Pilot Vehicles

Yeah.......not bagging out all pilots but they seemed to have dropped their standards over the years.

Hairy

You are spot on re the last para of your OP. He should have held you there until it was quite apparent to you what the situation was, either visually OR by confirmation from you over the radio that you had received and understood the instruction re closed bridge.

Some pilots are very good - you can hear them approaching and interacting with oncoming vehicles so you know what to expect when it is your turn.

Others only seem bothered to directly talk with larger vehicles and so we rely on what they have said to these larger ones or occasionally we are treated as "large" as we are 2.4m wide.

It is this wide variation in approach that results in more confusion.

We "met" 2 houses on the Barrier Hwy early last week and there was no doubt about what was required - pilot vehicle - with UHF announcements on 40, followed by 2 Police escorts, the first straddling the centre line, the second in our lane :-)

The about 20 mins later, it was the turn of 2 dump trucks - again taking up both lanes

Cheers
Andrew

Maybe they have Hairy.... I retired my Troopy and sacked myself.

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Pop
When I was working I would go well out in front too, the reason is that in the North we have in Australia Road Trains, they need more time to find a good spot to pull over , especially Stock trucks , they need to keep the trailers on level ground, one fell over North of Emerald back in 2005, . Another problem can be Tankers , I was rear pilot on this Job Katherine to Adelaide River Railway Station, the 3rd Trailer loaded with Diesel fell over, lucky it was not Petrol or the highway would have been closed.





So again here is the results of the lead pilot not being far enough in front, we did have 1 Police escort but maybe 2 would have been ideal with 1 of the police well in front too.

So next time you visit the Adelaide River Rail Precinct and see the Fetlers House you'll know old Doug T helped get it there.

.

You might not try to pass a wide load but there are plenty of idiots that will cross into the other lane and onto the emergency stopping verge trying to look around or get past an 8 mtr wide load which I have seen happen a few times in the Bowen Basin that's why there is a pilot at the rear to protect people from their own stupidity.

I see. Hard to comprehend what goes through some peoples minds. Clearly a lot of idiots out there to justify the extra pilot. We caught a wide convey between Roma and Longreach. Instead of sitting behind them for ages we pulled over and had lunch and a rest. Back on the road again and never saw them since,

Come up to Mackay and do a few trips on the Peak Downs Hwy and you'll see what sort of idiots your sharing the road with.

Until you've done a serious amount of piloting and float driving as I have, you cannot grasp the idiocy of a sizeable proportion of the population when they get behind the wheel.

I've been waving oncoming traffic off onto the shoulder when I was piloting a 4.5M load South from Kalgoorlie to Kambalda - and an old bloke towing a 'van stopped dead in his tracks, right smack bang in his lane, and refused to move over.

I pulled up alongside him and said, "you'll have to pull off onto the shoulder, mate, there's a 4.5M wide load following".
His answer? "BUT! - BUT! - BUT!! - This is MY SIDE of the road!!"

My float driver had to slow right down and swerve around him, the idiot refused to move from his stopped position.

Another time, the driver of my 100 tonne float was travelling Perth to Kalgoorlie, doing about 70kmh with one of my Liebherr diggers on board (102 tonnes load and 4.3M wide) - and he pulled left as far as he could to let some traffic pass - and a woman in a Falcon towing a 'van tried to overtake him.

She ran off the shoulder of the bitumen, lost control, overcorrected, spun left, drove the Falcon into the RHF wheel of the Mack, and then promptly rolled the Falcon and 'van into the side of the truck!!

She flattened the RHF tyre of the Mack, ripped the RHF mudguard off and badly damaged one of the fuel tanks on the Mack.
Brad, my driver, had to try and bring the float to an emergency stop with a flat RHF tyre hampering his control - and worrying about where the car and 'van had ended up! (the Falcon ended up being thrown back off the road, and the woman and her passenger were only slightly injured).

I could fill pages with stories about stupidity involving wide loads, escorting, and clowns who won't stop for anything - but this isn't the place for it.

"I could fill pages with stories about stupidity involving wide loads, escorting, and clowns who won't stop for anything - but this isn't the place for it."
Be an interesting thread, though! Why not spend a few hours, compile it all and start a new thread "Idiots I have (almost) known!"

You're welcome!

Couldn't agree more Ron N. I probably have pasted you many times in my truck between Cunderdin and Perth. The things I've seen people do on the road. I just can't comprehend where they got lincence from. Errol

I can't speak for the other states - but in W.A., it used to be that when a load is wider than 4.9M, then a police escort was needed.

