country where there are invariably language problems, it is almost an incentive to take more care. It depends how one defines courtesy as opposed to culture. Flash headlights to a motorist waiting to turn in France, and they will sit there amazed. It's almost seen as an act of aggression. One thing that I have noticed is that when circling a roundabout, undecided as to the exit they want, they will stick to the outside, as opposed to the inside, which leaves room for cars to enter the blind spot.
As to whether there are more foreign trucks on our roads? There are certainly less U.K. trucks venturing 'over the water'. And then there is the matter of certain domestic household names outsourcing transport to foreign based undertakings even for internal movements. The most striking of which is our very own inventor of the 'Salmonella Bar'. Yes folks, even good old Cadbury's have outsourced their transport to a Dutch(?) company. A journalist from Commercial Motor tried to raise the issue with the company a year or so ago, but the last I heard, they had failed to respond.
Is it relevant? You might ask. It is when one considers that by rotating vehicles with (I presume) 2 x 1,000 litre fuel tanks to a Country where fuel prices are much lower, the U.K. based haulier is not competing on a level playing field, and is operating at a severe disadvantage.
There is also a cost to the public at large. that cost is 'Road Safety'.
Whilst I feel much more could be done to 'educate' drivers as to how to recognise when driving alongside a LHD vehicle, and an awareness of 'blind spots', in the intervening period people are being injured (and even killed) whilst the U.K. haulage industry is effectively on its knees due to unequal competition.
Additionally, if we look at the social-demographic changes for the period in question, then we will see that it follows the expansion of the EU into many former Eastern-Bloc Countries, which has resulted in the arrival of many vehicles from Countries whose vehicles would not normally venture onto our shores. These drivers time need to learn our roads, our manner of driving, and acquaint themselves with our traffic network (for what it is
)
I could go on. I HAVE gone on.
I could say a lot more. I probably will say a lot more.