It's been a minor inconvenience in the past where a 'slow' lorry wishes to pass an even 'slower' lorry but just recently I've noticed an increase in this activity and it's now become an all too common occurance and therefore annoyance!

Most HGV's and coaches are limited to 56mph so this selfish act invariably holds up everyone else so is it time to:-

a) increase the speed limiters of HGV's and coaches?

ban HGV's from overtaking during peak periods?

c) ban HGV's altogether from major trunk roads during peak periods?

d) decrease the speed limits on ALL major roads to 50mph during peak periods?

e) something else?

These are only my thoughts but would be interesting to see what you think.

Edited 11 September, 200817 yr by Makefish

a) would help as the speed limit is 60, but it would only help them pass that mite quicker.

Wont ever happen as EU law.

They do it in Europe and it works very well IMHO.

They do my head in, up the A1 one of them doing 56 the other doing 57 ish. Jesus, 10 mins later and there still at it. Big queue of cars behind. I think some drivers do it for the laugh.

I would do A to 65MPH (don`t think coaches are limited as they always do 70 regardless)

im guessing you have never driven any of these restricted vehicles which seem to be restricted from 54-56mph (depending on make and model). i for one want the restriction speed put up to 60mph. the act you describe is not selfish the drivers are restricted by time and distance so need to make as much progress as possible often on congestion roads on long motorway journeys vechiles like 7.5t lorries use to be able to travel at 70mph, by reducing this speed down to 56 would add an extra hour to liverpool from where i live, which would be 2 hours on a return journey. Considering that the drivers only have 9 hours of driving time a day, increased twice a week to 10 hours, that is a quarter of his drivering hours already used up.

The route i use to have once a week up that way could never be done these days as it pushed me close to the 10 hours on a bad day.

Banning trucks from roads at peak times wouldnt work, currently i work for a major parcel delivery firm and the vechiles are on the road 24 hours a day 6 days a week. with parcels needing to be on the other side of the country and on a before 9am service it means the need to move as fast as possible and means the vechiles at some point will have to be travelling through rush hours to get to their delivery patch to make sure your document or important part for your car is delivered before the deadline.

There are many reasons floating around the net on why the government brought it in, true or untrue i dont know but they include: slowing lorries down to a limited speed will level out the traffic and slow it down therefore keeping traffic moving. Accident rate lowered as the vehicles are all travellling at a slower speed and also the intervention of the EU.

I do beleive that schemes like the M42 and M25 which has variable speed limits do work and is an idea that should be looked at nationwide. but at the same time i think if more people looked ahead whilst driving and planned for what they could see ahead that traffic would move more freely and not create the mexican wave effect of speed up and slow down (and the miles of brake lights too).

Im sure their will be other people who either drive hgv's for a living or have had experience who will come on and tell you what its like. I use to be like you cursing them, but when you are sat up in one driving one you will realise it does often seem faster up in one of these vehicles and you would appreciate what driving one of these involves and appreicate what they do abit more.

At the end of the day if we started banning them from the roads at peak times etc you will find shops alot more empty and that important part you might be waiting on for your car either turning up late or not till the next day which i expect will inconvienice you abit more than slowing down to 56mph for a minute behind a vehicle making more progress than the one its overtaking.

(don`t think coaches are limited as they always do 70 regardless)

no most dont seem to be along with spanish and irish lorry drivers moving 44 tonnes of metal down the motorway at 70mph still

I'm in favour of and c)

no most dont seem to be along with spanish and irish lorry drivers moving 44 tonnes of metal down the motorway at 70mph still

:rubchin: I wondered why I'd tracked a few irish trucks along the M62 with me doing an indicated 70mph

Seeing the damage HGVs do when they run into stationary traffic - anyone that thinks they should have a higher speed limit is nuts.

I'm nuts then! :insane:

no most dont seem to be along with spanish and irish lorry drivers moving 44 tonnes of metal down the motorway at 70mph still

i know someone that does a lot of continental trucking and at 4am cant remember where he said he was on a motorway, he was pulling 35 tonnes at almost 90mph i didn't beleave him untill he showed me the tacograph

I think..

ban HGV's from overtaking during peak periods?

would be the best solution especially when there are only 2 lanes, and I agree that it seems to work quite well on the continent.

