Where Have All The Truckers Gone???

[Bionic Budgie]

Hi De HI Campers... Just an observation..where have all the truckers gone?? Over the past few months I have been making a note of CB Aerials spotted on them big wheelers.. I run the A14 East/West Trunk road running from the Midlands/M6/North/M1 thru to Felixstowe Docks and Harwich, a main trucking route. Over the last few years the number of trucks with visable cb aerials has fallen. So much so that travelling that road you'll be hard pushed to spot any! The CB channel 19 is dead as is the other 39. Even when there is a major accident the cb remains dead..where have all those truckers gone?? The only activity I hear is oversize loads using cb as a working radio to talk to the escort and they are using 446 uhf more and more. Looking a the good ole US of A..As far as I can tell, CB radios are the norm. Fitted to the truck at the factory and as vital in the running of the vehicle as the fifth wheel. Is this the same in other parts of the country? I believe that the UK has gone off CB radio, they would rather sit in their own little worlds listen to MP3s or the like. As a trucker mate of mine said..'with all the Russian crap, the noise from the trucks electronics..I just can't be doing with it' Has CB finally met its Waterloo

10.10 for now
Bionic Budgie
Diss 20

ps Even channel 28 around here has gone quiet..but thats because all the guys from there are now on channel 12 446UHF Freeband.

[Bionic Budgie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxOr7BAMcbg

[stampman]

no lots of trucking firms hit the dust in this downturn and drivers lost there jobs they are still on but most seem to stay on 1 channel makeing it very quite on the air ways

[Dragonfly]

Up till around the mid 90s the CB radio was our Facebook , Satnav , mobile phone , MSN , After windows 95 we got all these contraptions that relegated the CB to mainly chatting / fun hobby . The tipper drivers still use the CB a lot as they tent to run in convoys .

[wildfire]

hi all,

i personally think a lot of truckers have given up on the muppet band bcos of home base users playing music on 19 & also chatting on 19 & when really 14 was for home base users & 19 for truckers to ask for road reports & directions as there was a few people who would give them reply's to both,

now technology has become bigger with sat navs what most truckers use they don`t need a radio so they think personally i don`t think sat navs are all that good as i have used one & is always best to plan your journey a day ahead & of course radio will always be there best bet once we get rid of idiots off 19.

[Big A]

I'm between 2 major arterial routes in the East, the A140 and the A14. I have various radios running pretty much all the time and the regular 40 UKCB channels are deader than the last dodo. There may be an occasional couple of trucks passing through, or a couple of farm tractors in different fields chatting, but that's it. I guess serious truckers who had CB have moved to Ham licences, or use PMR to chat amongst themselves. Indeed, the 446 PMR seems busier now than ever before, ideal for local chats between vehicles without huge whips being necessary.
As I rarely take a radio out of the county, is this typical across the UK? Or is East Anglia a dead spot for CB? By CB, I mean full fat legal CB, not 11m SSB with 500w burners.

[needle bender]

11Metres is alive in Cornwall,and the southwest in general!!..And a few truckers are still to be found on 19 ukfm.But they are few, and far apart these days.. Mids/EU is the prefered band in my part of the world,and has been for a number of years....UHF446 is very busy around here also..but not as an 11metre alternative,all use is business only,with a few kids using the band in the early evening..Two UHF 934 users pop up once in awhile,(naughty)..It was never the best of bands around,but we had fun trying to make it work in the early days....Fun could also be had with the early 49-50mhz low power radios that predated cb radio in the sixties and seventies..A distance of half a mile to a mile was possible,and i'm sure others bettered it..not bad for a hundred milliwatts or so...Yeah,driving around the country i find 11 metres somewhat dead in places,while in other parts the lowlife are to be found on UK19...

[somersetboy]

There's still a few of us about in this area (Somerset and Dorset)

Here's a few company channels to keep you going

R W Prince (Road planning and the like) CH 5
TARMAC drivers (and franchisees) CH 17
Bardon Aggregates CH17 and sometimes CH22
J H Rose and Sons (General haulage mainly animal feeds and aggregates) CH15 and occasionally 22

Phillip Trim Contractors (liquids and farm contracting) CH6 and CH39

that's about all I've got at the moment.