Road design in the UK is absolutely not influenced by manual cars. Using give way instead of stop signs and roundabouts reduces congestion and journey times, while improving journey times. Lower speeds increase safety, and reduce emissions and congestion.
@@raymondadams7570 Only if you are a piss poor driver, When I've driven at 20 mph I'm at 2k rpm, while at 30... 2k rpm and at dual carriageway speeds... you guessed it! 2k rpm!
@@raymondadams7570 That isn't how an engine works. You can use 10% more fuel driving at 70mph than 60mph and the gears can help keep the rev's down and reduce fuel consumption. Do you drive around in 2nd gear doing 30?
Coming from the uk I can vouch it’s not actually hard to drive here. It’s your perception of what your use to. If your used to crossroads/intersections, turn right on red lights, straight roads etc then I can see how twisting country lanes are a cultural shock. Like with manual/stick shift, it’s just what your use to, larger cars tend to be automatic such as range rovers but smaller cars are more likely manual. As for driving on the left, if you can’t get the hang of that, many you shouldn’t be driving in a foreign country (like that diplomats wife).
A highlight of the Great Dorset Steam Fair is them bringing a train to haul around the main arena, and then having the entire rig hauled around by steam traction engines in a long train, spewing smoke and steam everywhere in the process.
Great video, but you forgot to mention one of the main issues. Lack of layby-s or parking suitable for drivers to do their mandatory breaks in. For example a driver dropping goods in central London has to get in and back out before their 4.5h driving limit. Even in more rural areas, if you are not on a motorway then its very difficult to find somewhere as most places you are delivering to are not big enough to have you park for 45min without being in the way. Furthermore access to facilities such as showers and bathrooms is appalling. Most lay-bys are only big enough for 2 trucks, and usually just have a single overflowing rubbish bin. and not even all motorway services have showers.
Just to add, the rarity of service stations along the motorways for Lorries and Drivers around the UK, for example, in Hertfordshire there are only 2, South Mimms and Baldock. Along with the previously mentioned lack of facilities in these service stations. Although for the ones that do exist, they're usually of poor quality
Yeah, it's why we struggle to get new drivers domestically, and so many European ones refuse to come back now. Really difficult roads, nightmare delivery locations, poor working conditions, and if you're lucky, the government might even lock you in an abandoned airfield over Christmas! Genuinely surprising that anyone takes the job at all
Really in and out of London is so easy been driving trucks 25 years lay BT’s are irrelevant plan your journey all motorway services are required by law to have showers it’s why they are motorway services if they are out of order the services pay for a hotel room purely for drivers to shower in not at the same time unless you like that. This job isn’t for everyone and by the sounds of it you don’t drive anymore. It’s long hours it is hard graft but be honest and really most lay-bys are big enough for 2 trucks you need to learn how to drive !
@@mitchellperry3462 I don't drive but work in theatre industry. Just relaying the complaints of almost every artic driver/ delivery driver hahaha. And yes all the lay-bys near me on the B roads are only big enough for 2 lol. I'm sure experiences vary. The drivers were saying during COVID a lot of the places they were delivering to stopped allowing them in to use the bathroom, and for some that attitude has continued. Also near where I work a bridge was closed for nearly 2 years meaning artics had to go down single track roads that were technically suitable for a diversion but really not easy. And Re showers, I was more referring to how in a lot of Europe, even some of the rural laybys have toilet and shower facilities accessed with a key.
it's cool how you point out the nature of driving and traffic flows in the uk, I've been driving in them for years but your description made me go "huh yeah, it is kinda like that isn't it."
When I just got my truck driving license back in Poland they just instantly sent me to work in UK as a truck driver. Learning to back up was like impossible like that. Especially by driving on the opposite side of the road.
This video fails to mention points I was hoping to hear. As any European international trucker would tell you that UK trucking is awful because of the abysmal service you get at service stations (food, showers etc.), Overnight parking spaces are insufficient and if you don't stop there your tarp will be cut up and valuable cargo stolen 100% of the time. All this for the same wage as mainland That is why so many drivers left, Brexit was just the last straw.
Good video about us British lorry drivers. I'd just like to add to your points that we also have to take detours due to low bridges, which don't just exist in towns but on main routes as well, weak bridges and the main problem for any lorry driver that sleeps out over night, server lack of safe parking! There's only a handful of lorry parks in the country where you know you won't wake up in the morning with your curtains slashed or diesel stolen overnight.
I'm from America and have driven in the UK and Ireland several times. Some things that shocked me were, as you say, the closeness of items along the roadside. In particular, there was the omnipresent HEDGE that felt like it was going to reach out and grab you. Things I liked were the roundabouts, yields, and 'notional roundabouts' (basically a 4-way yield) in places where we would have a stop that most people ignore anyways. I also liked the 3 lane roads with a central passing lane that operated for either side at different points and 1 lane roads that had pull-offs every quarter mile or so to let traffic from the other direction pass. (Of course, that only works if you have long sightlines, such as up in treeless Orkney.) One thing that does bug me about roundabouts is the way that so many American transportation enthusiasts seem to think that they're an all-purpose panacea. Compared to a signaled or signed intersection, they require far more space. For them to be able to keep traffic flowing efficiently on a fast, high capacity road, you need to be able to see the traffic in the circle that you will be merging into from a good distance off. This often isn't possible due to geography or the built environment. They are also less than ideal for a small road crossing a large, heavily-trafficked one. Good luck pulling out when there's a car coming every two seconds!
@@theninjascientist689 I found myself on a two way road which was so narrow, the hedges were scratching left and right on my rental VW Tiguan, not just on the mirror but on the doors. Nervewrecking!
Cars in the UK tend to be smaller, so for the average driver here the roads are well sized, and you get used to driving in country roads where you have hedges either side of you.
