…and less pollution!
Brixton Liveable Neighbourhood and LTN schemes - improvements for pedestrians and cyclists
- Thread starter teuchter
- Start date
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
And who has said that plumbers shouldn’t drive? You clearly haven’t read - or understood - the post about Pimlico Plumbers.
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
He clearly hasnt understood how pimlico plumbers work. Let's see
1.) Comment about operating form a single base and going all over London. No. they have an office in Lambeth. The drivers don't 'punch in' collect their van and drive out. They take the vans home and they get sent to where they are closest. Most already are working loclal. Its not like a bus depot - they may have a few facilities there but not parking for hundreds of vans. No trade works liek that. Not british gas, not virgin, none of them i'm aware of.
2.) Obligatory 'here's a guy who does it on a bike' comment. hint hint wink wink did i mention cycling yet.
3.) Failing to grasp the equipment a tradesperson carries and that most can't/wont turn down work that isn't local. Think of the last two years or boilers not getting swapped out, maintained, serviced, certified. Plumbers dont live on leaky taps.
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
Yep - no vision for how things could be better or any actual care about air pollution.
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
Yeah. Who cares about people's jobs or needs. Why stop at private car journeys under a few km. Take some pot shots at people trying make a living too.
pretty much the LTNs summed up. Disregard for people and absolute ignorance...but hey heres a vision
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teuchter
je suis teuchter
Guess what: if the aim is to have fewer vehicles driving around, then people need to drive vehicles around less. And that means that businesses need to change their work patterns.
If it still somehow makes commercial sense for a plumber to drive 20 miles across Europe's biggest city from Uxbridge to south London, that suggests to me that the problem we have with our transport set-up is not that we are making it too hard for commercial vehicles to move around in pursuit of business - it suggests the opposite.
If it still somehow makes commercial sense for a plumber to drive 20 miles across Europe's biggest city from Uxbridge to south London, that suggests to me that the problem we have with our transport set-up is not that we are making it too hard for commercial vehicles to move around in pursuit of business - it suggests the opposite.
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
Assuming people can change their work patterns. the issue is trying to force a change and assuming its too easy to move around when really its just people trying to earn money. On yer bike was a phrase I heard growing up and it wasnt about actually getting on your bike it was getting out there and going to where the work is. Its not always local.
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teuchter
je suis teuchter
Changing work patterns is pretty much fundamental to the nature of any business. No-one's work patterns stay static. Unless you never want anything to change ever, then you have to accept that the context within which businesses work will change over time. Anyone in the building trade is constantly subject to the need to change work patterns whether it's in response to technological changes, or changes to H&S legislation, or changes to building regulations.
Of course you can't change things so drastically that it's simply impossible for anyone to adapt quickly enough to avoid going under, or in such a way that it puts people under unreasonable stress.
Are these changes of that nature? No I don't think they are.
Can and will people adapt? Yes they will. Look at your facebook friend. They are choosing jobs closer together to each other now, instead of driving around on what are supposed to be residential streets in order to get between jobs.
Doesn't look like it's about to send that particular trader bankrupt, and much of this difficulty is overstated - but yes for sure, changes are inevitably going to be difficult for some people at least in the short term.
That's what you have to balance against the benefits of the changes being made. If you don't believe in those benefits then of course you will be of the opinion that the difficulties they cause are unreasonable.
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
Who cares about pollution or the planet?.
Why should we design things around whats best for business?
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
You say that but you've posted up a plumber saying he has loads of local jobs?
sparkybird
ask the bird...
I never had a problem with charging more for some jobs that were difficult to access eg 4th floor no lift, congestion zone, limited parking. Customers understand the issues and accept that they will pay a bit extra.
You need to be adaptable to many things, LTNs being just one.
sparkybird
ask the bird...
Did anyone suggest otherwise? Of course most trades require motorised transport (although increasingly clever people are finding ways to work without). The point is that my mileage was really low because I only took local work. And for some jobs I could walk to quote and deliver tools to the site and walk or bus to the job if it was more than a few days.
thebackrow
Considerably more Brixton.
