So out and about this week in God's Own Country (Copyright every Yorkshireman in the world ever) and once again I'm virtually reduced to tears by Leeds' road network. I don't think there's another city in the country outside of perhaps London that so regualrly drives me to steering-wheel-chewing fury and silent weeping. I can only imagine its road layout was designed on a friday afternoon after one too many pints of Tetley beer at lunchtime given the frequency with which confusion is engendered in the poor driver. The chief bug-bear is the way lanes suddenly switch with no apparent warning. You can quite happily be waiting at a set of traffic lights confident that your vehicle is pointing in the right direction when 100yds down the road suddenly the lane you want is three traffic-choked carraigeways to your right. This doesn't seem to happen once or twice but at every other junction, until you are swept along by the tide of grim-faced commuters until you end up in Hunslett or Beeston or somewhere far, far away from your intended destination.
And don't get me started on the city centre loop either. It seems that you need to speed round and round and round until you attain escape velocity some hours later.

Everybody knows that trying to drive anywhere on a Friday night, unless you live in somewhere like Wick in the north of Scotland, is difficult at best. Well this weekend's trip away to the Brecon Beacons was enlivened by all manner of traffic chaos.

The problem of foreign trucks on UK motorways isn't just one of poor maintenance and overworked drivers. I refer, of course, to the rising issue of blindside wipe-outs by left hand drive trucks.

Once again, this morning, the M25 is brought to a standstill because a foreign drivers seem to find it difficult to manoeuvre between lanes without crunching a car! I know driving left-hookers on our busy roads is a tricky business, both as a professional truck driver and as a road tester I've had to do it, but the current levels of incompetence are reaching giant proportions. The hours wasted this morning/every morning and night as a result of these accidents is now beyond a joke.

The past three days have seen me travel the full length of England, from just North of Brighton to Gretna and back, a process which can have its tedious spells. Fortunately, reading the back end of trucks can relieve the monotony. A few highlights written in the dirt included "No valuables carried on this vehicle - driver married" and "your skid stops here" on the back of a Moffett Mounty. My favourite was included in the sign writing on the back of this timber merchant's truck, offering Computerised Cad Design!

I wonder how many operators of 7.5 tonners actually realise that they have a little over two weeks to limit their trucks to 56mph?
The new legislation, which comes into force on January 1, 2007, applies to almost every commercial vehicle above 3.5 tonnes that was registered between October 1, 2001 and December 31, 2004. At a rough estimate we are talking about 40,000 7.5-tonners and as many as 18,000 large vans. A year later the regulations will also be applied to those registered after December 31, 2004.
But should someone break the law and fail to limit their vehicles to 56mph, what will the punishment be? That's exactly what I've been trying to discover for the past week, but VOSA is proving extremely unhelpful. All I have managed to find out is that a non-restricted vehicle will fail its MOT.

I've been doing a load of radio interviews this morning to promote our new website. Inevitably, given The Mirror's double-page spread in today's issue, the talk tended to focus on congestion.

As a result of the calls and emails I've received since the first interviews were broadcast, I reckon it's about time we opened up the debate about congestion, congestion charging and the whole pay as you go issue.

Commercial Motor’s investigation on speed cameras in the 25 January issue has certainly gripped many readers wanting to express their views. It looked at whether speed cameras reduce accident rates, or whether they were just revenue raising exercises. A concrete answer was impossible to fine, as there are so many other factors which need to be taken into account when analysing statistics – increased vehicle safety, increase in traffic volume, speed camera site are only one small section from an entire road, etc.
Time to open up the debate:

I'm not normally a particularly active political creature, but the prospect of the national road charging scheme could change that. I spent this morning's thinking time in the shower to calculate the financial impact on my household, based on the projected figures being suggested. For my 50 mile daily round trip and the wife's 40 miles, neither of which has a realistic public transport alternative, I arrived at a round figure of £25,000 (no, that isn't a misprint!) of pre-tax income per year, just to get to work. That's based on my 30 miles of motorway and 20 miles of B-roads each day likely to cost £40/day.This fact will probably have one of two outcomes - either I'll be going to prison, or I'll be retiring 10 years early and spongeing off the state for the rest of my life. I certainly don't intend to be robbed by the government on this scale.