Another reason or reasons are, you have to pay for park at truck stops and security is not guaranteed, you get diesel stolen, also your curtain sides get cut open and goods stolen,
Hi Yukon, could you do a video on the different types of fire trucks (I.e. engines, brush trucks [type 1-7], aerial ladders, tillers, ARFFs, quints, tenders, heavy rescues, HAZMAT, etc.) and the history of the modern day fire truck?
Keep it up and for a Truck driver in the UK they are called Lorry Driver. For the common gearbox on a UK lorry are the Automated Manual type. They are speed limited to 56 mph (90 kmh) remember UK does direct conversion of kmh speed limits to MPH
And a number of truckers fiddle with that limiter, sat at 55 in heavy rain conditions earlier this month and some truckers weren't inching past at 56 but more sprightly jogging past at 60 and other cars flying past at 70.
Hey just a note to other UK drivers, as Yukon says truck drivers are under appreciated, so when you come to a round about remember they need both lanes to get around them, so when you see them going in to the outside lane, don't be a dick and scoot round them on the inside, stop, give them a wee flash of your lights so they know you've seen them and let them get on with it.
Truckers in the UK actually work 15 hours a day. We can only drive 9 hours a day, or 10 hours twice a week. The rest of the time is spent on other work, loading, etc to make up 15 hours per day.
This video reminded me of one thing I noticed when playing Euro Truck Simulator 2, which features much of Europe including the UK. The UK roads, or rather most of the roads, all feel very wide and easy to drive on with signage and rules that I was able to get up to speed with as a driver in the US. I was wondering to myself "wait, isn't the roads in this inner city area supposed to be tight and curvy"? Even with that nitpick, Euro and American Truck Simulator does a great job at simulating the basic trucker experience for non-truckers. Good and snappy video as always.
wow I really caught this fast! Maybe you should do a bit on the Dalton-Elliot Highway in Alaska? Maybe make it a recurring bit on more famous/dangerous trucking routes?
As a UK truck ( lorry ) driver it's nice to be appreciated. Speed limits are 56mph and different parts of the Uk are more respectful of the difficulties we have in manoeuvres. London being a different animal . Brexit has reduced the demand for goods overall and therefore the need for transportation so the vacancies have dried up .
Hi just wanted to point out when you mentioned better hours, the 9 hours is the standard daily driving hours not working hours. In the UK a driver can drive 10 hours twice a week, and work 15 hours 3 times a week (minimum 9 hours uninterrupted rest in a 24 hour period). However that can be circumvented all week if the driver takes a uninterrupted 3 hour break within the 15 hours work period (3 hours + 9 hours =12 hours rest in a 24 hour period). Making a 6 day 90 hour week possible.
You had me at 9 hours a day haha....🤣🤣🤣🤣 we can work a total duty time of 15 hrs 3 times in a week and then 13hrs there after with at least 45hours rest !!! the 9 hours relates to wheels turning i.e. drive time
Drive for 9 hours a day with no period exceeding 4.5 hours, take a 45 minute break to reset your time, but can work upto 15 hours in a single day, theres more too it than that but that's a brief description
Coming from UK this is interesting, two minor mistakes. Speed limit is 60 but trucks are limited to 56mph. I average 12 hours a day, your allowed to work up to 15 drive for 10 hours.
I'm not a trucker in the UK, I'm a coach driver facing a lot of what the lorry drivers see on a daily basis too, the speed limit for trucks in the UK is 90kph (56mph) whereas In a coach I am limited to 100kph (62mph) driving a coach is (dare I say this) similar to long wheel base cabover "rigid" lorries (no trailer) we coach drivers don't bend In the middle and struggle around a lot of tight corners, great video Yukon 😊
As a truck driver in the uk 🇬🇧 I can honestly say I love driving down a road where there's ¼ of an inch at either side and knowing I have the skill to get a truck that's bigger than a house in to a place that wasn't built for it .... I wish youtube would allow pictures in the comments as a lot of non uk residents would be amazed
Would love to see one of these for Colombia! Columbia is a super unique nation when it comes to trucking. Most of the major cities are in the Andes and the roads are typically super narrow and steep, I would love to learn more about the truckers there!
Would love to see a video on the Icelandic trucking, as it's a pretty remote island with many of it's inland routes going straight through rivers and being little more than a gravel path 😁
One other way to help with last-mile is the use of smaller trucks, I live above a row of non-chain shops in a large city, and can't remember the last time I saw them being served by an artic rather than a C1 class truck (rigid
It would be great to do a video covering Dutch trucking. Their trucking culture is spectacular. You should cover "Holland Style" design of truck customizing, which has even influenced other European countries.
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Hello Yukon, Big fan from Saudi Arabia. Can you do a video about Jordanian truckers, they frequent the roads in my country so it would be cool to see you talking about how they live, the difficulties they face (like rising fuel prices) and also talk about their frequent round trips to the Kingdom and navigating it's desert roads. Thanks a lot, Love your videos
What a lovely little video. Our lorry drivers (truckers) don't get the credit they deserve. It's not really seen as a skilled job/career here really, even though it's quite difficult to get all of your heavy goods licenses etc.
Good one as always! I'd be interested in hearing more about African countries. Tell me about trucking in Nigeria or Botswana. Turkey could also be interesting
I remember how hard it is to drive a double trailer in UK when playing Euro truck simulator 2. Especially going over all the intersections. Can’t imagine how they do it irl
Traffic flowing in the UK?!! Not in the bigger cities. The M25, the orbital motorway around London, is dubbed 'The National Car Park'. Driving in central London used to be bad enough. Since the Congestion Charge has been implemented, where you have to pay to drive within the ring road (unless you're on a motorbike or low emissions car), the money collected has been used to change the road layout in a way that causes more congestion, so they can justify the charge in the first place and line their pockets on top, instead of improving the flow of traffic and effectively reduce pollution. The less time you spend idling in traffic, the better. You won't see me do multi-drop driving, especially not in city centres anymore, especially, with nowhere to park a lorry for your delivery, and cameras everywhere, when you risk more in fines than you earn in a day. No wonder there's a driver shortage!