However, in W.A. police have now been removed from the job of escorting oversize, and appointed "traffic wardens" now carry out the job, using Govt-supplied escort vehicles.
These "traffic wardens are often recently retired police. My BIL is one.

In W.A., anyone wanting to pilot an oversize load must be an "accredited pilot" - i.e., they have to take an "accredited pilot" course and be approved by the Commissioner of Police in W.A.

It used to be that pilots were required to keep a minimum of 200M in front of the oversize vehicle. That requirement has now been deleted.

The instructions given to pilots about controlling oncoming traffic are hazy at best, and open to interpretation by the individual pilot.
There is a requirement to broadcast oversize dimensions on CH40 every 15 mins. However, possibly 2/3rds of the vehicles on the road don't carry a UHF, so it's up to the pilot to ensure he gives clear instructions to oncoming traffic.

In the case of tight fit passing areas, or extra wide loads, it always used to be standard technique to wave oncoming vehicles off onto the shoulder.
However a lot of pilots no longer seem to do this and rely on radio communications alone.
In the case of bridges and other narrow sections of road, it is up to the pilot to ensure that there's minimal possibility of conflict when passing oversize vehicles.

At a bare minimum, the pilot should be driving his vehicle in a position on the road, that indicates where the outside of the wide load is travelling.
In most cases, that means driving up the centre line and ensuring that oncoming traffic is braking and pulling over.
If the pilot sees a vehicle that has passed him and it isn't pulling over, he should be warning the driver of the oversize load via radio.

Most pilots are responsible - however the sheer boredom of piloting gets to many pilots and they sometimes slacken off their attention to the job and fail to alert oncoming traffic in time.

I've been caught on the eastern part of the Eyre Hwy in Western S.A. in the late 1990's - I was travelling West with a 3.5M load (no escort needed) and rounding a bend in timbered country at about 80kmh, when a pilot suddenly appeared and flashed past me about 100kmh.

I grabbed the mike and asked how wide he was, and as he came back instantly with "5.2M!" - the wide load suddenly appeared in front of me, going like the clappers!

It was a tight section of road, and we only just missed each other!
I was annoyed that the pilot was so close to his oversize load - it could have disastrous if we'd passed where the road clearance was inadequate. As it was, we were both hanging off the edge of the shoulder, with no more room to spare.

Bob, I'd like to believe you on the truck driver professionalism, but unfortunately, the number of serious truck accidents on a weekly basis leads me to believe the professionalism of a percentage is in doubt.

One of the most amazing things I've ever sighted - I was driving South down the Roe Hwy from Midland in the late 1990's and coming up to the Gt Eastern Hwy bypass, T-junction on the right.

To my utter amazement, I spotted a complete, 1950's HOUSE, sitting right on the centre median strip, in the middle of Roe Hwy!

I got to the scene, trying to figure out why a house would be sitting on a median strip in the centre of Roe Hwy? - then it suddenly dawned on me what had happened.

A house transporter moving the house had been coming East up the Gt Eastern Hwy Bypass, and had barrelled full-speed into a left turn into Roe Hwy on the green light.

The house was sitting on steel beams on the float - and the chains had snapped when he wheeled her around the corner too fast - and the entire house and steel beams had just slid straight off the float - and landed perfectly in one piece on the centre median strip, in the middle of Roe Hwy!!

I reckon he wouldn't have lived that one down for a lot of years to come!

Cheers, Ron.

Bob,

That truck and trailer looks familiar, can you remember who the House Remover was, if it is the one I am thinking it would have only been on the trailer as he had only just replaced his truck.


Cheers Kev

No Kev, didn't notice any name on it at the time.

Just blew the original up, and the trailer doesn't appear to have a name on it, at least not on the side. The prime mover has blue flames on front of bunk, door and the bonnet, if that sounds familiar? Also been "tricked" up with those LED headlights, and some extra bling on the windscreen protector.

Bob

Thanks Bob,

It looks very much like the truck and trailer set up of Bill Chappell a House remover from Tara.
He moved a house from Mackay to Muckadilla and was curious if this was the house :)

Cheers Kev

Ron

Early 1990's, probably 1994 , I remember it. The other half was parked on the side for a few days following it.

Alan - Yes, that's probably the correct year, I thought it was later in the '90's.
I do remember now, I was driving my HDJ80, and I sold that in 1995.
And yes, I do recall the other half of the load sitting by the side of the Roe Hwy for a few days after the "interesting event".
My workshop was in Bellevue at that time, in Military Rd, so I was hanging around the area a lot, all through the 90's.