Has anyone else witnessed hgv drivers overtaking other hgvs going approx half a mile an hour faster. M1 between J30 and J27. Took him 14 minutes to overtake. Again travelling home from Wiltshire on A420 dual carriageway stupid hgv drivers blocking both lanes for miles. Lorry drivers are the worst drivers on the roads today and should be made to use ONLY the inside lane of any road.
Lorry Drivers
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25-08-07 22:24
There are good and bad in all walks of life be it lorries,cars,busses etc,a little unfair to tarnish them all with the same brush,i could easily say the same about car drivers,but have come to realise that some genuinly dont know the problems that they are causing to not only bigger vehicles but others too,and no i dont drive a lorry but i can see where you are comming from,unfortunatly courtesy seems to be disapearing fast on the roads,i have found that if you are thoughtfull then perhaps it may rub off on others not quite so blessed with it,also realise that there are also those out there as you have mentioned that dont give a hoot about anyone else but their selves.:( -
29-08-07 12:54Point ?
Is there a reason why HGV's shouldn't overtake any other vehicles on the road ?
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29-08-07 12:58Erm ......
Then how will you get any of your food etc ?. A bit of thought about what you suggest might not go amiss , bit of ridiculous statement :rolleyes:
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29-08-07 13:55they should be allowed to overtake on motorways i believe but when its 2 carrageway roads they should avoid it unless there is a big enough difference between the speed otherwise you get traffic building up behind them and could be bad if emergency services needed to get through
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29-08-07 14:09
same way they did before trains :D there was thought put into i said my point end of :D -
29-08-07 21:47
Hummm sadly no longer possible since the work of Richard Beeching :(
Maybe more thought is necessary then :rolleyes: -
29-09-07 12:20overtaking probs
As a former coach driver, we too are restricted as lorries. The use of govenors fitted to engines to limit them all to exactly the same speed is the biggest problem. An empty vehicle on a slight slope has a momentum advantage over a loaded one, however this is soon overcome by the heavier vehicle and they both reach 'limiter' speed again, causing two lanes to be congested. On top of that, they have stopped coaches using the third lane. This is because trapped at 60 mph in the third lane would stop you 100 mph boys from playing, :p and how good are your brakes? And how solid is the back of my bus. :D
Incidentally, European motorways of two lanes, (and some three lane), have sections (uphill & downhill) where large vehicles are limited to the nearside lane only. -
01-10-07 12:37heard a lorry driver say they get annoyed with cars as when they goto overtake another lorry and change there mind say if the other lorry goes a bit faster or if there suddenly going uphill they sometimes cant pull back in because there is a car sitting too close behind them. good point i think
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01-10-07 13:06If these lorries and buses are limited by goveners to the same speed why do they try to overtake one another ?.:confused:
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02-10-07 08:10as polar king says weight differences could make quite a significant difference over speed plus they have time limits i think and it must be boring just sitting there looking at the back of the same lorry for miles and miles
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16-10-07 12:58
Its there Job too jobs arent designed to be fun, well some are! lorry driving isnt one they get paid alot too,Lorrys have loads of features these days,TV,radio microwave,CB radio talk to the driver in frontetc etc -
17-10-07 20:01An immotive subject !
I speak as one who has an HGV1, and also a few advanced driving certificates for cars/vans at speed. I dont make my living from driving trucks. I recently changed jobs from one that saw me do around fifty thousand miles a year.
It can be frustrating to be stuck behind another vehicle when you want to get on. If your a car driver stuck behind a truck who tries to overtake another truck (probably because the truck in front is frustrated to be stuck behind the truck in front of him), then your time is valuable to you and you dont want to waste it.
Planners of multi lane carriage ways should consider how the roads are to be used. In Europe, its not uncommon to see a sign thats prohibits trucks from using lanes 2 or 3, but we dont see them so often here.
I manage to chill out by just easing back from the vehicle in front, and hoping that Ill get home in one piece. After all we all pay our road tax (and its quite a lot for trucks) and we all need the goods that they convey. The difference between the reduced speed of 50 from your previous speed of 70 for a quarter of an hour is around five miles (which when your back at 70 again is probably less than five minutes delay).
Personally I dont know what I do with the extra five minutes and thankfully my day is not so closely upset by the loss of these extra mins.
