I’ve been doing this job now for 20 years.
I did a decade on rigids. A combo of 18 tonners and 6 wheelers for builders merchants.
Then 7 years on drawbar and 3 driving artics.
Either my space perception is out of sink or the vast majority out ont road just do not know what is an adequate space to leave prior to coming back in.
No bugger will leave at least another Artic length in front before merging back in.
An age old gripe, admittedly.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
In short they have more ambition than ability. Had a 1/4 wit cut in with barely a foot gap today & I was plodding at 52.
As lardy boy would say - no need.
Might as well add won’t give way to oncoming traffic when there’s an obstruction ahead of them.Cutting right hand bends.No judgement of width thereby usually running on or over the central dividing line.Going wide on the exit of left hand turns rather than on the entry.Tail sweep is out of sight out of mind.Novice car driver type brake and go driving mantra.
As for leaving a decent gap when returning the above lot will see that as lane hogging and/or an open invitation to cut in behind you and then under take you.
If you think this lot are bad, just wait till the next round of dumbing down has borne fruit, all downhill now.
I can just imagine you gripping tightly to the bar, swaying slightly, while dictating to a friend what to type 
But yes, this is how it is nowadays.
I regularly get cut in, with a couple of feet or so gap, on the ring road, 406.
Deep breath, back off, ■■■■ it up, 2 minutes to wembley holding area. No problem.
hiabman:
I’ve been doing this job now for 20 years.I did a decade on rigids. A combo of 18 tonners and 6 wheelers for builders merchants.
Then 7 years on drawbar and 3 driving artics.
Either my space perception is out of sink or the vast majority out ont road just do not know what is an adequate space to leave prior to coming back in.
No bugger will leave at least another Artic length in front before merging back in.
An age old gripe, admittedly.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Just to add when I pass another the ones who actually flash not that I need it or give a zb actually flash when your passed by an inch an not any more lenght than either 
Glad to see I am not the only one that gets hacked off with ■■■■ drivers.Some seem to make up their own ■■■■ rules.There was someone complaining about car drivers not sticking to the HC and hogging middle lanes.Well it’s a big pity some truck drivers don’t learn the correct way instead of driving like ■■■■■ and getting us all a bad name.
Can’t recall flashing my headlamps ,I drop down to side lamps instead 
Juddian:
If you think this lot are bad, just wait till the next round of dumbing down has borne fruit, all downhill now.
Nah, it can’t get worse than it is now.Surely once the power to think is completely taken away from the driver things will improve.
Oh wait maybe the problem is lack of thought in the first place? 
Love it when they give me the dancing indicators…when i hav’nt even flashed them.
Auto pilot much
jakethesnake:
Juddian:
If you think this lot are bad, just wait till the next round of dumbing down has borne fruit, all downhill now.Nah, it can’t get worse than it is now.Surely once the power to think is completely taken away from the driver things will improve.
Oh wait maybe the problem is lack of thought in the first place?
Well we’ve gone on from automatics which was the first and biggest deskilling, we morphed onto ever more clever traction and stability controls, nah that wasn’t enough, sat navs so they wouldn’t have to look at a map or have to look at signs…nope ramming bridges now, hill hold cos we can’t control the bloody thing on an incline, then we got AEBS and lane guidance and still they’re ramming each other up the arse or taking out hundreds of yards of armco or managing to roll the whole bleedin lot on a perfectly straight motorway.
What next one wonders, whatever it is they’ll convince themselves (and the people duped into paying for this crap 
), that more ■■■■■■■■ equals safer roads…this is what happens when pen pushers are in charge, if it’s not working we’ll do more and more of it till it does work.
This really annoys me too and it’s not just HGV drivers. I had a range rover yesterday overtook me and hadn’t even cleared the cab before he started moving back to Lane 1. I always wait for a flash or if I don’t get one I make sure there is plenty of space between us before moving back in. Also why do HGV drivers decide to pass when approaching the exit they want, then sit at the side of you indicating to come back over. Seems to happen daily now.
I’ve got plenty id love to moan about… but its the weekend and to be blunt… I’ve got much better things to do.
Don’t forget the clowns who speed up when you’ve moved out to let them in, leaving you high and dry in the outside lane for ages. Happened to me again this week at Grantham with a MacIntyre wagon (same livery as Turners, are they part of Turners?). I gave him best in the end and eased off, no doubt to the relief of the fifty-odd cars that had congregated behind me.
commonrail:
Love it when they give me the dancing indicators…when i hav’nt even flashed them.Auto pilot much
This is NOT directed at you…I would add to that and say it may be a sarcastic flash (I do it a lot). As in thanks for nothing you narrow minded king of the road.