I'd argue that the vast majority of roads in the UK have been built much later than than the invention of the car - usually only town/city centres are very old.
I’ve been a truck driver in the U.K. for 22 years, truckers can drive 9hrs and do additional work, we can work up to 15hrs, but average around 13 per day, we do 2500 miles a week and can reverse a mountain into a mole hill.
Lorry drivers in the UK often, unfairly I think (especially when you look at the bigger picture) get blamed for accidents or incidents that are not their fault, some by the courts...others by people on social media. Example, lorry was turning left and a cyclist cycled down the inside (this was in London) and got killed. It was the cyclists fault however there were a lot of comments attacking the driver online. I can't remember the conclusion the courts came to.
How about something regarding trucking on smaller islands such as Jamaica, Cyprus, Madeira, Cabo Verde...? That'd be really interesting. Despite their sizes, some of these islands have a pretty large population.
Cars, coaches and lorries under 7.5 tonnes are allowed to do 70mph on British motorways. All large lorries (articulated) are 60 max and most of those have a limiting device set at 56mph.
I do agency truck driving in the UK and occasionally in Europe (I have a family so can't be away for too long) I can honestly say that driving in Europe is 100 times better than driving in the UK. The truck stops are FREE to park in overnight (the UK charge £30 a night), trucks stops in Europe have washing machines for the drivers, dryers to dry clothes and cafes selling nutritious food. The UK service stations don't and only sell unhealthy fast food such as mcdonald's KFC and Burger King, the showers are also rarely cleaned in the uk and you need a tetanus shot before entering. Roads are less crowded in Europe, car drivers too have a better standard of driving in Europe (less tailgating and no middle lane hogging). Honestly Lane hogging is exclusively a UK thing.
The maximum speed a truck can travel in the UK is 90 Km/h (56mph). Also, a lot of truck drivers will work up to 15 hours in a day - as they are often paid by the hour a 9 hour day isn't going to pay very well.
I think you should have mentioned the UK's excessive vehicle heights. Coming from Germany, where the trailers never exceed the height of the cab, I was astounded to see trucks with trailers either continuously around 0.5-1 metre taller than the cab, or sloping up towards the centre and then down again. Height clearances on roads are far more relaxed in the UK compared to mainland Europe.
I drive for Royal Mail, who use mostly double deck trailers at 16' 2" and for the most it's depot to depot work so the routes are well known. However, there are occasions when I've had to find a depot that I haven't visited before so it can be nerve wracking trying to navigate an area where there are lots of railway bridges.
A fascinating topic is the Chinese car industry if you'd like to do a video on that! That and car culture in China. Had a buddy who worked in China and he was talking about how oddly aloof it is. They try to copy certain popular trends from the west or from Japan, but entirely seem to miss the point. One thing specifically he mentioned was how people will put stickers on their cars. If you have driven a certain track in your car, you might put a sticker of the track on the car. The Chinese just slap a sticker of a track on their car bc they see westerners doing it
I do find it funny when people go park in the city centre when a park & ride is avaliable that is like £3. That includes parking and bus to & back from the CC.
@@Captain_Yorkie1 Good point I live outside Swansea and you can use The Swansea Park and Ride for only £1 with no time restrictions during the day ,plus you are in The City Centre in around 10 minutes.
The most important benefit of roundabouts is safety and reduced emissions because of hardly ever being stationary and idling. Watch a few of the USA "Bad Driving" videos to see how many accidents occur at huge traffic signal junctions with people running red lights.
One pedantic point - we don't have truck drivers in the UK - we have lorry drivers or HGV drivers (Heavy Goods Vehicle). Also, I am not sure if it is the same in the USA, but UK lorry drivers may have to comply with driving hours/rest time rules and have a tachograph fitted and used in their lorry/HGV.
Wow, uk roads are more daunting compared to American and Canadian roads? I think the other way round. The road design in UK forces drivers to go slow and pay attention. In America, it's all too common to see drivers going well above the speed limit and distracted because the wide roads give the illusion of safety, but with higher speeds and distracted drivers, they're actually far more dangerous.
Been loving this series of videos. I recommend checking out Dutch trucking. They have some of the nicest trucks in Europe. Finnish trucking would also make an interesting video as they have the longest trucks in Europe with HCT single and double trailers. Edited to fix a few mistakes I missed.
Trade hadn’t gone down because of Brexit. Trade has gone up since we left. Instead of watching CBC for your news maybe do some proper research first. Also there is no problem with waiting times either.
the biggest problem i have as being british, is the attitude of drivers, especially in hte past few years. nearly everyone (some truck drivers, but in my experience far fewer than car drivers, as most truck drivers are quite good at driving sensibly in my experience) have the mindset of get to where they are going as quickly as possible whatever the cost. ill list a few problems i have: - NO ONE has patience. Even a slight inconvenience of a second or two is met with either going around aggresively, horns, swearing or agressive driving - tailgaiting and lane hogging are massive problems - everyone drives at the speed limit when the conditions make it so you shouldnt, remember that on most small country lanes, the national speed limit is used which is 60, on roads where even in perfect conditons, you should never exceed 40, and driver inexperience is a problem with this, or them having no patience. - driver inattention. a lot of people dont check their mirrors and just go "i turn now, good luck everyone else!" - white van drivers. i shan't say more (disclaimer: obvs not all white van drivers) - people driving massive land rovers, when they do not have even close to enough experience to operate one. - tires. USE THE CORRECT TIRES FOR THE CONDITIONS AND CHECK THEM. and if you need to service your car, DO IT. - the M6, especially southbound from preston. there are lots of things i could add, but this would make this comment even longer than a PhD paper on the inner workings of a nuclear reactor, these are just the main problems from my experience. the problem we have, especially now, is with the current driving test system. because of covid, there was a massive backlog of driving tests, and instructor lesson prices are quite high (£25 -50, i know some instructors charging £100 per hour), so family members teach their children how to drive. There are three problems with this: - most of the time , no dual clutch controls - the person teaching has no instructor experience most of the time - bad driving habits from the teacher (tailgaiting, passing cyclists way too closely, not driving to conditions) i honestly dread having to drive now, to the point i can't wait to leave the UK so i can hopefully drive in a more patient environment.
