My drives

A couple of pictures of what I've been driving:


One of my regular drives which I refer to as 'Big Bus' - A12UOD is a 17 seater VW Crafter


Another of my drives - a 15 seater Ford Transit

The VW Crafter is one of several vehicles owned by the University, all identified by their 'private' number plates. The rest are on short term lease by manufacturers (or their main dealers). A12UOD is 5 years old and has done 84k miles. The engine is strong, the gearbox is a rough old dog and it is prone to electrical failures, mostly down to faulty diagnostics reporting faults that do not exist. The Fords (I've driven several) have lovely gearboxes but the engines are weak and lacking the BHP of the VW which means that driving requires a whole load of gear changes. The VW also has a tow hitch which results in interesting reverses to park up the bus at the end of the day, ploughing the university verges where reversed in (as can be seen in the photo).

One thing that is taking some getting used to is driving on the digital tachograph. Getting the damned thing in the unit is a trial as it never wants to accept the card. Then the unit location, very low down, makes it very difficult to see what it says you are doing. Then remembering to to switch to rest period, sticking to driving hours and remembering to remove the card at the end of a shift. But I am getting there and staying inside the law.

Then there are the cars, the small stuff. Ford Fiestas, Focuses, Kugas and S-Maxes, Vauxhall Zafiras and Vivaro 9 seater minibuses with the most recent addition being a Fiat 500. The Vauxhalls are a pleasant surprise and way better than the models that preceeded them. All of the cars listed have their quirks but the one thing they have in common is factory fitted GPS satelite navigation which is virtually incomprehsible to use. Why? Because it is incorporated into the sound system (a mixture of AM/FM/DAB) and buttons have a dual use for the 2 seperate functions that results in making changing radio channel a time consuming hit and miss affair. My solution is to use those units for sounds only and use my personal sat nav for navigation as it is a purpose built tool and not a dual purpose piece of electrickery. I like the manual Kuga but not so keen on the automatic one, so overall the Vauxhalls get my vote over the Fords which (on past experiences) surprises me.