D'oh! Yes you're quite correct, serves me right for trying to be a smart ****! Will try and pay more attention to what I'm typing in future!

'My' fleet of 25 7.5 tonners have yet to have any digi tachos fitted, our newest one is an 06 but April reg'd. We have several on borrowed time though.

If i was in charge i would ban all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes from overtaking full stop on motorways. I would restrict them to the inside lane only, they are all restricted (allegedly)to 56 mph so why should they be trying to overtake each other? If you find a 4 lane motorway somewhere, guess what? lorries are taking up three of the four lanes leaving everyone else with the outside lane yet again.

I think it would be a good idea right now, to banish vehicles over 3.5 tonnes from any other lane than the inside one between J22 M6 and J3 M6 and J1 M5. This area of motorway is notorious for accidents and it doesnt help that every other road user is only left with the outside lane to use on this section as the lorries take up the other two.

If i was in charge i would ban all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes from overtaking full stop on motorways. I would restrict them to the inside lane only, they are all restricted (allegedly)to 56 mph so why should they be trying to overtake each other? If you find a 4 lane motorway somewhere, guess what? lorries are taking up three of the four lanes leaving everyone else with the outside lane yet again.

I think it would be a good idea right now, to banish vehicles over 3.5 tonnes from any other lane than the inside one between J22 M6 and J3 M6 and J1 M5. This area of motorway is notorious for accidents and it doesnt help that every other road user is only left with the outside lane to use on this section as the lorries take up the other two.

To a certain extent I agree.

What sort of marginal advantage are they going to get overtaking another lorry by 1mph? Even on a 500 mile journey it'd be nullified by a couple of red lights at the destination so why bother?

Except blocking up 2/3/4 miles of motorway as they attempt the overtake....

I don't want to get involved in car vs truck politics here, and in an ideal world that world that would be a lovely idea.

Just a few quick problems off the top of my head:

7.5 tonners now restriced to 56mph are MUCH slower than unladen modern artics going up hill, thus the artics will get stuck behind the smaller trucks gradually causing a backlog of trucks which will end up with the inside lane becoming grid locked in many areas of the country very quickly. Blocked up inside lane means nobody gets on the motorway and nobody gets off as it's stuck nose to tail with by now very slow moving trucks.

Next time you go to the supermarket and they've run out of something, don't expect it to be there on the shelves any time soon as it's stuck in a truck somewhere on a motorway going about 10mph thanks to a log jam of trucks backing up from a hold up on a steep hill sixty miles away where a slow moving truck with a crane on its trailer is struggling to get any speed on said hill.

Then these drivers will run out of driving time thank to EU directives, so this will mean said supermarkets and other industries will then have to employ more drivers to move stuff about more slowly, which in turn means your economy beans won't be quite as economical as they used to be thanks to the price hikes that will be handed down to the customers ('cos the shareholders of said companies certainly won't want a drop in their share of the pie so it will be handed to the customer).

Be lovely if all goods could be chucked onto trains and transported, but that ain't going to happen it seems......

I don't want to get involved in car vs truck politics here, and in an ideal world that world that would be a lovely idea.

Just a few quick problems off the top of my head:

7.5 tonners now restriced to 56mph are MUCH slower than unladen modern artics going up hill, thus the artics will get stuck behind the smaller trucks gradually causing a backlog of trucks which will end up with the inside lane becoming grid locked in many areas of the country very quickly. Blocked up inside lane means nobody gets on the motorway and nobody gets off as it's stuck nose to tail with by now very slow moving trucks.

Next time you go to the supermarket and they've run out of something, don't expect it to be there on the shelves any time soon as it's stuck in a truck somewhere on a motorway going about 10mph thanks to a log jam of trucks backing up from a hold up on a steep hill sixty miles away where a slow moving truck with a crane on its trailer is struggling to get any speed on said hill.

Then these drivers will run out of driving time thank to EU directives, so this will mean said supermarkets and other industries will then have to employ more drivers to move stuff about more slowly, which in turn means your economy beans won't be quite as economical as they used to be thanks to the price hikes that will be handed down to the customers ('cos the shareholders of said companies certainly won't want a drop in their share of the pie so it will be handed to the customer).

Be lovely if all goods could be chucked onto trains and transported, but that ain't going to happen it seems......

Sorry Guys,

This is absolutely the way life is!!!

Well worded mate!!

But i do think vehicles over 3.5 tonnes should not be allowed in the outside lane of a duel carraige way, as they slow me down, lol

Again, not gonna happen though!!!

Chris

I will retort when i'm not drunk and tired!!