road design in the UK isn't influenced by manual cars, they're just much older than those in the US. This means that they follow the terrain and weave around private land, farms and towns, flowing where it is easiest.
Truckers everywhere need more appreciation, but some of the tight corners I've seen trucks reverse around here I couldn't do in a car let alone a tanker full of incredibly flammable liquids. Hats off, Lorry drivers, I appreciate you.
At 3:25 I would say the comparison may be a bit unfair as this distance is quite high. One of the towns on the far right of the map is Kettering, Northamptonshire and it takes over an hour to get to the large city, Birmingham, on the motorway network.
Can you please do a video on South African trucking, it's pretty chaotic and I think it would make a great video. Great work on the content, looking forward to future videos. 😁
I used to work at a company with a former Fire-Fighter as my Driver. He could make a dusty old, overburdened, massively extended (by about 2ft iirc and another ft higher) Ford Transit *dance*. Trucking in Nigeria maybe?
Please do trucking in Cuba and Mexico, mentioning poverty and difficulty importing vehicles for the former and double remolques (double trailers) for the latter.
I'd love to see a video on Nordic trucking. In Sweden, we will have trucks up to 25.25 meters in length but there are discussions on permitting road trains up to 34.5 meters.
Road design in the UK is absolutely not influenced by manual cars. Using give way instead of stop signs and roundabouts reduces congestion and journey times, while improving journey times. Lower speeds increase safety, and reduce emissions and congestion.
lower speeds can increase emmisions because you are in a lower gear and the engine is running faster for longer
@@raymondadams7570 What? If the engine is running faster then you would change up. Lower speeds do not mean faster running engines.
@@raymondadams7570 Only if you are a piss poor driver, When I've driven at 20 mph I'm at 2k rpm, while at 30... 2k rpm and at dual carriageway speeds... you guessed it! 2k rpm!
@@raymondadams7570 That isn't how an engine works. You can use 10% more fuel driving at 70mph than 60mph and the gears can help keep the rev's down and reduce fuel consumption. Do you drive around in 2nd gear doing 30?
@@SessDMC silly me and i was a mechanic, try driving at 20 mph in fourth gear, if it will drive it will be labouring go down a gear and it won't
As a Brit, our roads are a traumatic experience
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Coming from the uk I can vouch it’s not actually hard to drive here. It’s your perception of what your use to. If your used to crossroads/intersections, turn right on red lights, straight roads etc then I can see how twisting country lanes are a cultural shock. Like with manual/stick shift, it’s just what your use to, larger cars tend to be automatic such as range rovers but smaller cars are more likely manual. As for driving on the left, if you can’t get the hang of that, many you shouldn’t be driving in a foreign country (like that diplomats wife).
I'm surprised you didn't mention Allely's, a truck company which transports entire standard gauge trains, sometimes in very tight neighbourhoods
And those range from brand new MU's to old steam engines bound for heritage railway gala's.
A highlight of the Great Dorset Steam Fair is them bringing a train to haul around the main arena, and then having the entire rig hauled around by steam traction engines in a long train, spewing smoke and steam everywhere in the process.
They do pretty much any heavy haulage, not just trains. Plus some not-so-heavy haulage as well!
We’re they the ones that transported the class 484 from the mainland over to the Isle Of Wight?
@@noooo_safechat2589 That was Reid Freight.
Great video, but you forgot to mention one of the main issues. Lack of layby-s or parking suitable for drivers to do their mandatory breaks in. For example a driver dropping goods in central London has to get in and back out before their 4.5h driving limit. Even in more rural areas, if you are not on a motorway then its very difficult to find somewhere as most places you are delivering to are not big enough to have you park for 45min without being in the way. Furthermore access to facilities such as showers and bathrooms is appalling. Most lay-bys are only big enough for 2 trucks, and usually just have a single overflowing rubbish bin. and not even all motorway services have showers.
Just to add, the rarity of service stations along the motorways for Lorries and Drivers around the UK, for example, in Hertfordshire there are only 2, South Mimms and Baldock. Along with the previously mentioned lack of facilities in these service stations. Although for the ones that do exist, they're usually of poor quality
Yeah, it's why we struggle to get new drivers domestically, and so many European ones refuse to come back now. Really difficult roads, nightmare delivery locations, poor working conditions, and if you're lucky, the government might even lock you in an abandoned airfield over Christmas! Genuinely surprising that anyone takes the job at all
Really in and out of London is so easy been driving trucks 25 years lay BT’s are irrelevant plan your journey all motorway services are required by law to have showers it’s why they are motorway services if they are out of order the services pay for a hotel room purely for drivers to shower in not at the same time unless you like that. This job isn’t for everyone and by the sounds of it you don’t drive anymore. It’s long hours it is hard graft but be honest and really most lay-bys are big enough for 2 trucks you need to learn how to drive !