They seem to have an awful lot of space up at Sail Street now - what looks like their own van repair workshop and about 5 arches under the railway opposite, most of which look like they can be driven into (you can see a load of cars parked in one of them) Google Maps
Yes, it's true that most plumbers drive around in VW Transporter vans (like the Pimlico guys), but it's a completely different question whether they actually need to. I've done a lot of plumbing work myself, and paid people to fit boilers and radiators. None of the work I've done or seen done has needed anything more than a normal sized toolbox - which is why there are quite a few plumbers operating using box bikes now who just get pipe/radiators/boiilers delivered direct to site.
Maybe you can try to carry every part you might ever need for a job - the Spin Doctor presumably has the odd washing machine repair that's runs so far over time he can't make it home (due to the LTNs) and has to sleep in the rooftop bed of the camper van he drives around in.
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
Yeah, when I used the spin doctor he had me order the part off the net to my home.
Washing machines and boilers are so specialised now there's no way tradespeople would have stock of all the parts.
On the one occasion we did use pimlico plumbers to fix a simple leak under the sink he informed us he didn’t have the parts either and would have to go to the shop to get them - charging his hourly rate... They are more salespeople than anything else.
Washing machines and boilers are so specialised now there's no way tradespeople would have stock of all the parts.
On the one occasion we did use pimlico plumbers to fix a simple leak under the sink he informed us he didn’t have the parts either and would have to go to the shop to get them - charging his hourly rate... They are more salespeople than anything else.
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
Oh now you take anecdotal comments as gospel. Weird
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
If they know what the job will entail and its local sure. However they often rarely get more information other than 'boiler not working', 'I have a leak'. They also get calls while on jobs which could be for anything.
I had a leak which I thought was a valve as the water was under the radiator. Turns out it was the pipe under the floor. Old, corroded. He had the carpet up, he had the flooring up, the skirting had to come off, he had piping in his van, he had the tools to bend the pipes in his van. He had sealant / glue to put the skirting back on. One visit, good work. The nature of their role is to expect anything and get things fixed.
They are the amazon prime of fixing things. Yes I can be there, yes I have everything, yes it will get fixed today.
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
I looked on their website, they have a car wash and maintenance area. Makes sense given the size of their fleet. I can't see any company being able to park some 300 work vans.
I only see one van there & the parking under the arches looks like office parking as it's all cars
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
No, you're just contradicting yourself.
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
You posted up this:
And posted up a post by a tradesperson saying that they had loads of local work.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Not only that but that they are changing their travel habits in response to the LTNs, so that they are driving around less.
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
The topic i took this from was all about how tradespeople are attending less jobs because of the LTNs. Two let their helpers / apprentices go because of the reduction in jobs. Note he says ~IF~ he has jobs. If it's LTN or nothing they will do it.
He changed his habits in response to keeping his living going. Not all have. Not all can. See the gent who owns Atlantic bakery - how can he adapt?
See second picture for example of how these 'small five minute detours' are actually not five minutes.
He changed his habits in response to keeping his living going. Not all have. Not all can. See the gent who owns Atlantic bakery - how can he adapt?
See second picture for example of how these 'small five minute detours' are actually not five minutes.
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teuchter
je suis teuchter
The journey he says took 1hr 35 minutes, Google just now tells me should take about 9 minutes.
Do you think that journey always takes them 1hr 35mins or do you think he's picked an extreme example that happened once, as a result of things that may or may not have had much to do with the LTNs?
Jeanette Moo
Active Member
I think when someone gives an example its an example. Given their comments, the comments of local tradespeople, Pimlico plumbers donating to Sonia's court action I think they have their finger on the pulse and they are all wondering if this project it worth it and when is it supposed to get better?
BigTom
Well-Known Member
tbf on a friday at 3pm.. but then you can set google to a day/time and see what traffic is like on average then:
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