I wonder if it would be worth considering asking your MP to look into this for you (after all its what we pay them for) from a road safety angle. Frustrated drivers make rash decisions, which lead to crashes or road rage incidents.
Just my take on the situation..... -
24-10-07 15:12
I suggest you spend a day with a class 1 driver. You haven't stated what vehicle you drive or whether you are a professional driver. The M1 between j30 and j27 is three lanes. i suggest you use the third lane or are you one of these drivers who doesn't have enough confidence to overtake vehicles by using the third lane? -
26-10-07 08:45I have sometimes wondered why an HGV driver bothers to pass another when their difference in speed is negligible.
But, after giving thought to the car drivers who must pass another who is already doing 75 mph, and yet another who must go still faster, why all the fuss about the overtaking lorry driver? He is no worse (perhaps not even as bad as) those speeding drivers. -
27-10-07 13:29As 'professional' drivers, I think the average lorry driver behaves in an appalling manner. Due to the size and weight of their vehicles, I believe that they have a duty to 'clean up their act' in a big way. I have lost count of the times I have seen them blindly following each other in convoy with only a couple of feet between them on the M25. (Including in poor visibility.) Similarly, on the M25, I have on a number of occasions had to brake or swerve to avoid them pulling out on me when I have been overtaking. (Within the speed limit I add). I have seen their 'convoy' action described above, force joining traffic from slip roads have to stop because of them. I have had a vehicle written off because of a sleeping lorry driver, and how often do we see them running half on the hard shoulder? I have seen them pull out of the 'crawler' lanes on M1 and M25 to overtake, joining other lanes as speeds as low as 10mph into 50 mph traffic. As to the argument of 'needing' them, we had a rail and waterway system which worked once, and with the influx of cash could work again.
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28-10-07 19:06Sorry, but I am not prepared to choose a category. The general standards of driving are appalling right across the whole spectrum of drivers. I don't claim to be perfect, and I don't claim to never make a mistake. But I do drive within the capabilities of my vehicle and myself. This doesn't mean I am a slow driver. I try to keep to speed limits, and use the maximum when it is safe to do so. But I also leave myself room for manoeuvre, which means I do not put my passengers, myself and others at risk.
When I see two drivers have a "near miss", it is invariably the one at fault who mouthes off the most. So, before criticising others, it is wise to check yourself out first. -
04-01-08 02:33Get a life
Whoever it is who keeps slating lorry drivers obviously is jealous to the fact they don't have the skill and maturity it takes to become one, i myself deliver frozen food stuffs to regional distribution centres where you have to be within 30 minutes of your booking time else you are rejected and have to drive back to your base at unbelievable costs to the company (and enviroment due to more fuel used), yes our cabs are fitted with microwaves,cookers,fridges,satellite tv's....don't you have this in your home???...i sleep in my truck on average 5 nights a week so why shouldn'y i have the comforts of home..we all hear you slating truckers but i bet your not complaining when your sat thier on your sofa watching your fatass tv with a beer in your hand ...how do you think these items get to you?..ofcourse thier are some ******* drivers but this isn't just truckers, why about you idiots out thier who just "have" to make sure you overtake us...i myself know the stopping distance of my truck loaded and unloaded, when some boyracer cuts infront of me approaching an island he narrows my distance by half maing me braking alot harder causing the same effect for everyone behind me..is that my fault to ?...get off your band wagon and give us a break for a change will ya... -
04-01-08 10:45Too simplistic
I think it's too simplistic to ask are they good/bad. As with all classes of driver there are both good AND bad. I think, however, that there should be some legislative help here (and, to be open, I speak as a car driver): LGVs should be prevented from using the outside lane of 2 carriageway dual-carriageways/motorways because of the frustration, and hence danger from frustrated drivers, they cause behind them when they take 2 miles to overtake another LGV also travelling on a slightly differently callibrated limiter. The worse bit of road I know for this is the 2 carriageway section of the M3 between Winchester and Basingstoke. I think a good case could also be made for sections of 'normal' motorway to restrict them to lane 1 only on uphill sections as is often the case on the continent. -
04-01-08 13:16i'm sorry but thats just ridiculous, LGV's road tax is quite a sum of money, it's not a vehicle usedd to go do the shopping,go on holiday, go to the doctors, it a working vehicle which is needed to keep this country moving, if you get so frustrated about being delayed an extra 5 mins to get home well thats just tough im afraid, maybe you should car share with someone taking another car off the road, cars are the problem here (not the drivers) the roads today are far too busy and are getting busier by the day, you just need to look at the docks and see how many millions of cars are coming into the country every single day...we might take 5 minutes to overtake the other lorry driver but our journeys and our vehicles are essential journeys...is yours???
people really need to start asking themselves this question...do i really really need to use the car...can i not share my journey with others ?