@@86pp73 really difficult roads ? Get a grip man
@@mitchellperry3462 I don't drive but work in theatre industry. Just relaying the complaints of almost every artic driver/ delivery driver hahaha. And yes all the lay-bys near me on the B roads are only big enough for 2 lol. I'm sure experiences vary. The drivers were saying during COVID a lot of the places they were delivering to stopped allowing them in to use the bathroom, and for some that attitude has continued. Also near where I work a bridge was closed for nearly 2 years meaning artics had to go down single track roads that were technically suitable for a diversion but really not easy. And Re showers, I was more referring to how in a lot of Europe, even some of the rural laybys have toilet and shower facilities accessed with a key.
"The overall feel of the UK's roads is one of order and patience"
_Laughs in Mancunian Driver_
it's cool how you point out the nature of driving and traffic flows in the uk, I've been driving in them for years but your description made me go "huh yeah, it is kinda like that isn't it."
I see videos of Americans driving (not just bikes, etc) and it really looks like a free-for-all out there
@@theninjascientist689 The death rate on American roads is 4 times that of the UK. And that is adjusted for population. US roads are death traps.
When I just got my truck driving license back in Poland they just instantly sent me to work in UK as a truck driver.
Learning to back up was like impossible like that. Especially by driving on the opposite side of the road.
Did you get the hang of it?
I found same first time driving a left hand drive reversing 🤦♂️ its a mind thing
Hello 👋 ❤
This video fails to mention points I was hoping to hear. As any European international trucker would tell you that UK trucking is awful because of the abysmal service you get at service stations (food, showers etc.),
Overnight parking spaces are insufficient and if you don't stop there your tarp will be cut up and valuable cargo stolen 100% of the time. All this for the same wage as mainland
That is why so many drivers left, Brexit was just the last straw.
Good video about us British lorry drivers. I'd just like to add to your points that we also have to take detours due to low bridges, which don't just exist in towns but on main routes as well, weak bridges and the main problem for any lorry driver that sleeps out over night, server lack of safe parking! There's only a handful of lorry parks in the country where you know you won't wake up in the morning with your curtains slashed or diesel stolen overnight.
I'm from America and have driven in the UK and Ireland several times. Some things that shocked me were, as you say, the closeness of items along the roadside. In particular, there was the omnipresent HEDGE that felt like it was going to reach out and grab you. Things I liked were the roundabouts, yields, and 'notional roundabouts' (basically a 4-way yield) in places where we would have a stop that most people ignore anyways. I also liked the 3 lane roads with a central passing lane that operated for either side at different points and 1 lane roads that had pull-offs every quarter mile or so to let traffic from the other direction pass. (Of course, that only works if you have long sightlines, such as up in treeless Orkney.)
One thing that does bug me about roundabouts is the way that so many American transportation enthusiasts seem to think that they're an all-purpose panacea. Compared to a signaled or signed intersection, they require far more space. For them to be able to keep traffic flowing efficiently on a fast, high capacity road, you need to be able to see the traffic in the circle that you will be merging into from a good distance off. This often isn't possible due to geography or the built environment. They are also less than ideal for a small road crossing a large, heavily-trafficked one. Good luck pulling out when there's a car coming every two seconds!
driving anywhere in rural Devon will make you wish you never saw a hedge again...
@@theninjascientist689 I found myself on a two way road which was so narrow, the hedges were scratching left and right on my rental VW Tiguan, not just on the mirror but on the doors. Nervewrecking!
Cars in the UK tend to be smaller, so for the average driver here the roads are well sized, and you get used to driving in country roads where you have hedges either side of you.
@@roseyemelyanova8182 Interestingly, every car I've rented in the UK was larger than the one that I was driving at the time in the US.
On a roundabout you give way to the right. But yes some people just blast over them
Another reason or reasons are, you have to pay for park at truck stops and security is not guaranteed, you get diesel stolen, also your curtain sides get cut open and goods stolen,
As a French truck driver i will be very happy to help you on a potential french trucking episode because there's a lot to say
Hi Yukon, could you do a video on the different types of fire trucks (I.e. engines, brush trucks [type 1-7], aerial ladders, tillers, ARFFs, quints, tenders, heavy rescues, HAZMAT, etc.) and the history of the modern day fire truck?
He really went all out on this comment, including every single fire truck ever made
@@Traveling-Designs lol I googled it to be sure
I'd love to see fire trucks from all countires compared to what we have in the US
I agree, I would love to see this.
i second this
Keep it up and for a Truck driver in the UK they are called Lorry Driver. For the common gearbox on a UK lorry are the Automated Manual type. They are speed limited to 56 mph (90 kmh) remember UK does direct conversion of kmh speed limits to MPH
Britain uses both metric and imperial system. Since truck weight is measured in metric tons.
And a number of truckers fiddle with that limiter, sat at 55 in heavy rain conditions earlier this month and some truckers weren't inching past at 56 but more sprightly jogging past at 60 and other cars flying past at 70.
@@davidty2006 we also use litres for pricing fuel, but miles per gallon for measuring fuel economy, it gets a little odd lol
@@omnicognatee and how we measure weight in stone if it's human, pounds if it's an animal and metric if it's food
@@theninjascientist689 and height in feet and inches but short distances in metres
I love watching your videos when I get to work! It's always the highlight of my morning.
Hey just a note to other UK drivers, as Yukon says truck drivers are under appreciated, so when you come to a round about remember they need both lanes to get around them, so when you see them going in to the outside lane, don't be a dick and scoot round them on the inside, stop, give them a wee flash of your lights so they know you've seen them and let them get on with it.
You should do a video on South African trucking and the safety problems they face.
Reminds me of that poor guy driving and whistling one moment and then having his windows shot out the next
Really any blаck majority area is bad for truckers. Even in America, trucking in Detroit is a dangerous idea.
3:32 in the video is a map where Rugby is in the middle. I always get very excited when I see my hometown is in a youtube video.
as someone who has just learnt to a drive a truck in london. yeah, it's tight and twisty, no huge 4 lane city highways here.
