National Traffic TOP 100 threads of 2007
| 100 | NW prosecution | skinner says "A motorist has become the first driver on the region's motorways to be prosecuted after a complaint by Highways Agency Traffic Officers. The man appeared at Tameside Magistrates' Court in March and admitted driving under intermittent red crosses signifying a lane closure ahead." |
| 101 | Major incident Handover | PavementPizza says "Do you think that you should be relieved from a major incident if it overuns your shift time? I personaly think that major incidents involving fatalities/road closures etc... should not be handed over to other teams." |
| 102 | DEBRIS what have you found on the carriageway | red or dead says "I have found metal doors,20 metres of rubber tubing,and a skip." |
| 103 | Traffic Radio | Branston announces that Traffic Radio, the HA's very own rolling travel news radio station has launched its full service |
| 104 | Rear Flashing lights | Race track says "With the continual debate about rear lights, what would you prefer? Bearing in mind that we do need something to differentiate Live Lane Vs Hard Shoulder?" |
| 105 | wellfare facilites [confined portacabins] | does any one know if we are going to proper brick built outstations? Or are we staying in those confined portacabins tripping over each other on a shift change? |
| 106 | Staffing | was told that there were loads of vacancies in the NW, The HR Dept have said that i will need to wait until someone resigns or wait until there is a recruitment trawl?????????????. |
| 107 | working alongside police ? | Do Traffic Officers really work alongside police ? This is what all the hype would have us believe but reading this site gives me the impression that Traffic Officers are actually on their own with police a long long way off, says Brian |
| 108 | Life on the line? [vehicle is traveling against the flow of] | Police receive a report that a vehicle is travelling against the flow of traffic between junctions x and y. Nearest HATO unit is dispatched to do a RRB from the next junction and head towards with traffic managed????? |
| 109 | HATO Acronyms | COWS - Cut Out Won't Start POB - Persons on borde - or - Peroxide Blonde and tons more |
| 110 | Stopping Speeders | How exactly can 2 TO's be driving along in a vehicle who's speedo probably isnt correct, stop a lorry and tell him that????????? Are these not the guys who we dont want in the HA or am I in a minority?? says Chocolate Boy |
| 111 | DARTFORD RIVER CROSSING TRAFFIC OFFICERS | hello any drc to`s on this site, wish to make any comments on the new contract coming up from the highways agency, to see if le crossing will still keep the contract asks 102 |
| 112 | THE NEW GRANDIS | these are not allowed to be used as a patrol vehicles, as they have no vms and cannot tow. so not only a very big why but they also boost your vehicle pool, says red or dead |
| 113 | animals on the motorway, what's the answer? | Am always amused by the motorist who jump out of their vehicles with a half eaten pork pie to try and capture a dog on the network when the traffic is at a halt and their car is in lane 3 .... and more |
| 114 | Are there enough women hatos? | bootneck asks "at our out staion we only have 5 women hatos, what do poeple think ? do you think we should have more or less women hatos?" |
| 115 | RRB & stopping traffic | V_max says "Some TOs don't mind stopping traffic with a RRB (say for debris). Others try their hardest not to stop traffic, by waiting on the H/S and calling up another patrol/Police to do the block. What's the regional thought on this?" |
| 116 | AIRWAVE - Point to point? | Flash asks, "Do you use the Point to Point facility on your Airwave sets? It's a fantastic facilty that the HA seem to frown upon if we use it! Whats it like in your Region, are the RCC happy for you to use the facility or is it a bit of a no no?" |
| 117 | Portable flashing lights | Blackrat asks, "guys, does your portable flashing amber lights for doing lane closures sit on the cones or road?" |
| 118 | Advising RCC of using REDS on h/s | In our region we are being asked to tell RCC when we use reds on hardshoulder, to enable DfT to have strong case for us to use reds full time on h/s We also have to record DRA in pocketbook and use of reds goes on log, says motormouth |
| 119 | Most original reason for being on the hardshoulder.... | Stopped behind a landrover the other afternoon and when asked why he was parked there the driver responded " Just taking an emergency phone call from the wife, our pig's gone into labour and I need to get home as soon as possible". Well, you couldn't make it up, could you? Any one heard a better one? asks Wrist assessment |
