No entry for heavy goods vehicles

[OTBC]

Back in the day, Swansea Council needed a bilingual road sign that said “No entry for heavy goods vehicles.” Sensible enough, right?

They sent it off to be translated into Welsh… only problem was, the translator was out of office. His auto-reply said: “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.”

And instead of realising, the council just… printed it on the actual sign. On the road. For everyone to see.

So instead of warning lorries away, the sign politely told drivers, “Sorry, I’m not in right now, please try again later.”

Honestly, mistakes like this make my email typos feel like nothing.

[Pathca]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2kpzvegezeo.amp
They have had Spanish street signs in a small Lancashire village for a while

[Blaze]

Perhaps they were put up by one of the Spanish lorry drivers !

HGVs cause problems in many places, having increased in size/weight over the last few decades, particularly those from Europe.
But there has always been a reluctance/refusal to ban vehicles over a certain weight from town and village centres because there is not always a practical alternative route. Smaller goods carrying vehicles = more vehicles on the roads and a need for more drivers. If the UK is anything like France, there is a problem finding HGV drivers ...

If only more use could be made of the railways .....

[Pathca]

Tarleton is a small place but has a lot of traffic due to its proximity to a major route to Liverpool. The most popular theory is the signs are there to help Spanish lorry drivers

[demi]

Or go for sail...............

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ge-of-sail

Latest cargo sail boat crosses Atlantic.

[exile]

Perhaps they were put up by one of the Spanish lorry drivers !

HGVs cause problems in many places, having increased in size/weight over the last few decades, particularly those from Europe.
But there has always been a reluctance/refusal to ban vehicles over a certain weight from town and village centres because there is not always a practical alternative route. Smaller goods carrying vehicles = more vehicles on the roads and a need for more drivers. If the UK is anything like France, there is a problem finding HGV drivers ...

If only more use could be made of the railways .....

Not sure why you single out European trucks as having increased in weight. The EU has set standards at 44t GVW across the EU. Some countries have allowed additional weights within their national borders and often over specific routes*. While that 44t may seem like a negative increase, it has come with restrictions/improvements to the vehicles involved - 6 axle units versus 5 being the previous standard, which reduces the weight per axle and so less damage to the roads; air suspension rather than simple springs with again less damage to the road and vibration to adjacent buildings.

* Many countries have a derogation to 46t if the route is under 150km (or similar) and delivers the goods to a multimodal hub - port or railhead - for onward transportation.

You are right about the shortage of HGV drivers. One of our hauliers gave a presentation almost 20 years ago showing the progression of the average age of drivers. the average age had been increasing over a number of years. The projection was that by the mid twenty-teens, the average age would be 55 years old, which if you consider retirement ages in France (62) and Germany (63) was even then worrying. Causes were many but singled out were:
Removal of national service in the forces. Many young people left service with an HGV class 3 licence.
People not wanting to be away from home for days, sometimes weeks - a switch to containers has helped here. The containers are delivered to a port or railhub for onward shipment. So the driver, at each end of the journey from supplier to customer, has a much shorter journey. However, delivery times are often extended for medium length journeys and may not be suitable for time sensitive deliveries.


We are way off jokes here and maybe @Char could cut these points out into a separate thread.

[Pathca]

I’m sorry but my post was a response to the joke about the Welsh language signage. It was saying they have Spanish signs in Lancashire on thread with the joke. If the forum police are going to take over there doesn’t seem much point

[demi]

Personally I don't think a thread going off piste a bit matters too much.

[Blaze]

I agree, Demi - it's natural in any conversation. I thought Pathca's Spanish link was interesting and was a natural flow-on to the Welsh gibberish joke
If anyone comes up with a good joke, it will direct us back on topic, pas d'souci.

[exile]

I fully agree that both signs were amusing and worthy of the jokes thread but the discussion moved on - as they do.
If in a few months time someone wants to find back some of the comments, remembering that it was in jokes might be a stretch, hence my suggestion to have a separate thread.

Edit: PS thanks @Char