Manual drivers don't hate stopping 🤣, it's just way more efficient, faster and better than stopping
It makes me so happy to see him upload a new video. It doesn’t matter what he talking about it’s alway good
Hello 👋 ❤
The British Railway Network needs to be rebuilt to the scale of 1960 and basically get rid of long haul Lorry routes
Truckers in the UK actually work 15 hours a day.
We can only drive 9 hours a day, or 10 hours twice a week. The rest of the time is spent on other work, loading, etc to make up 15 hours per day.
This video reminded me of one thing I noticed when playing Euro Truck Simulator 2, which features much of Europe including the UK. The UK roads, or rather most of the roads, all feel very wide and easy to drive on with signage and rules that I was able to get up to speed with as a driver in the US. I was wondering to myself "wait, isn't the roads in this inner city area supposed to be tight and curvy"? Even with that nitpick, Euro and American Truck Simulator does a great job at simulating the basic trucker experience for non-truckers. Good and snappy video as always.
Uk in ETS 2 is REALLY old like over 10 years old now. The entire place needs a rework it's that outdated.
wow I really caught this fast! Maybe you should do a bit on the Dalton-Elliot Highway in Alaska? Maybe make it a recurring bit on more famous/dangerous trucking routes?
Seconded on the series about trucking routes. That would explode in popularity and sounds crazy interesting
As a UK truck ( lorry ) driver it's nice to be appreciated. Speed limits are 56mph and different parts of the Uk are more respectful of the difficulties we have in manoeuvres. London being a different animal . Brexit has reduced the demand for goods overall and therefore the need for transportation so the vacancies have dried up .
Hello 👋 ❤
Hi just wanted to point out when you mentioned better hours, the 9 hours is the standard daily driving hours not working hours. In the UK a driver can drive 10 hours twice a week, and work 15 hours 3 times a week (minimum 9 hours uninterrupted rest in a 24 hour period). However that can be circumvented all week if the driver takes a uninterrupted 3 hour break within the 15 hours work period (3 hours + 9 hours =12 hours rest in a 24 hour period). Making a 6 day 90 hour week possible.
You had me at 9 hours a day haha....🤣🤣🤣🤣 we can work a total duty time of 15 hrs 3 times in a week and then 13hrs there after with at least 45hours rest !!! the 9 hours relates to wheels turning i.e. drive time
Half of the issue should be illegal working 15 hour days.
Drive for 9 hours a day with no period exceeding 4.5 hours, take a 45 minute break to reset your time, but can work upto 15 hours in a single day, theres more too it than that but that's a brief description
Yukon is the type of youtuber you don't expect to be interested in but you are. Good videos
Full stops an infrequent occurrence?! Is he joking?! Truckers do 9hrs a day?! He doesn't have a single clue.
It would be pretty cool if you talked about trucking in Iran or Türkiye. I think it would be interesting to see how they deal with the tough terrain.
As a resident of Leicester thank you for showing our city satellite! (first image)
3:00 the legal limit is 97 km/h, but all modern european truck limit its speed to just 90 km/h
Keep it up, I love these videos
Coming from UK this is interesting, two minor mistakes. Speed limit is 60 but trucks are limited to 56mph. I average 12 hours a day, your allowed to work up to 15 drive for 10 hours.
Avarage uk truckers drive for 9 hours a day . Work time however can go up to 15 hours
I'm not a trucker in the UK, I'm a coach driver facing a lot of what the lorry drivers see on a daily basis too, the speed limit for trucks in the UK is 90kph (56mph) whereas In a coach I am limited to 100kph (62mph) driving a coach is (dare I say this) similar to long wheel base cabover "rigid" lorries (no trailer) we coach drivers don't bend In the middle and struggle around a lot of tight corners, great video Yukon 😊
The speed limit is 60mph but all trucks are restricted to 56mph
@@NobleDistortion unless you’re on a v8 Scania or Volvo they always overtake me even when going full speed 🤣
As a truck driver in the uk 🇬🇧 I can honestly say I love driving down a road where there's ¼ of an inch at either side and knowing I have the skill to get a truck that's bigger than a house in to a place that wasn't built for it .... I wish youtube would allow pictures in the comments as a lot of non uk residents would be amazed
Would love to see one of these for Colombia! Columbia is a super unique nation when it comes to trucking. Most of the major cities are in the Andes and the roads are typically super narrow and steep, I would love to learn more about the truckers there!
😂 got me when you said the average trucker works 9 hours a day, I've never had a shift so short
Would love to see a video on the Icelandic trucking, as it's a pretty remote island with many of it's inland routes going straight through rivers and being little more than a gravel path 😁
I’ve been and there’s only one road. No 1 hardly any communities inland all on the coast
One other way to help with last-mile is the use of smaller trucks, I live above a row of non-chain shops in a large city, and can't remember the last time I saw them being served by an artic rather than a C1 class truck (rigid
It would be great to do a video covering Dutch trucking. Their trucking culture is spectacular. You should cover "Holland Style" design of truck customizing, which has even influenced other European countries.
Would love to see a video about Finnish trucking, as it is my home country. Great content btw!
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Amazing video!! would love to see you do a video about landfill vehicles and trucks as they have some incredibly interesting vehicles.
Hello 👋 ❤
Early club!!!! Love these videos keep them coming
1:32 Whilst yield (we call them “Give Way” signs) are much more common, some Stop signs do exist. They’re mainly at the more dangerous junctions.
Hello Yukon, Big fan from Saudi Arabia. Can you do a video about Jordanian truckers, they frequent the roads in my country so it would be cool to see you talking about how they live, the difficulties they face (like rising fuel prices) and also talk about their frequent round trips to the Kingdom and navigating it's desert roads. Thanks a lot, Love your videos
I'd be interested in Iranian/Persian truckers and the fact that fuels are free and jobs are dangerous
What a lovely little video. Our lorry drivers (truckers) don't get the credit they deserve. It's not really seen as a skilled job/career here really, even though it's quite difficult to get all of your heavy goods licenses etc.