| 120 | APTR [rumours about trunk roads?] | From what I heard we werent going to to be doing them for years. However an outside source has told me that we could be rolling out as early as April this year? Apparantly they are recruiting from the exisitng waiting lists and are waiting for the new finacial year in order to get the funding for more vehicles, stations etc etc. |
| 121 | News from the "Top" | Since more and more MPs are becoming aware of the service, there are a lot of "MP's questions" being asked of Dr Ladyman (being the Minster of State for Transport). I thought it might be a good idea to put these in one thread, says Race Track |
| 122 | Callsigns! | I don't understand the reason for changing the vehicle Callsigns three times per day Frankly it's confusing and a waste of time! Every other job I have been in, the vehicle ALWAYS keeps its call-sign no matter which crew are in, whether it the Early, Lates or Nights, says Flash |
| 123 | Airwave/Phone | Using your radio as a phone.......... Does anyone know if Airwave's/HA have a record of the calls you make from your personal radio ? Say if I rang my mum and it lasted 20 mins ? Would they know ? While I'm on the subject, what about a text message ? asks SC225 |
| 124 | New Epaulettes | Did anyone know the OM's and NOM's were getting new epaulettes? Saw them for the first time today. As we know supers, OMs and the NOM all have red epauletes. So at the scene of a major incident you cant tell whose who and what rank. |
| 125 | What have you lost when working? | The latest lost property item was my flask. Stopped at services for a cup of coffee and got talking to a coach driver. After a while we made our excuses and left. About 2 hours later I realised my flask was missing and remember placing it on the back bumper of our car when stopped in the services, says State5. |
| 126 | 999 calls [to HA?] | Do you think that as we become more recognised by the mops and they become aware of what we do and they type if incidents we attend that someone has called 999 and asked for the Highways Agency? |
| 127 | Cancelled VMP Legends... | Whilst doing the powder checks the other day I noticed that a number of legends have been removed from the VMP board. Arrows - STOP - Accident - SLOW Ok, I'm aware of the current campaign regarding the scrolling arrows and was likewise informed of their removal. But to remove SLOW and STOP!! objects Nighthawk. |
| 128 | Has any outstation had new vehicles for old ones yet? | just wondered if anyone has had new vehicles yet? says RED X |
| 129 | Towing | How often do you guys tow a car and how far? Also have you been issued any guide lines for towing? asks aa man |
| 130 | Changing tyres | To's. Can you change motp tyres? asks Blackrat |
| 131 | HATOs and the Special Constabulary | anyone know of anyone who is a HATO and a Special? asks TheWanderer |
| 132 | How do you cope after Nights? | OK guys and girls, how do you cope with the quick change from nights to earlies What tips have you got to re-arrange the body clock in 72 hours flat? Do you walk around like a zombie or do you just get nissed as a part ? asks Tricky |
| 133 | HATO Car Sticker | Would you like to advertise in form of a car sticker you are a TO/Highways person ? Anybody got any suggestions for a car sticker ? What would you like to see on a car sticker if you did ? says kipper |
| 134 | Drive / observe ...do you have a preference? | Dave says "Must admit I don't mind which... but I like to do approx 50/50 over a shift pattern. With some there is a small discussion what do you fancy doing today? / what did you do yesterday?...and a joint decision is made. One or two prefer to do obs. It's quite clear that some mainly prefer to drive...and grab the keys before you know it a decision is made . Which bugs me!" |
| 135 | The press at RTC scenes | How do you deal with the press at RTC scenes?? asks florence .... he started ranting at me "do you know who i am,you`re stopping me from doing my job, I`ve been to worse things than this, like train crashes" |
| 136 | HATO's get a positive review from truckers | one of the truckers has managed to secure a ride out with a supervisor. Read about his shift and truckers responses to it says Charl_Hunter |
| 137 | Tacho Breaks | Do we tell them it is not safe and leave them there for as long as they want or do we tell them to shove off the hardshoulder and drive the half mile to the services using their guide on place of safety for exceeding hours ?? asks mops1 |
