A question for the lorry drivers amongst us

[Brandane]

So an empty truck will have to sit behind a fully laden truck in theory from one end of the m6 to the other even up hills where the laden truck will have to change down gears and the empty truck can stay in top gear?

Yeah, why not. 56mph is 56mph.

I think the point Retribution forgot to mention is that heavily laden lorries will slow down considerably on inclines, while light or empty ones do not have to. Then you have Tesco lorries with limiters set at 50mph.. So sitting behind slower moving lorries becomes a bit silly when it is perfectly safe to overtake.

 

[John the Monkey]

It USED to annoy me...a lorry taking minutes to overtake another...then i think, so what...he's in the right, he's in front, he's making a legitimate manoever on a road he's every right to be on.
Its a state of mind, relax and go with the flow...its very liberating.

Pretty much this for me as well, without the getting annoyed initially bit.

Let's face it, most days you could flip a coin before setting off on the M6 (if it comes up heads, add 30 minutes to an hour to your journey, for some reason or other). Being behind a lorry for a bit doesn't bother me.

 

[vernon]

nobody is saying nothing does. but if you only want to selectively think then fill yer boots.

the old system of goods yards and then local deliveries worked fine until beeching decided they didn't and convinced governments to spunk billion and billions on road building that could have been better spent on improving an existing infrastructure.

Rail freight transport does not have a rapid response as part of its operation i.e. try getting half a rail truck load picked up and delivered the same day. The rail network can not accommodate freight trains making regular drops without disrupting the faster passenger trains. The old system worked will because the 'just in time' principle of delivering goods did not exist and things were conducted at a leisurely pace. Bulk freight is profitable because it can be operated between once source and one delivery point. 'Stopping goods' trains are ponderous, relatively complex to operate and reduces the passenger capacity of the rail network.

I grew up watching the rail network evolve. Freight yards never operated with any sense of urgency, the road vehicles operated by British Rail had drivers and drivers' mates as did a lot of non railway HGV's plus you needed a locomotive driver, guard and shunter who couple and uncoupled truck and operated the points for the sidings. Shunting operations tended to cease at dusk and recommenced at dawn as did the local deliveries. Yes, there were large semi automated marshalling yards but these were rarely distribution points for transhipment to the road network. Watching the smaller freight yards was a mesmerising and pleasurable activity but even with the pre-Beeching rail network, I doubt that it would meet the demands of the 21st century.

The bucolic image of freight transport by rail lives on in model railway layouts up and down the country and unless you get your thrill from watching paint dry, that's the place where it's best left.

 

[vernon]

I don't have a problem with wagons taking an eternity to overtake each other. They are governed to similar speeds and the speed differentials are minimal. My tolerance of the slow overtaking was developed through owning a Citroen 2CV when it was a relatively common car. On the motorway the most difficult vehicles to overtake were other Citroen 2CVs. It was next to impossible to break the motorway speed limit with them and most drivers travelled at full throttle which meant that you were 'speed matched' by only 2CVs, everything else was appreciable faster or slower than you so the only time you caused a temporary obstruction was overtaking an identical vehicle.

 

[PeteXXX]

On motorways, the limit for lorries over 7.5 tonnes is ALREADY 60mph; yet limiters are set at 55/56 mph. Another piece of sensible legislation .

Yep, maximum speed 60mph, maximum powered speed 56 mph.

 

[slowmotion]

I knew someone who did a study of close-following on motorways in the late 1980s. They mounted sensors on motorway bridges that detected speed and vehicle spacings. I forget the details but she said that when her people tried to follow it up with questionnaires for the truckers, they were met with hostility and some aggression.

 

[gbb]

firstly, I.was an observer, not a participant. My truck sound like its about to explode at 70 so I'm happy to bimble down the nearside with the lorries.

So I'm watching this unfold in front of me, and for 8 miles, about 9 minutes, this driver narrowed the motorway down to 1 lane for everyone else. There's expecting drivers to be patient, and there's being utterly unreasonable.