Good one as always! I'd be interested in hearing more about African countries. Tell me about trucking in Nigeria or Botswana. Turkey could also be interesting
Europe in general seems hard for truck drivers. It's so tight and small. I know this isn't the same, but I noticed this heavily in Euro Truck Sim 2.
Nah, only in the UK, everything is small there. It's better in Europe, not as big as the US but not ridiculous small like UK
I do like Truck sim, but it doesn't accurately portray the UK at all
I remember how hard it is to drive a double trailer in UK when playing Euro truck simulator 2. Especially going over all the intersections. Can’t imagine how they do it irl
I don't see many doubles around when I'm driving
Doubles are super rare in the UK for that reason, it's just not the type of driving environment for it.
Traffic flowing in the UK?!! Not in the bigger cities. The M25, the orbital motorway around London, is dubbed 'The National Car Park'. Driving in central London used to be bad enough. Since the Congestion Charge has been implemented, where you have to pay to drive within the ring road (unless you're on a motorbike or low emissions car), the money collected has been used to change the road layout in a way that causes more congestion, so they can justify the charge in the first place and line their pockets on top, instead of improving the flow of traffic and effectively reduce pollution. The less time you spend idling in traffic, the better. You won't see me do multi-drop driving, especially not in city centres anymore, especially, with nowhere to park a lorry for your delivery, and cameras everywhere, when you risk more in fines than you earn in a day. No wonder there's a driver shortage!
Could you please do a video on New Zealand trucking? We have every brand with both conventional and cab over! and beautiful roads!
And so many potholes slips landslides drop outs, and undersized or washed away bridges
Watching from Swansea, appreciate the shoutout
I'd argue that the vast majority of roads in the UK have been built much later than than the invention of the car - usually only town/city centres are very old.
I’ve been a truck driver in the U.K. for 22 years, truckers can drive 9hrs and do additional work, we can work up to 15hrs, but average around 13 per day, we do 2500 miles a week and can reverse a mountain into a mole hill.
"an undying affinity for manual transmissions"
Honestly same
I live in Australia and I have to agree. I hate automatic.
I don't even have a licence yet and i already prefer manual gearbox.
Exactly yesterday I was wondering about when you'd done a video about trucking in UK. Said and done, I woke up and found this
Lorry drivers in the UK often, unfairly I think (especially when you look at the bigger picture) get blamed for accidents or incidents that are not their fault, some by the courts...others by people on social media. Example, lorry was turning left and a cyclist cycled down the inside (this was in London) and got killed. It was the cyclists fault however there were a lot of comments attacking the driver online. I can't remember the conclusion the courts came to.
How about something regarding trucking on smaller islands such as Jamaica, Cyprus, Madeira, Cabo Verde...? That'd be really interesting. Despite their sizes, some of these islands have a pretty large population.
He has actually done Jamaica
That’s a really good idea, he’s already done Jamaica but all of those others would be pretty cool. 👍
@@Volcanic0 Hmm... Now I remember watching it myself. Well, there are plenty of smallish islands in the world to cover :)
Cars, coaches and lorries under 7.5 tonnes are allowed to do 70mph on British motorways.
All large lorries (articulated) are 60 max and most of those have a limiting device set at 56mph.
I do agency truck driving in the UK and occasionally in Europe (I have a family so can't be away for too long)
I can honestly say that driving in Europe is 100 times better than driving in the UK. The truck stops are FREE to park in overnight (the UK charge £30 a night), trucks stops in Europe have washing machines for the drivers, dryers to dry clothes and cafes selling nutritious food. The UK service stations don't and only sell unhealthy fast food such as mcdonald's KFC and Burger King, the showers are also rarely cleaned in the uk and you need a tetanus shot before entering.
Roads are less crowded in Europe, car drivers too have a better standard of driving in Europe (less tailgating and no middle lane hogging). Honestly Lane hogging is exclusively a UK thing.
Great video as always!
Hello 👋 ❤
Just when I thought the day couldn't get any better!
The maximum speed a truck can travel in the UK is 90 Km/h (56mph). Also, a lot of truck drivers will work up to 15 hours in a day - as they are often paid by the hour a 9 hour day isn't going to pay very well.
I think you should have mentioned the UK's excessive vehicle heights. Coming from Germany, where the trailers never exceed the height of the cab, I was astounded to see trucks with trailers either continuously around 0.5-1 metre taller than the cab, or sloping up towards the centre and then down again. Height clearances on roads are far more relaxed in the UK compared to mainland Europe.
It's proberbly because of the double decker busses that make up a good chunk of the transit network.
I drive for Royal Mail, who use mostly double deck trailers at 16' 2" and for the most it's depot to depot work so the routes are well known. However, there are occasions when I've had to find a depot that I haven't visited before so it can be nerve wracking trying to navigate an area where there are lots of railway bridges.
I regularly drive a 'double decker' trailer, overall height is 16ft, which is around the maximum height allowed.
A fascinating topic is the Chinese car industry if you'd like to do a video on that! That and car culture in China. Had a buddy who worked in China and he was talking about how oddly aloof it is. They try to copy certain popular trends from the west or from Japan, but entirely seem to miss the point. One thing specifically he mentioned was how people will put stickers on their cars. If you have driven a certain track in your car, you might put a sticker of the track on the car. The Chinese just slap a sticker of a track on their car bc they see westerners doing it
Rip off cars
Definitely needed to mention the appalling overpriced parking situation Its a major bugbear here.
At least there are few toll roads
I do find it funny when people go park in the city centre when a park & ride is avaliable that is like £3. That includes parking and bus to & back from the CC.
