the price of fuel

[Iain]

Queensland or Oz????

[Clinton1]

Were we driving on the wrong side of the road?

[DavidG]

- Its time.

[DanP]

If you don't like it David, don't read it.

[DavidG]

DanP
Think its funny but we seem to be going nowhere now.
All sides have had a say and it is starting to degenerate a bit.
Besides it is a hyjack any way.

[kiwigeo]

As far as I'm concerned... Now that I've truely experienced Aussie driving, you need all the protection you can get to survive the idiots that are on the roads here. I have never seen so many deliberately stupid drivers as I have here. Nothing personal but aussies are about the worst drivers I've ever seen.

Its worse in New Zealand.......and no Im not just Kiwi bashing..I was born there.

[kiwigeo]

Again - I think the trucking company bosses should be held accountable, and jailed if they put peoples lives at risk by demanding that the drivers work 16 hours a day for days on end.

I'm not sure what the work hour regulations are for truckies but in my line of work on the oil rigs the work hour regulations in many parts of Australia now state that you are allowed to work continuously for 16 hours as long as you have approval from your supervisor and as long as you then have at least an 8 hour break before resuming work.

[savage]

This vehicle could probably come out on top in any collision.

~ The mover stands 311 feet tall and 705 feet long.
~ It weighs over 45,500 tons
~ Cost $100 million to build
~ Took 5 years to design and manufacture
~ 5 years to assemble.
~ Requires 5 people to operate it.
~ The Bucket Wheel is over 70 feet in diameter with 20 buckets, each of which can hold over 530 cubic feet of material.
~ A 6-foot man can stand up inside one of the buckets.
~ It moves on 12 crawlers (each is 12 feet wide, 8' high and 46 feet long).
~There are 8 crawlers in front and 4 in back.
~ It has a maximum speed of 1 mile in 3 hours (1/3 mile/hour).
~ It can remove over 76,455 cubic meters each day. (100,000 large dump trucks at 40yds. each)

WOW!!!....:eek: Now that's an icecream scoop!!!.....
savage.

[Daddles]

WOW!!!....:eek: Now that's an icecream scoop!!!.....
savage.

I'll have double choc with mint chips thanks

My favourite construction site memory is of a rather rotund driver of a truck who's wheels were taller than me. His gut used to extend from his chest, then indent around the steering wheel and flow out underneath. Dead set, he used to drive that thing just by gut pressure - very handy when rolling a fag or pouring a coffee from the thermos.


Richard

[rick_rine]

Living in the country , with all this talk of a Telstra selloff I thought I'd sell my shares in Telstra . Couldn't get through to my stockbrocker though as the telephone line was down .


, there will other things that go down like the price of shares and Foxtel so the the bastards in their ivory tower in Canberra can claim to be doing a good job. It's no wonder little johnny (deliberate lower case) wants to turn us into a police state - he's not following the bush edict, he's scared we'll turn on him.

Richard

no, rant mode is not flamin' off :mad:

I heard the other day that little johnny's latest nickname is 'bonsai' - because he's a little bush[/QUOTE]

[silentC]

If you meant that poor people get into stressful situations whereby they make poor decisions, which are largely affected by the stress in their life: and that they should just say "stuff it, I won't take that 1 in 1000 chance, I'll go bankrupt and my kids can get stuffed" ...

No, what I meant was what I said. If you take your life and the lives of others into your hands by pushing the limits whilst driving a moving warehouse, then you are acting dangerously. If your reason for doing this is simply because you want/need to earn more money, then it is a poor excuse. In fact, I can't think of any excuse for it. No one puts a gun to their heads.

The idea that it's OK to put other people at risk because you are having trouble making ends meet is irresponsible. If people are starving, we have a welfare system in place. My BIL hasn't had any steady work for 6 years but his family eats just fine. That's why we pay all these taxes.

My cousin is a truckie and we have this argument a lot. He fudges his log book to avoid penalties. He doesn't pop pills (he says) but knows plenty who do. He doesn't drink and drive but he knows plenty who do.

The price of fuel is pushing him out of the industry. He can't get a petrol subsidy like a lot of owner drivers do because of his situation (not sure why, take his word for it) and it costs a lot of money to keep three trucks on the road. If things keep going the way they are, he'll probably sell them and do something else. That makes more sense than pushing himself and his two drivers harder to get more jobs done and earn more money.

I think the trucking company bosses should be held accountable, and jailed if they put peoples lives at risk by demanding that the drivers work 16 hours a day for days on end.

I agree but my point is that if the drivers pushed back too, then the freight companies would have to do something. But they don't. They keep taking the jobs and pushing the limits to get there on time so that they get the next job. In any other industry, there would be industrial action to stop it happening. In the terms of a union rep, they are being exploited. So they can either sit there and say "someone help me" or they can try to help themselves.

[silentC]

As far as I'm concerned... Now that I've truely experienced Aussie driving, you need all the protection you can get to survive the idiots that are on the roads here. I have never seen so many deliberately stupid drivers as I have here. Nothing personal but aussies are about the worst drivers I've ever seen.

Never been to Asia then, Mat?

[Jack E]

Now that I've truely experienced Aussie driving, you need all the protection you can get to survive the idiots that are on the roads here.

Wait until you leave Queensland, then you will really experience poor driving

[bitingmidge]

Wait until you leave Queensland, then you will really experience poor driving

I happen to know that the experiences reported on, occurred between the NSW border and Sydney, so even then he hasn't seen the worst of it!

Cheers,

P
:eek:

[adrian]

As far as I'm concerned... Now that I've truely experienced Aussie driving, you need all the protection you can get to survive the idiots that are on the roads here. I have never seen so many deliberately stupid drivers as I have here. Nothing personal but aussies are about the worst drivers I've ever seen.

I've done plenty of driving in France and Italy and their idiots put our idiots to shame. I've never known people who can drive so fast in a traffic jamb. I don't even want to talk about New York. I still can't incurl my toes.