When you consider that we already have a perfectly good system (fuel duty) that ensures that those with the thirstiest vehicles, travelling at the most congested times, already pay more than those with economy cars travelling on deserted roads, road charging can have no justification other than to increase taxation on road users by a factor of 25. And who really wants the government to know where they are every second of the day? The only problem with George Orwell's 1984 is that he was 25 years out but lacked enough imagination to see how far it would go.

If you don't want to end up being a victim of the last straw, sign the petition this week, before it's too late.

The headlines said that transport minister Stephen Ladyman wants to charge overseas trucks for using UK roads. Everyone in the industry would agree with that. But the story is not quite what it seems.

You will no doubt be amazed to know that the UK is apparently not free to set its own rate for this daily charge (or vignette). I asked Ladyman about this at a press conference and he said that under the Treaty of Rome the rate for the Eurovignette is set by Brussels. Can't we set our own rate? No, said the Minister.

I pointed out that if UK hauliers go to France, they have to pay tolls to use motorways and France is free to set its own motorway toll rate. But the Minister was not moved.
What it means is that the daily charge could be just £5.40 a day. The scheme is likely to raise about £40 million a year. UK operators will have the money refunded by reductions in VED. Despite the headlines, it may not happen because all Ladyman really announced was that a feasibility study is being commissioned.

But the real reason for this interest in a daily charge is to compile a register of overseas trucks coming into the UK, so that they can be sent a fine if they commit an offence over here. Again that sounds good but is VOSA really going to extract the money from overseas truck operators when they are back at base. It would be good if they could.

So the story is more complicated than it appears. It is remarkable that the UK cannot set its own rates for charging for the use of our motorways. Or maybe the Government is just not trying hard enough.

It is ironic that the UK is free to set the highest fuel duty rates in Europe, but when we want to charge for the use of our roads, we are limited to what Brussels says.

This week's Commercial Motor investigation asks the question as to whether the UK should introduce a system to tax foreign vehicles entering the UK.

The Department for Transport is still considering all options, though is not ruling out the possibility of a vignette.
Belgium, Luxemburg, Sweden, The Netherlands and Denmark have the Eurovignette system, whereas Germany and Austria have gone electronic.
Should the UK adopt either of these systems or follow the French and Italian example and introduce copious amounts of tolls on the motorways.

We would be very interested in your views on this matter, so please comment below or email me at dylan.gray@rbi.co.uk

An Indian low-loader driver has caused chaos in the centre of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) rather than be guilty of bridge-bashing. Faced with a flyover too low for his load of a decommissioned Boeing 737, and unable to reverse out, he left his truck and hasn't been seen since. See the full story on BBC News.

This DHL Tradeteam trailer looks neatly uncoupled and parked on the hard shoulder of the M25 near J10 earlier this afternoon. But read on .....

The closure of roads for hours after an accident is becoming a serious problem for the haulage industry. It is difficult enough to run an efficient transport operation and delivery on time. But now roads are increasingly being closed for hours, or even days, after a major accident.
This has a disastrous effect on the industry as trucks are stuck in huge queues with no chance of taking an alternative route. Drivers run out of hours and an operator’s whole schedule falls to pieces.
I recall that a few years ago at a FTA conference, a senior policeman said that major accidents, particularly those involving fatalities, are now treated as a crime scene.
This is understandable, but not practical. All to often roads are kept closed for an excessive time.
The Police clearly need enough time to investigate, and clear the road. But they need to keep the closure time to a minimum
A letter in the Daily Telegraph sums up the issue very well. That said: “Sir - I was stuck in motionless traffic on the M4 recently and realised there had been an accident. The radio told us that the air ambulance had taken the victims to hospital and that some investigations needed to be carried out. Yet what about the welfare of the people who were left stationary between junctions 14 and 15 for four hours until dark?
People were walking up and down the carriageway between the cars and on the hard shoulder, many exercising themselves, dogs and small children. There was always the risk from traffic in the opposite direction but it was not reasonable to expect us to stay cooped up in our vehicles when we had no idea for how long.

I particularly felt for those with children, and the elderly. There was no refreshment for anyone except what some happened to have with them. Most had at some time climbed over fences seeking privacy to relieve themselves, risking injury in the process. If it had been a hot day many could have collapsed from dehydration.

Surely there should be some rule that considers the welfare of those in the queue and enough space cleared to take the traffic round the accident and/or off the motorway, albeit slowly, no matter how bad it is?