While i sympathise, do you therefore complain about tractors ?..i got stuck behind one..AND a combine last night. A fair convoy of traffic built up over maybe 3 miles or so....you COULD apply the same logic , they're being unreasonable. But they're not IMO, they're legitimate road users, just as cyclists are, who in no doubt, anger drivers for holding them up for several hundred yards.
The desire to get to your destination without hold up at some stage, be it slow lorry, invalid carriage, cyclist, accident, ...over whatever time is natural, but unrealistic to achieve. I relax and accept it. Well, i try to anyway, occasionally i fail, we're all human after all.

 

[Spinney]

While i sympathise, do you therefore complain about tractors ?..i got stuck behind one..AND a combine last night. A fair convoy of traffic built up over maybe 3 miles or so....you COULD apply the same logic , they're being unreasonable. But they're not IMO, they're legitimate road users, just as cyclists are, who in no doubt, anger drivers for holding them up for several hundred yards.
The desire to get to your destination without hold up at some stage, be it slow lorry, invalid carriage, cyclist, accident, ...over whatever time is natural, but unrealistic to achieve. I relax and accept it. Well, i try to anyway, occasionally i fail, we're all human after all.

The hold-up that really annoys me (and yes, I know I've said this before!) is when there is a long delay/jam on the motorway, and when you get to the front of it is obvious that it is caused by people rubber-necking an accident on the other carriageway.

I suppose you could say that people have right to slow down and look at things if they want to... ?

 

[Brandane]

[QUOTE 3261339, member: 45"]The problem isn't with empty trucks overtaking crawlers on hills. It's with a truck at 57 trying to overtake a truck travelling at 55. On a 2-lane carriageway this can cause huge tailbacks.

Can't the following driver just set his cruise to match that of the truck in front?[/QUOTE]
Yes, and the vast majority do, when the speed differential is so small. Just as with cyclists and all other groups of people, you will get those who are selfish and inconsiderate. Human nature, I'm afraid.

 

[Cyclopathic]

In fact, why not join them all together? With metal rails to run on it would be a much cheaper and safer option surely.

Is that even possible???

 

[Cyclopathic]

Let's make a list of all the things we use in life that don't need to be transported by road...

Love.

 

[GrasB]

[QUOTE 3261339, member: 45"]The problem isn't with empty trucks overtaking crawlers on hills. It's with a truck at 57 trying to overtake a truck travelling at 55. On a 2-lane carriageway this can cause huge tailbacks.

Can't the following driver just set his cruise to match that of the truck in front?[/QUOTE]
Not quite the solution you might imagine. What you end up with is a queue of traffic waiting to overtake in the off-side lane & an empty nearside lane, except for near the point of the speed restriction, the lorries, at this place you have a plug of high density traffic, most of which will be too close to move a vehicle into safely. This results in you starting an overtake 3 or 4 miles away from your off junction & barely getting off the motorway to loop back by the junction AFTER your turn off. This problem only seems to exists on 2 lane dual carriageways, 3 or more lanes & it disappears.

Coming back from my last visit to Italy I watched the same 2 lorries overtake each other about 10 times in the space of 150 miles, each overtake took 1-3 miles. I just sat there with the CC on following the tail lorry. I was thinking WTF is the point?

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I suppose people driving an Audi or Mercedes have the same frustration when they have to slow down from 100mph because of the cars blocking the motorway driving at 70mph.

 

[GrasB]

[QUOTE 3261604, member: 45"]It's part of a simple solution and certainly not automatically the "nightmare scenario" you describe. It's perfectly safe, easy and clear what any driver should do on observing another vehicle trying wanting to exit or join at a slip road where they may potentially impede, and I don't need to list the process here.[/QUOTE]
It certainly does due to normal human behaviour. This exact scenario can be seen on a daily basis all over the UK. The problem is while it's clear what should happen people habitually drive too close to each other & also fail to allow people in when signals are given due to this BS 'queue jumping' mentality we have in the UK.