Having spent many hours driving HGV's myself I can understand the frustration of the drivers. To put it into perspective, imagine you are trundling quite happily along the road with your foot buried and stuck at 70mph, you reach another car, also with his foot to the floor and doing his limited 70mph too. You reach a large hill which is where you find that he only has 90hp under the bonnet and you have your big manly 140hp, to make it worse he's fully loaded and you've just tipped and are looking forward to getting home, so the hill is a breeze for you but your man in front is really feeling the pain and starts to slow. This is going to make you have to lift off, oh no wait a minute you see that the next lane is empty and you can get past him. What do you do? After all we all want to get home as early as possible don't we??

Where the problem lies is then where the lower power truck reaches the crest of the hill and picks up speed, even more so if it is a hill down the other side as his greater weight will cause him to increase speed more quickly than you. To overcome this requires some restraint by the drivers, they should operate a 'code of conduct' whereby if somone puts a move on you and get's past you that you, if necessary, lift off and allow him to pass. I have had many occasions when I've got half way alongside another wagon and not been able to get any further because he's picked up speed again leaving you no option but to lift and ease back in behind.

The Germans have a good system which would work over here.

I agree, we should adopt the german system which prohibits lorries using all but the inside lane during peak hours or when the electronic roadsigns indicate the restriction. I have driven in germany quiet a bit and it makes a huge difference to traffic flow.

Having spent many hours driving HGV's myself I can understand the frustration of the drivers.

Where the problem lies is then where the lower power truck reaches the crest of the hill and picks up speed, even more so if it is a hill down the other side as his greater weight will cause him to increase speed more quickly than you. To overcome this requires some restraint by the drivers, they should operate a 'code of conduct' whereby if somone puts a move on you and get's past you that you, if necessary, lift off and allow him to pass. I have had many occasions when I've got half way alongside another wagon and not been able to get any further because he's picked up speed again leaving you no option but to lift and ease back in behind.

The Germans have a good system which would work over here.

Having up until very recently been driving class one ADR tankers, I totally agree with Stu on this one, time after time your trundling down the motorway with 30.000 litres of avaiation fuel behing you, and you come to slower moving vehicles, cars included, and what do you do, its obvious you overtake, and then **** head the vehicle in front who was on the phone in front finish their phone call and speeds up.

So what do YOU now do, you cannot back off and get in behind as you have other motorist right up your rear bumper and others in lane one will not let you back in, so your stuck out there until you can either get past, return to lane one, or ride the crest of a slope and let it roll to get your speed back. Perhaps if motorists were more aware of the difficulties in driving an LGV, then they might show more consideration, as to overtake safely without causing any inconvience to other drivers takes planning.

As for banning overtaking by LGV's in peak hours, can you imagine the length of the traffic jam in lane one during these periods, and being inconvienced in this way, do you really think they would let anyone in lane two trying to make an exit even enter lane one.

LGV vehicles and their drivers are subject to more stringent checks than any car or normal motorist ever have to endure, and I can assure that most do not go out of their way to upset other motorist, all they ask is that other motorist show them some understanding for the type of vehicle they drive.

Regarding cars, what are you proposing to do about the cars who belong to the "Middle lane owners club", who, when there are just the two of you on the whole motorway, they just sit in lane two oblivious to everything, and force you from lane one to lane three to overtake?????

Regarding cars, what are you proposing to do about the cars who belong to the "Middle lane owners club", who, when there are just the two of you on the whole motorway, they just sit in lane two oblivious to everything, and force you from lane one to lane three to overtake?????

That is another issue which needs addressing. My solution is to line them up against a wall and shooting them, after a warning first you understand!

Seriously, what's needed is education in whatever form necessary: TV Ad's, Driving lessons etc. Persistent offenders should have their licences removed and be forced to retake the driving test imo.

What we need is a boost button like in A1GP or Palmer Audi's :P

Seriously though, having been in a 7.5 tonner when we moved house its really annoying being restricted, our satnav clocked us at 54 mph so i know how the lorry drivers feel, but at the same time over taking something over 5 miles of road is not good!

Regarding cars, what are you proposing to do about the cars who belong to the "Middle lane owners club", who, when there are just the two of you on the whole motorway, they just sit in lane two oblivious to everything, and force you from lane one to lane three to overtake?????

Providing it's safe to do so pass them in lane one... or if you do insist on taking the long way around them once in front deploy a stinger.

I think..

ban HGV's from overtaking during peak periods?

would be the best solution especially when there are only 2 lanes, and I agree that it seems to work quite well on the continent.