Or it may be that a driver did flash but you didn’t see it so you give them dancing indicators just incase- because you don’t want to come across as being ungrateful or a narrow minded king of the road?
Bamblemash:
commonrail:
Love it when they give me the dancing indicators…when i hav’nt even flashed them.Auto pilot much
This is NOT directed at you…I would add to that and say it may be a sarcastic flash (I do it a lot). As in thanks for nothing you narrow minded king of the road.
Or it may be that a driver did flash but you didn’t see it so you give them dancing indicators just incase- because you don’t want to come across as being ungrateful or a narrow minded king of the road?
Totally agree with this, it’s a case of good manners with a hint of sarcasm
On the other hand i almost always flash others in ( cos i run at 52/53 to keep out of the pushing and shoving tailgaters throng as much as possible), and yes i flash them in when a suitable distance has passed, even if they’ve already pulled over when roughly 2 yards past me windscreen some 20 seconds earlier …now that’s a sarcastic flash.
Those i don’t flash in are overtaking lane hoggers (you’ve watched approaching in their perma lane) and those who sit right up your arse trying to intimidate you into going faster, or those who try to make you stay on the throttle right up to the last minute at junctions, i want absolutely nothing to do with half wits so don’t acknowledge them as fellow lorryist types.
Oh, a waste of time flashing in those attending the wheel in a hivis, and it appears the vast majority of box jockeys ignore any courtesies.
commonrail:
Love it when they give me the dancing indicators…when i hav’nt even flashed them.Auto pilot much
Now that made me laugh but yes had it many times myself. It just goes to show how drivers do these things without thinking.
It’s the same as all the other silly and dangerous things they do everyday. They do them and they do not even realise.
These fools need re training or a good kick up the backside!
Juddian:
jakethesnake:
Juddian:
If you think this lot are bad, just wait till the next round of dumbing down has borne fruit, all downhill now.Nah, it can’t get worse than it is now.Surely once the power to think is completely taken away from the driver things will improve.
Oh wait maybe the problem is lack of thought in the first place?Well we’ve gone on from automatics which was the first and biggest deskilling, we morphed onto ever more clever traction and stability controls, nah that wasn’t enough, sat navs so they wouldn’t have to look at a map or have to look at signs…nope ramming bridges now, hill hold cos we can’t control the bloody thing on an incline, then we got AEBS and lane guidance and still they’re ramming each other up the arse or taking out hundreds of yards of armco or managing to roll the whole bleedin lot on a perfectly straight motorway.
What next one wonders, whatever it is they’ll convince themselves (and the people duped into paying for this crap
Juddian sums it up perfectly once again.
I might just add to this that the overall low hourly pay rate now attracts mostly one section of the gene pool too.
But the powerful shopkeepers say this keeps food prices down and thus keeps inflation low which reduces wage increase demand across the board and the government are happy with that.
Meanwhile back at the ranch I believe the box jockeys are loosing the battle at the moment and the shopkeepers will be doing some excellent Christmas specials around February if you want a bargain.
I don’t believe as some do that the majority of today’s truckers are totally incompetent at their job, but there is definitely a higher percentage of incompetent f/whits sat behind wheels of artics as there ever used to be.
Reason…modern trucks are now just like cars to drive unlike the old days when the vast difference between cars and trucks created a selection process, where the useless, thick and incompetent could not get through the natural selection ‘net’.
So nowadays they do, and they actually ‘‘drive’’ their trucks like cars, with no empathy or consideration towards others.
The cutting in thing the o/p mentions is my personal no.1 pet hate, in the old days drivers would just wait for the inevitable flash and you never got the cut ins (as far as I recall it anyway)
Then a few smart arses stopped the considerate flash and the uncertain ones rather than stop out longer just pulled in and hoped for the best…and it just escalated from there.
I finally caught one of those Roger Hunts, after he nearly put me in the hard shoulder with his trailer, pulling in Strensham serv one night…I wanted to ■■■■ kill him (very out of character btw, I normally just raise above it in a pro way, but this opportunity was just too good, although a weak moment 
)
I opened his cab door and said along the lines of ‘‘Wtf are you playing at mate’’ he was totally oblivious to what I told him just happened.
He sat there (in his ■■■■ hi viz ) with a gormless look on his face (with ■■■■ rings pierced all over it, )and said ‘‘Derr sorry mate’’
I just walked away head shaking thinking… whats the ■■■■ point of maybe starting a ruck and getting arrested on a road rage charge, (with the sack into the mix) just for that gormless unemployable prick 
.
No doubt he will have set off and done the same again.