Any van drivers or lorry drivers with varifocals?

pintspiller

I scraped up the side of a parked car at work on Tuesday when driving with a trailer behind the van out of our compound. I work with learning disabled and had one as co-pilot. Was relying on him to help but I guess that was a mistake.

Anyway, annual review with my supervisor this afternoon and boss comes in asking if I have vision problems (in a nice way, no guns blazing or anything). I said no. We both wear specs so he knows the drill.

Just wondering if it could be a varifocal thing. I know my reading element probably needs upped. I believe it was just poor judgement but asking incase something similar happened to others.

EricTheWeary

I wear varifocals and drive my camper ( 7.4m long so it’s bigger than most vans). The problem I have with varifocals is walking downstairs, if my eyes are a bit tired the steps are in the blurry bit. I guess your blurry bit might be where the van hit the car. However, assuming you whacked the car with one of the rear corners of the van it’s a pretty common thing to do. 

https://i.imgur.com/YI64S63.jpg

That may or may not have been me hitting an Italian tourist’s car that parked next to me a few years ago. 

ToneControl

Varifocals are a nightmare for driving, I will only use them for short journeys in good daylight.
I have the best ones you can get (Zeiss personally measured and fitted ones - about £600 a pair), and even those have blurry areas at the sides, normal ones are shite.

Funkfingers

Varifocal lenses create distortions and aberrations that can affect the wearer's ability to judge distances and angles. They can also create the illusion of movement where none has occurred.

I once had a pair of varifocal prescription safety specs for work on an oil refinery. They made the process columns appear to bend and wiggle about. Very strange.

pintspiller

Rubbed side of front bumper against corner of their rear bumper. No marks on mine. Couple of paint scrapes on theirs and gouge length of hand and depth of half finger.

I used to have bother with stairs. I just don't look at my feet any more.

TTony

If they’re full range varifocals, I found getting the sweet spot to be a pita.

I have separate pairs for different ranges now.  Reading to screen length pair are great for close use but bugger all use for anything much further away.  Mid to long distance are great for that (incl driving), but can’t be used for reading.

By “great” I mean less distortion at the edges and less moving of head around to get the right viewing angle through the lenses.  They’re just easier to use, as long as you put the right pair on for the task at hand.  Or the task out in the distance.

EricTheWeary

I’ve been glasses shopping this morning, according to the young woman you do need the best varifocals for driving. Or reading. Or sitting on your arse. Anyway, she made a bit of a point about which ones so you have the best peripheral vision when driving. 

Jota

I sell them for a living and I can tell you 90% of what I sell are the cheap ones and I hardly have complaints about using them driving or anything else.

ToneControl

I tried the 3 different levels that boots sell in their normal range, and the Asda ones. All not good enough

pintspiller

I got the assistant at Specsavers to look at my specs but all she was able to do was check the legs were right and adjust my nose pads. My biennial test is due in Sept so I booked it for next Saturday.

Bellycaster

I'm fine with Varifocals whilst driving, it's all these other fuckers driving the wrong way up the Motorway that can't see properly