Can't remember exactly where it was but last year I was on a 2 lane dual carriageway and there was a trial in progress prohibiting HGVs overtaking at peak periods on a long uphill section. Could possibly have been somewhere around Birmingham.

Can't remember exactly where it was but last year I was on a 2 lane dual carriageway and there was a trial in progress prohibiting HGVs overtaking at peak periods on a long uphill section. Could possibly have been somewhere around Birmingham.

I believe that's the M42/A42 between Birmingham and the M1, lorries are not allowed in the inside lane.

While they do get to me I can appreciate that they are there for a purpose and if Tescos ran out of milk becouse the truck didn't get there in time we would all very quickly complain.

I don't really know much about the German system but I'm sure there must be something that can be done to help and still keep everyone happy.

Driving to work every morning I usually get stuck behind trucks on the A41. Don't bother overtaking anymore. Just sit at 50ish and watch my MPG rise to between 60-70.

Except for this morning when i followed an artic (irish) going 70 most of the way.

They might consider raising the LGV limit on single carriageway roads from 40 mph. The number of times I've been stuck behind a Tesco artic doing a (legal) 40 mph on the A9..............:(

I don't consider my self to be the best driver on the road but I think I am a good driver and I always try to " Read " whats going on quite away Infront of me. If I see an Artic gaining on the one infront of him I will attempt to "Let him out " so he doesn't have to lose any speed after all I can return to line speed Quicker than he can. I do think that some car drivers cause hold up's by the way they drive and don't really like lorries. Move over let them out. I've seen lorries indicating to pull out and some car drivers just sit there blocking them in.

I don't consider my self to be the best driver on the road but I think I am a good driver and I always try to " Read " whats going on quite away Infront of me. If I see an Artic gaining on the one infront of him I will attempt to "Let him out " so he doesn't have to lose any speed after all I can return to line speed Quicker than he can. I do think that some car drivers cause hold up's by the way they drive and don't really like lorries. Move over let them out. I've seen lorries indicating to pull out and some car drivers just sit there blocking them in.

In my experience they'll change lanes regardless of whether you let them out or not....

In my experience they'll change lanes regardless of whether you let them out or not....

thats probably they sat there that long they have no other option, ive had to make judgement before now to find a gap to pull out with no one wanting to let you out and its normally certain high priced makes of cars that think they own the road that wont let you out.

i know someone that does a lot of continental trucking and at 4am cant remember where he said he was on a motorway, he was pulling 35 tonnes at almost 90mph i didn't beleave him untill he showed me the tacograph

i expect this was kph as tachos only show up to 125 kph. althrough a company i worked for did have a 7.5t that did 90 on a sat nav, to the untrained eye the tacho looked like it was doing 75mph, but once you know what to look for you will realise it was doing alot more.

The scheme on the M42 is good, but im finding so much more in the past month that you getting car drivers now sitting in lanes 1 and 2 (middle lane) doing slightly less speed than a lorry and cant understand the hgv's frustration of trying to get past or they get level for them to speed up slightly then to slow down once they move back in.

I reckon most lorry swipes where n/s hits the o/s of a car could be stopped over night if car drivers got up to speed and most n/s car-o/s lorry could be stopped to if middle lane hoggers used the lanes correctly.

like vrstu mentioned about overtaking, ive been in the situation where i have been on a long flat bit of road, three quarters of the way past the lorry im overtaking for them to start speeding up leaving me with no where else to go, if im up to or level and this happens i can usually get away with putting the left indicator on and slowing and pulling back in to the n/s to try and limit the inconvieniance it causes the other drivers, but its not an option when you nearly pass them.

On another note, drivers that think once youre a rizla paper distance in front of the vehicle you overtaking that you should have moved over, come and sit up in an hgv for a day and try judging distances with the mirrors. Another courtesy that most hgv drivers do is flash the lights when it is safe for the hgv overtaking to move in, something that those slow car drivers should also consider

thats probably they sat there that long they have no other option, ive had to make judgement before now to find a gap to pull out with no one wanting to let you out and its normally certain high priced makes of cars that think they own the road that wont let you out.

I understand that, but it's times when HGVs pull out when you've got no where to other than to brake very hard and let the stupid **** come in front of you

I'll let them out if there's room for me to move, same as any other vehicle, but if there isn't then there's not a lot I can do.