At the end of this month, 500 odd lorries a day will be travelling down a main road delivering sugar beet to a factory near me.
The majority of these lorries wont use nets/canvas over the top of their load to secure it and stop it flying out onto the road/nearby vehicles.
I have approached the factory but there seems to be nothing they can do as the wagons are contracted in to move the beet.
I would also assume, maybe wrongly, that the local police also dont want to do anything about it.
I have seen a few bits of beet leave these wagons as they go round corners and just glad that I wasnt a couple of seconds quicker, thus it missed my vehicle but made a right mess in the road in front of me.
Who can I approach to get these loads secured?
Thanks in advance
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The police should be interested, but so should the Traffic Commissioner, as the operators of the HGVs are licenced. Google TC to find yr local office.
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Also take some pictures of it all, and talk to your local paper or freesheet. It's just the sort of thing that they will run: local issue, local resident aggrieved.
Your local councillor and MP may also give you some help.
Last time I approached my local paper on an issue like this (tho it wasn't transport-related), they went one step further and got the relevant govt minister to sound off. Action followed.
Edited by NowWheels on 15/09/2008 at 15:35
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Perhaps you could persist with the plant and ask them for a list of the transport contractors. You could then e-mail the traffic officer of the contractors telling them that you will be reporting any of their trucks without nets to the transport commisioner.
As an aside I have visited many of the sugar beet factories over the years in order to sort out problems with the chimneys. It is amazing that these plants sit idle for much of the time awaiting each years campaign when the harvest arrives. I can't remember the name of the plant in Norfolk but there are two or three chimneys there which I designed.
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>>...The majority of these lorries wont use nets/canvas over the top of their load to secure it and stop it flying out onto the road/nearby vehicles.<<<<<<
So if leaves etc are flying off the vehicle unrestrained then an ABSOLUTE offence is being committed contrary Rg 100 MV (con Nad Use) Regs 1986 by the driver and firm.
However being realistic if it is just the odd leaf no wonder Plod is not interested. It will depend of the amount deposited that in the wet could lead to a dangerous situation.
From the post probably more concern if any mud is being deposited on the road if the vehicle are coming out of fields especially this wet weather. Possible infirngement of the Highways Act.
dvd
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DWD he said "I have seen a few bits of beet leave"
A sugar beet is about 4" to 6" across, and weighs a couple of pounds. If one came off the top of a wagon it'd do some damage to a baby in its pushchair on the pavement below.
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Get in touch with VOSA (www.vosa.gov.uk, 0870 6060440) and report it. They deal very harshly with unsecured loads (or they do round here anyway).
No point contacting the TC as they will only ask VOSA to investigate, and there are no local TC offices anymore, they moved it all up to Leeds to "streamline" things, the fact it now takes 4 times as long to get them to do anything is neither here nor there!!!!!
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Ironically, one reason these "beet" lorries arn't being "netted" is down to the over-wet weather, once on the land, the wagon must keep rolling or risk becoming bogged (so they cant stop on the land to net) once off the land and on the road, (alot of these roads are rural two-lane) if they stopped to net they would create a hazzard to other road users, so best/safest policy is once rolling, keep rolling. Also if the ground was dryer and harder, the load would usually have self-levelled before it reached the road, so maybe because they've never "needed" to net before, it hasn't crossed thier minds that they need to this year.
As an aside: did you know that they Sugar-beet is the vegetable equivalent of the Pig, as you can virtually use every part of it? (except the "oink")
1. when the beet arrive at the plant they are tipped into a washing hopper, and the water used to wash them is what is recovered from the pulping stage of sugar production,
2. the soil washed off at this stage is recovered, and because of its fine nature is used as top-soil at football clubs to lay the pitch turf on.
3. any stones recovered are used as aggregate for roads.
4. the main product of course is the household suger.
5. the pulp after sugar removal is used both as animal feed and is also composted and sold to garden-centres.
6. the co2 produced during sugar production is pumped to the largest greenhouse in England (covering 26 acres) where it helps to grow Tomatoe vines upto 40ft high!
so although no actual "Oink" theres not much wasted!
anyway back to Motoring!!
Billy
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Impressive none the less.
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Thanks for the responses, will contacting VOSA soon.
OINK!!
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Hold you hard there bor - you don't want to go spluttergutting into that. Thas all a load of squit
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I presume you'll also be targeting all the farmers with their tractors and trailers who drop beet (and far worse) on your roads? And all those drivers of old bangers who thoughtlessly leave their old exhaust systems in the gutter?
Couldn't help laughing at the previous poster; dropping on a pushchair for goodness sake! You're not that H & S bloke from Norfolk who wanted to cut all the conker trees down are you?
To the OP; I strongly suspect that your gripe is more to do with the volume of lorries than what they're carrying. I presume you know what the acronym "NIMBY" stands for?
To you, and others like you, I say this; the countryside is not just a pretty place where you can go and have a nice picnic, it's a 24/7 working environment with all the hazards and nuisances which that entails. It ain't a theme park for your entertainment. The people who move this stuff work flat-out to get the food in so you and your family don't have to know what being hungry feels like. If you don't like it, stay in town; me, I'll take my chances with the sugar beet! ;)
Edited by Pugugly on 15/09/2008 at 22:25
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I presume you'll also be targeting all the farmers with their tractors and trailers who drop beet (and far worse) on your roads? And all those drivers of old bangers who thoughtlessly leave their old exhaust systems in the gutter?
I havent got a problem with the lorries, or even the tractors, its their dangerous unsecured loads that are a problem.
Couldn't help laughing at the previous poster; dropping on a pushchair for goodness sake!
I can only assume that you have never had a beet thrown at you. Even worse, one thrown at you from a height that you havent seen it. Try it one day and then see if you are still around to take the snip.
To you and others like you I say this; the countryside is not just a pretty place where you can go and have a nice picnic it's a 24/7 working environment with all the hazards and nuisances which that entails. It ain't a theme park for your entertainment. The people who move this stuff work flat-out to get the food in so you and your family don't have to know what being hungry feels like. If you don't like it stay in town; me I'll take my chances with the sugar beet! ;)
I'm glad you understand what the countryside is. There are thousands of people out there with views just like you that wince at the thought of smelling manure. I do live in the countryside so unfortunately I can "stay in town". The fact that a lorry driver will not secure his load is his fault and not because he is working "flat-out".
please don't try to override our swear filter by misspelling banned words
Edited by Pugugly on 15/09/2008 at 21:55
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If I winced at the thought of smelling manure, I'd soon be out of work; FWIW I deliver bulk feed to farms for a living.
Lived in the country most of my life; I do get fed up with "townies" moving in, then complaining about the noise, smells, cockerels crowing, cow dung on the roads, etc. for that reason I get a bit defensive about it; my apologies to a fellow country-dweller!
Incidentally, as a biker one of the hazards I face is spilled grain during the harvest, far more lethal than either mud , diesel or sugar beet!
Edited by Webmaster on 01/10/2008 at 01:20
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Question Harleyman
When did you last see a Farmer on a bike.?
(I know - I went into farming when I left school and know what penny pinchers they are. Boy was I glad to get out of it.).
dvd
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Some confusion here.The OP said "I have seen a few bits of beet leave".
He didn't say bits of beet leaf, he said he had seen bits of beet fall off the lorry.
"Leave" as in depart from, not bits of harmless greenery.
Edited by Cliff Pope on 16/09/2008 at 09:20
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