| 138 | The scrapping of AA night patrols | After more than 80 years the AA is to abandon night patrols as part of a cost-cutting exercise by its venture capitalist owners. The 15 million members of the motoring organisation will now have to make do with AA staff called out on a voluntary "pay per job" basis or local contractors. |
| 139 | HA Post [this is what one of yours is posting on another] | The training for the role initially was totally inadequate to put it one way. To clarify one thing, Junction 17 now assess the in-house assessors. I don't know if they still do the initial driver training. But considering most of our daily workload is driving, the couple of hours each where were told to reverse along the hard shoulder is shocking. |
| 140 | New Mobile Phone regs | Penalty points for using mobiles but a pointless law if it's not enforced. We all know most motorways are NOT routinely patrolled, so how's it going to be enforced?? |
| 141 | Grand Theft HATO | M6 redneck says "Imagine you worked for a software company, your a top exec and bored of the usual drivel your underlings provide regarding the next genre breaking computer game. Imagine this? Grand theft HATO !!!" |
| 142 | What have the HA done well? | Anything spring to mind? Peli light - unasked for and fantastic Electronic OT claims - less bean counters between me and my money = pure win Thats what comes from the top of my head. Any other ideas? asks M6 redneck |
| 143 | Family friendly hours? | It's been suggested in other topics that the TO service hours of work are not family friendly. I have 3 kids - 2, 5 and 7 - and I actually find the hours to be very friendly. How does everyone else feel about it? asks Yogi |
| 144 | Abandonded Vehicles | How do you deal with abandoned vehicles in your region? I had a bit of a barney with an RCC op at the weekend over the way things were being handled - to cut a long story short, they wouldn't arrange nearest available unless we were there to sit with the car, despite it having been reported 4 1/2 hours earlier, says Yogi |
| 145 | Britain needs a new network of motorways and A roads | Britain needs a new network of motorways and A roads to cope with 12 million extra cars and a 43 per cent increase in traffic over the next 30 years, according to a new study. |
| 146 | Tribute to British Troops in Iraq | dont envy the boys and girls out there or in fact any part of the World where fighting is taking place. Thank goodness there are such people out there who are happy to fight for their country and stand up for what we believe is right. Thanks to all of them!! |
| 147 | 2008 CALENDAR!! PRINT IT OUT NOW!!!! | Another outstanding effort by John. Extremely funny. Am printing off a couple of copies at least (not saying where they will appear though!!) says Tricky |
| 148 | DATE A PCSO WHY DON'T YOU? | Looks like a good site. I'll have to ty it out next time the wife's got her back turned! - well I'd be lucky! God help any women on there with some of our male members! says TW |
| 149 | duty of care? | my mate says we are not an emergency service so we do not have a Duty of Care to MOPs, I disagree totally with him and say we do have a Duty of Care, says Keokeo |
| 150 | How many Hato vehicles have been hit? | I have got to say I can't believe that in the last month, two Hato vehicles have been written off just in our area. I'm curious to find out how mant nationally have been written off? On both occassions the Hato officers were out of the vehicles, So no one was injured. Just goes to show how dangerous the motorway is, says Blackrat |
| 151 | Box coning on the hardshoulder | Why according to HATO proceedures can a vehicle stop in half the distance on the h/s than in a running lane? We are told in the procedures that the box cone should extend to 50m behind the HATO vehicle while on the hardshoulder? asks Scooter |
| 152 | made it | I am a serving TO based in the Midlands and have been in since early 2004. Looking forward to seeing whos about and swapping banter with all, says flameinoursouls |
| 153 | Ties on!! | When I finally get my new summer shirt I'm going to wear it anyway in defiance, even when I'm working Christmas Day - no tie for me that day!!! |
| 154 | Are there any TO's who have done the CTM course? | Been hearing from a huge cross section of peeps about the CTM course. Have any TO's apart from Supervisors who have done this course? To my knowledge we haven't got any at our outstation yet, well not heard of any.. Would be interesting how they pick who goes and who doesn't.. says Nighthawk |