This is the problem that needs addressing.....not "oh lets blame the truka".. -
04-01-08 14:52I have driven lorries, both before the introduction of the HGV, and since, under the agricultural tax exclusion. I have also driven mobile plant vehicles weighing more than the average articulated set-up, both on and off motorways. I have driven a tank transporter loaded with a 55-ton Chieftain tank, and a variety of armoured tracked and wheeled vehicles. These were all work-related, and I have to say that I cannot recall a single journey I undertook without at some point looking in a mirror and seeing another lorry tailgating me, or slowing down because of an aggressive driver struggling to overtake.
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04-01-08 16:34
Oh dear, we have got our knickers in a knot haven't we! I would hope that you react more calmly when driving your truck! Two points:
1. You talk about 'essential' journeys etc and say that if it takes an extra 5 mins then 'that's tough' - if that's the case is it essential that one truck driver needs to take miles to overtake another when it will save even less time than that? Think it through!
2. To follow that up, since trucks are limited to the 'same' speed, and cars are the problem, how about we give trucks a road to travel on all of their own, we could even link them together if they all do the same speed...we could call it a ... now let me think....TRAIN. -
04-01-08 16:40hey what a fantastic idea...lets use trains......
hmmm...just trying to think how i could get a train into the centre of every single town and city in the UK...think that one through,.,..atleast use your brain when replying on this forum!!! -
04-01-08 16:53
So now we have to resort to abuse! I do hope you're more considerate and even tempered when driving a truck. Ok, here's using my brain, along with capital letters and some punctuation, use trains to take freight from ports etc to depots, rather than trucks on busy motorways with cars in the way, from which smaller trucks can deliver into city centres.
I also think you should read my original post carefully, in which I said it was too simplistic just to suggest that 'all' are bad etc... -
04-01-08 17:12tempered?...not at all...think you learn most when becoming a lorry driver is patience and tolerance and courtesy to other road users.
Trains would be a fantastic idea to relieve congestion on our roads, hey even Tesco's are uaing the canalways to move goods, but have you ever stopped and wondered just how much freight goes in and out of just 1 deopt in 1 day...an unbelievable amount of fresh/frozen food for starters, i'm sure you would complain if the food in your local supermarket wasn't fresh...it would be impossible to move goods in this way, wonderful idea but just not practical, so yes my lorryload is an essential journey, unlike the many cars that travel up and down the motorway, why cant people car share more ? why cant business types use trains & buses more ?...cheaper, less traffic, less co2...and y dont think? because it doesn't suit thier image. ok if thier car is full of items they need but not for someone just hauling a briefcase about.
It all boils down to the fact we can't do without lorries on our roads. -
04-01-08 18:36OK guys, it is too late to argue the pros and cons of road versus rail. In the old days, when large amounts of goods were moved by rail, BRS had "night trunkers", which were the big wagons of the time, and moved goods between main depots. Then both the railways and BRS used smaller vehicles to deliver to the end user.
But too much rail track (permanent way) has been lost forever to retrace our steps in that direction. And railways alone could not handle the vast amount of goods now being shifted daily. In addition, large quantities of fruit, veg. and frozen foods have to go straight from bulk cold stores to supermarket refrigeration stores. These cannot be repeatedly taken out of cold storage conditions for redistribution and re-routing, which rules out the use of rail.
Over time, governments have tampered with road transport, and it has been left to private companies rail and road hauliers, to solve the logistic problems. To try to radically change the current systems would result in unimaginable chaos, and those advocating such moves on the grounds of "global warming" have no idea of the magnitude of problems their proposals would cause.
So, for the sakes of proper order and sanity, the various classes of road user must all accept and live with all the other categories. It really is as simple as that.