Drunk mid week? I'd like a lifestyle like yours Billy B!

Please excuse the terrible grammar and typos in my last post too, I was in somewhat of a rush to go out but got carried away typing (very badly). I would tidy it up a bit in an edit but as Chris has quoted it I'll leave it in all it's gibberish glory!!!

Anyhow, I'm just saying it's not a practical thing to ban all goods vehicles from anywhere but the inside lane, what I'm not excusing are cerrtain pig ignorant HGV drivers who perform said three hour long overtaking manoevres when they don't really need to. They annoy me at least as much as everyone else!

If I were in charge I would dictate that nearly all goods were transported overnight. The roads would be suitably freed up for the artics at that time of day, and suitably emptied during the day for cars and light vans. Thus enabling middle lane hoggers to discover they really are unfit for the purpose of driving on the public highway, whilst thrusting spiky haired reps can undertake them with enoumous flourish without the fear of running up the chuff of a large truck.

Plus the trucks could then load and unload in the town centres without causing massive traffic delays. They would suffer far fewer hold ups on the roads and thus driving hours could be much better utilised, saving us all money. Well maybe not the last bit!

I can see all sides in this one.

I'd let a truck out as long as he'd a real overtaking speed wrt the guy he was overtaking.

Sometimes the minute or so you save by overtaking at point A becomes 5 minutes when you don't get stuck behind a tractor at point B, then 15 when you don't pick up an MLOCer, and then 2 hours cos there are places in Scotland (A80 thro Cumbernauld anyone? Thought not!! ) where traffic thrombosis builds up that fast some times of day.

I like the thought of more overnight trunking in principle, but someone's gonna have to be at each end to do goods in and out.

Hang on a min WE (truck drivers) have enough people trying to blame us for everything that happens. 1 Traffic jams 2 Global warming 3 Accidents. and anything else. The roads only get conjested due to numpty social and domestic drivers dithering about! As for overtaking slowly we all have to be there yesterday, you all want your stuff there last week! Then when we get there we get some jobsworth gatehouse person stating the bloody obvious "Your late driver" no s*** sherlock! Sorry for going off on one,but everyday we hear the same crap!:(

TBH I think a wagon containing goods or materials that will benefit several hundred people and pays a HELL OF A LOT MORE road tax than us car folk is much more important than some bloke trying to get to work.

Yes they can delay you and sometimes it's annoying but with the amount they pay and the service they provide it's YOU (car drivers) that are the annoying, unnecessary traffic, not them.

TBH I think a wagon containing goods or materials that will benefit several hundred people and pays a HELL OF A LOT MORE road tax than us car folk is much more important than some bloke trying to get to work.

Yes they can delay you and sometimes it's annoying but with the amount they pay and the service they provide it's YOU (car drivers) that are the annoying, unnecessary traffic, not them.

Bit Harsh, but in a way, a good point!!!

Chris

Scania666, I've nothing against truck drivers wanting to overtake something going noticably slower than them (as elsewhere, I'll actually help if I get a signal in time that I can react to it!), but I do object to so-called "overtaking" manoevres which rely on "the overtaking wagon's had new tyres since the limiter was calibrated, so can go 1% faster than the overtakee".

Let us assume that a max length truck, say 18m, making a motorway overtaking manoevre requires to make up 2 truck lengths during the overtake; this means that they require 2.5km to complete the manoevre. This is long enough to cause a 10km rolling jam in the traffic behind them!

All cars I have driven/owned have all been able to do 70mph easily so you all should be able to pass a wagon doing 56mph:finger: Therefore only the stupid people would be stuck in a rolling jam:rolleyes:

I can do 70 (or more, eh, on a private test track ) no problem, well except for the several hundred cars slowing from 70 to 57mph in the 2 miles or so between me and the wagons!

Why blame us . Last night everyone was slowing down cause the Highways Wombles were parked on the hard shoulder! Maybe thats the wagons fault eh

That's carp observation innit! I've had the guy in front of me brake hard from 50 mph halfway down a mile-long, and empty other than the 3 of us, straight, because he'd suddenly seen a BT guy in a traffic coat (I saw BT guy, and his grey van on the LH verge, as we came onto the straight, and would have used some of the RH lane if I'd just needed room).

The incidents where I've blamed the wagons, I've been through the queue behind them fast enough to pass them while they were still overtaking each other, and the traffic speed's picked back up once we've cleared them.

Also I've nothing against you guys as a rule; quite the reverse. I'm the guy who's backing off and/or pulling out a lane when you want to join the road, or make an overtaking move that will stick in sensible distance/time.