@@Captain_Yorkie1 Good point I live outside Swansea and you can use The Swansea Park and Ride for only £1 with no time restrictions during the day ,plus you are in The City Centre in around 10 minutes.
The most important benefit of roundabouts is safety and reduced emissions because of hardly ever being stationary and idling. Watch a few of the USA "Bad Driving" videos to see how many accidents occur at huge traffic signal junctions with people running red lights.
One pedantic point - we don't have truck drivers in the UK - we have lorry drivers or HGV drivers (Heavy Goods Vehicle).
Also, I am not sure if it is the same in the USA, but UK lorry drivers may have to comply with driving hours/rest time rules and have a tachograph fitted and used in their lorry/HGV.
01:58 'order and patience' nearly pissed meself laughing there
Wow, uk roads are more daunting compared to American and Canadian roads? I think the other way round. The road design in UK forces drivers to go slow and pay attention. In America, it's all too common to see drivers going well above the speed limit and distracted because the wide roads give the illusion of safety, but with higher speeds and distracted drivers, they're actually far more dangerous.
I adore your videos is there any way you could make longer content.
Been loving this series of videos. I recommend checking out Dutch trucking. They have some of the nicest trucks in Europe.
Finnish trucking would also make an interesting video as they have the longest trucks in Europe with HCT single and double trailers.
Edited to fix a few mistakes I missed.
I could be wrong but I think the limit for hgvs is 56 mph, not that it makes a huge difference
@@V8VORLICH overthinking it a bit but yes it does make a difference
Trade hadn’t gone down because of Brexit. Trade has gone up since we left. Instead of watching CBC for your news maybe do some proper research first.
Also there is no problem with waiting times either.
Let’s see a video about truck driving in Equatorial Guinea.
the biggest problem i have as being british, is the attitude of drivers, especially in hte past few years. nearly everyone (some truck drivers, but in my experience far fewer than car drivers, as most truck drivers are quite good at driving sensibly in my experience) have the mindset of get to where they are going as quickly as possible whatever the cost. ill list a few problems i have:
- NO ONE has patience. Even a slight inconvenience of a second or two is met with either going around aggresively, horns, swearing or agressive driving
- tailgaiting and lane hogging are massive problems
- everyone drives at the speed limit when the conditions make it so you shouldnt, remember that on most small country lanes, the national speed limit is used which is 60, on roads where even in perfect conditons, you should never exceed 40, and driver inexperience is a problem with this, or them having no patience.
- driver inattention. a lot of people dont check their mirrors and just go "i turn now, good luck everyone else!"
- white van drivers. i shan't say more (disclaimer: obvs not all white van drivers)
- people driving massive land rovers, when they do not have even close to enough experience to operate one.
- tires. USE THE CORRECT TIRES FOR THE CONDITIONS AND CHECK THEM. and if you need to service your car, DO IT.
- the M6, especially southbound from preston.
there are lots of things i could add, but this would make this comment even longer than a PhD paper on the inner workings of a nuclear reactor, these are just the main problems from my experience.
the problem we have, especially now, is with the current driving test system. because of covid, there was a massive backlog of driving tests, and instructor lesson prices are quite high (£25 -50, i know some instructors charging £100 per hour), so family members teach their children how to drive. There are three problems with this:
- most of the time , no dual clutch controls
- the person teaching has no instructor experience most of the time
- bad driving habits from the teacher (tailgaiting, passing cyclists way too closely, not driving to conditions)
i honestly dread having to drive now, to the point i can't wait to leave the UK so i can hopefully drive in a more patient environment.
road design in the UK isn't influenced by manual cars, they're just much older than those in the US. This means that they follow the terrain and weave around private land, farms and towns, flowing where it is easiest.
hey Yukon, I would love to see a video about Eastern European trucking, especially in the Balkans for example
Could you do a video on trucking back in the day? How it started and evolved!
How far back? We talking horse and carriage or steam engine?
i love how the truck in the thumbnail is from the company schrier, which is based in the netherlands
Trucks from Holland are quite often here, so it`s not a massive problem.
Truckers everywhere need more appreciation, but some of the tight corners I've seen trucks reverse around here I couldn't do in a car let alone a tanker full of incredibly flammable liquids.
Hats off, Lorry drivers, I appreciate you.
Hi @Yukon i was wondering if you could do the dutch way of trucking next it would be so so great if you do this so please do it😊❤
Hello Yukon, nice video! I think a nice video can be trucking in Chile (my country) have a nice day!
At 3:25 I would say the comparison may be a bit unfair as this distance is quite high. One of the towns on the far right of the map is Kettering, Northamptonshire and it takes over an hour to get to the large city, Birmingham, on the motorway network.
03:54 - Oh a disastrous thing that occured to us! 🤦🏻♂️😕
Can you please do a video on South African trucking, it's pretty chaotic and I think it would make a great video.
Great work on the content, looking forward to future videos. 😁
This coming out 1 week before my Class 1 training feels oddly convenient 😂
love your videos! could you make a video about chilean trucking?
something you could do is cover the history of certain trucking companies, though it might go stale somewhat fast
I used to work at a company with a former Fire-Fighter as my Driver. He could make a dusty old, overburdened, massively extended (by about 2ft iirc and another ft higher) Ford Transit *dance*.
Trucking in Nigeria maybe?
Please do trucking in Cuba and Mexico, mentioning poverty and difficulty importing vehicles for the former and double remolques (double trailers) for the latter.
Honestly i would like to hear about less known countries. Like Laos,Kyrgystan, Suriname and the like.
Do Turkish trucking next please.
I'd love to see a video on Nordic trucking. In Sweden, we will have trucks up to 25.25 meters in length but there are discussions on permitting road trains up to 34.5 meters.
The winter climate also adds an interesting element in the nordics!