Read the full letter (Procedures that close roads for hours)

The big news of the day is the apparent abandonment of the national road pricing scheme. According to today’s Daily Telegraph: “The retreat will be signalled by the Department for Transport this week in response to a back bench committee's report into the draft Local Transport Bill.”
The Telegraph is calling this a U-turn and says” The department will add: "We agree that there are congestion problems on parts of the strategic road network, but 88 per cent of congestion is in urban areas. Therefore it is sensible to prioritise the assessment of road pricing in these areas."
If this is true, it is a major development. When I was editor of Motor Transport our policy was that the scheme was worth a proper trial but the Government seemed to be determined to push it though whether it would work or not. It is certainly a hugely expensive project based on very little knowledge or research of how it would work.
But if it is cancelled, we have to think about plan B. My own view is that over time people will by themselves find ways to avoid congestion. If roads are overcrowded people will either use more public transport or travel less.
People will work nearer their home and families will stay in the same area. People and work places may also move away from the heavily overcrowded areas in the south east and move to Scotland and the north. People (and trucks) will increasingly travel at night and delivery in urban areas at night.
But these big chances take time and we also need to invest in building more roads and stopping bottle necks and keep the motorways open.
There is a case for a proper trial of road charging to properly assess its possible impact.

The BVRLA, the rental and leasing association has issued a press release saying the move may be less of a retreat and more of a tactical withdrawal.

If you have to drive in London, you will not be surprised that it has the slowest-moving traffic in Europe at just 12 mph. If you were delivering in Hamburg, however, you could zip through the streets at more than 50. Manchester is positively speedy with a 19mph average and in Newcastle Upon Tyne races ahead at 26mpg, according to a new survey by keepmoving.co.uk Still, there is a bright side. You will never be snapped by a speed camera if you keep to the average London speed. Meanwhile London Mayor Ken Livingstone plans to remove speed bumps (hurray) and replace them with 20mph zones policed by wireless average speed traffic camera. Still again at 12 with the average speed of just 12 miles per hour in London, no car will be caught as they will all be less than 20 mph.
Incidentally average speed cameras are now the big new thing with lots of new cameras springing up. You can see what they look like and where they are at Speed Cameras UK web site.

The keepmoving.co.uk web site is also worth visiting.

The Sun newspaper, as well as many others, had a wonderful report about a Czech driver who got stuck for three days after being trapped by a narrow road after following his sat-nav system
But it is not only a problem for overseas hauliers; many UK trucks have been trapped because they are using sat.nav systems used by cars. Until recently there has been no mapping available with the details of all the weight, height and width restrictions in the UK.
But such software is now coming on the market. A couple of weeks ago NAVTEQ launched a comprehensive system for the UK.This will be a big relief to many hauliers who want to use sat.nav but have not been able to because of the lack of a suitable system.
There has been a big problem with drivers buying their portable systems and I know of at least one major logistics company that has had to fire drivers after they hit rail bridges by following routes on systems designed by cars.
The cost of sat.nav has fallen dramatically and it will make sense for it to be fitted into trucks – if the cost justifies it.

Recently the e Daily Telegraph recently produced a list of all the transport policies since the Labour party came into power in 1997. The most recent, published last week, is the 9th transport strategy paper since then and, according paper, “failed to reach clear conclusions on issues like new road-building, instead promising only a fresh wave of consultations.”
You can get an idea how dreary the latest document - called -Towards a Sustainable Transport System: Supporting Economic Growth in a Low Carbon World - is from this extract. “By December 2008 we will publish a White Paper, setting out our decisions on the objectives and
challenges, and on option-generation. From January 2009 The focus will then shift to generating a range of options to address the challenges on the local, national and international networks. In this phase of the work, the views of transport ‘practitioners’ will assume greater importance. We will need the input of providers of transport services, suppliers (such as vehicle or rolling stock manufacturers and construction companies) and financiers. Their expertise is critical, because they know what solutions are most likely to be practical and affordable.”
It goes on for 90 dreary and boring pages.

You would never think from this that our road and transport system is in crisis with cars and trucks suffering from serious congestion and trains being over priced and overcrowded.
Read it yourself and you will see what I mean.

Is your suspension taking a hammering? Are you bouncing up and down in the cab? The weather has certainly taken its toll on Britain's roads and it is in a 'hole' lot of trouble (some might say it's all gone to pot - Ed).  We want your pictures of the worst potholes in Britain, so get emailing to yourpics@roadtransport.com

The deeper they are, or the more inconveniently located, the better.

The best shots will appear on www.roadtransport.com