"Limited to 70mph"

[GrumpyGregry]

The fleet of Royal Mail Vauxhall Combo vans based out of my local sorting office, about 100m from my door, all have these stickers on the offside back door.

 

[PpPete]

Just thinking about all these fleets of identical vans....

If the fleet owners really cared about the environment, they could offer some serious incentives to their drivers if they met certain targets on m.p.g. or had monthly compos to see which driver could get lowest figure.

The money they'd save on fuel would easily pay some big prizes....

 

[MacB]

I completely agree! Many's time I've sat patiently on my motorbike behind a driver on an NSL road, rather than moving out to the right, tucking down over the tank to stop the bike from popping a wheely, and winding the throttle all the way back ... I would never do such a thing as that ...

many's the time I've watched bikers do that sort of thing and mused about how many people their donor parts might help

 

[Coco]

Depends upon the vehicle, ever wondered why german cars are travelling the fastest on motorways; their speedometers are accurate, when the speed shows 85, it is 85. For someone in a Citroen to travel at the same speed they would think they were going at 94.

Source; My Berlingo vans 9% slower on speed & 4% lower on distance. The wifes Mercedes is 99% accurate on both speed and distance.

How have you measured that? I drove my wife's BMW past one of those road signs that show your speed. The speedo (on a rather nice Heads-up display) showed 30, the road sign showed 28. Not very scientific I'll grant you, so what did you use?

 

[Chromatic]

Just thinking about all these fleets of identical vans....

If the fleet owners really cared about the environment, they could offer some serious incentives to their drivers if they met certain targets on m.p.g. or had monthly compos to see which driver could get lowest figure.

The money they'd save on fuel would easily pay some big prizes....

I was thinking that too. It has to be worth trying hasn't it?

 

[fyfeg]

Sold a bike on fleabay last week and Parcel Force took 96 hours to deliver a 48 hour service, now that's what I call driving to lower their emmissions (3 m.p.h. average must be really green L.O.L.

 

[User482]

Just thinking about all these fleets of identical vans....

If the fleet owners really cared about the environment, they could offer some serious incentives to their drivers if they met certain targets on m.p.g. or had monthly compos to see which driver could get lowest figure.

The money they'd save on fuel would easily pay some big prizes....

You'd be surprised. Formal training in fuel-efficient driving is not uncommon, and I know that HGV fleet managers keep a very close eye on mpg.

 

[thomas]

Not unconnected - it makes me wonder when I see reviews of cars that talk about a top speed well in excess of 100 miles per hour. Where exactly are people meant to drive that fast? I wonder what proportion of people living in this country who buy these cars will actually find themselves driving it in a country where that speed is allowed on public roads - or how many will have access to private roads in this country where they can drive that fast? Not so many, I think.

So what's the point of making the top speed of a vehicle a promimnent advertising feature?

I've done over 120MPH legally in the UK. On a track day. Track days aren't prohibitively expensive.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

You'd be surprised. Formal training in fuel-efficient driving is not uncommon, and I know that HGV fleet managers keep a very close eye on mpg.

Indeed. I put over £400 - worth of diesel in "my" truck every single night, and that's just one truck on a fleet of 40 or 50. It's a rare transport manager these days who can afford to go chucking diesel away for want of training the drivers to be fuel efficient.

 

[Coco]

Errrr... speedos do not (and cannot legally) "under read". They can "over read", i.e. tell you that you are going faster than you actually are (by up to 10%), but if it is "under reading" (saying that you're going slower than you are) then it is not legal.

Apologies, got that round the wrong way.

 

[funnymummy]

So what's the point of making the top speed of a vehicle a promimnent advertising feature?

I bought a new car in March, spent several weeks choosing the right one, comparing reviews etc, the things i was specificaily looking for was a larger car (need room for a wheelchair in the boot) and esaier access for my son versus the fuel efficiency & CO2 output.
I was quite amused at all the reviews that raved about top speeds of 140, 0-60's etc. Why does anyone need a car that can that go twice as fast as our legal limit...?

 

[Coco]

For speed, this is a little more difficult, I have tried various methods, GPS is good providing you can keep a steady speed for a few minutes and let the GPS settle. I have also timed (while wife is driving obviously) between known points.

The wifes Mercedes does seem as accurate as it gets, I put a figure of 99%, I doubt it will be far from that figure.

Does your wife's Merc have SatNav? I wonder if it is using the SatNav's ouput to display speed? If you're measuring against a GPS then the two would be very close together, but neither would necessarily be accurate. IIRC GPS isn't great round corners or up/down inclines because it measures point to point.

I'll maybe try some of your techniques to see what I get. There's a nice straight piece of M8 near Paisley that should be long enough.

cheers

 

[Archie_tect]

Our speedometer display's displayed speed is consistantly 3mph lower than the sat-nav so I know that we have a decent safety margin at any given speed limit. It's most noticeable when using the cruise control through the Leeming roadworks on the A1 how erratically people drive + slow down well below 50 passing average speed cameras. Average speed cameras appear to be the only thing that guarantee boy-racers won't speed.

 

[davefb]

I bought a new car in March, spent several weeks choosing the right one, comparing reviews etc, the things i was specificaily looking for was a larger car (need room for a wheelchair in the boot) and esaier access for my son versus the fuel efficiency & CO2 output.
I was quite amused at all the reviews that raved about top speeds of 140, 0-60's etc. Why does anyone need a car that can that go twice as fast as our legal limit...?

well, its partly because those are 'the standard figures' , there are more usefull figures,, like 'rpm @ 60' 'rpm@70' , 30-50 , '20-40 in gear x', but it'd be stupid/overkill to most people to have all that data..
so we just have 0-60 as a basic idea of how quick it is , some fuel figures and a max , to show essentially 'how much is it going to be screaming at 70 on the motorway' because something with a max of 80 , compared to a max of 140 is obviously going to be struggling...

as for the 'limited to 70' , theres another slant,, I remember talking to a driver who had a list of deliveries and basically the company didnt give a feck if he broke the law, they 'turned a blind eye' (or at least some managers did), so another point would be that with that 'max 70' it does help the driver, because he has no choice in at least breaking the motorway limit..

 

[albal]

most hgv 's are limited and have been for a few years to 56mph. (cept them from irl)
Speed limit for said vehicles on motorway? 60mph. I'm more than happy plodding along at 50 , paid hrly.