| 155 | HATO Motorcycle Patrols for APTR | As a motorcyclist of some experience, am I the only one who would like to see the HA running Motorcycle patrols? Benefits might include getting an HA radio to the front of RTC induced congestion on APTR. First eyes on scene calling in the correct resources and, with good local knowledge, calling them in from the right direction? says Jock Abroad |
| 156 | GORETEX Kit, Warm Weather Gear & Current Lightweights | I've bought my own already I'm not going to wait till they issue us goretex trousers took long enough to get the wet gear. Now who has given back the winter coats then coz we only been given wet gear after all. |
| 157 | Education [...people on the rules and regulations for mway] | I think that they could take out adverts and place them in service stations explaining things like Hardshoulder use and that it is an offence to ignore our instructions/breach RRB. Your thoughts please.... |
| 158 | Assessment Centre | The centre is competency based and ergo they will assess your abilities across the various stages of the centre. This will include your ability to assess a situation and comeup with a plan, how you deal with people and stressfull situations and how you interact with other people. |
| 159 | Top Gear Magazine | May I draw your attention to December's copy of Top Gear Magazine (issue 172) and the letters page therein. More specifically, may I draw your collective attentions to the letter penned by 'Mr Name and address withheld' entitled 'The filth and the fury,' says Mr Bojangles |
| 160 | HATO SERVICE - DO YOU FEEL IN THE LOOP? | Mr Bojangles does not feel in the loop. Read why! |
| 161 | can supervisors/team managers use printers or computers ??? | does anyone have a supervisor who cant use modern technology.. our super cant use anything electrical without blowing it up... so we have made him stay in the outstation says upside down |
| 162 | New Highway Code!!!! | members' fave excerpts from the latest HIGHWAY CODE |
| 163 | Changing driver during a shift. | In the beginning we were told that we could not change drivers during a shift. Driver and Observer would be allocated and duties were not to change However after many months of campaigning against this madness we were informed this week that we could now change drivers mid-shift if we wanted too says Milk, no sugar |
| 164 | Model HA vehicles. | have you got one? have you ordered one? have you even SEEN one? chime in on here!! |
| 165 | Tailback procedure at incidents | couple of police forces ask out patrols to do "tail back proceedure" at incidents, to see how much traffic is being affected. This practice has been stopped by the ACPO a couple of years ago, so why are we getting asked to do it?? asks Biffo |
| 166 | how can we get more people to join this site? | How about REALLY stirring it up and getting the union to advertise us to new recruits ?? and supervisors can ensure they mention the site at team briefs. I learnt about it by being told not to go and visit the site. |
| 167 | top gear | Who was watching Jeremy Clarkson slate us all on tonight's top gear? When will the HA stand up for itself and defend the service against ignorant, ill informed p*&%£s like him?? says mondeoman |
| 168 | Health and safety | Asap kicks off on an outstation Health and safety theme |
| 169 | M42 Hard Shoulder [running] | It does work and it works well when its switched on early enough, To be honest there isnt that much live lane work, people seem to make it to the era(laybys). We get a lot of jobs in the era's but most have gone by the time we get there and it does not take us long as we are normally only a junction away. |
| 170 | what do you KNOW about bullying? | I have been both a victim(at school) of bullying and as a witness, especially in the Prison Service, who have "unique" perspective on dealing with bullies. I hate bullies and will not tolerate it at all. If I see it in action, I WILL challenge it. It is not needed in civilized society says Tricky |
| 171 | s u p e r v i s o r s | Are they supervisors, who aim to build a team and happy working enviroment or are they just trying to build there own career and sod the rest of us? |
| 172 | Duty Garage or Own Recovery | Hi guys, I was just wondering about how you deal with the aftermath of a RTC and the vehicle is undrivable.. I have been told several things about this, First off I was told that if a vehicle had been involved in a RTC and needed recovery that we were to Duty Garage that vehicle so to get it off the network as quick as poss...... |
