Not sure if I have put this topic in the right category or not… When I was doing my training I learnt what all the speed limits are when driving a large vehicle. Obviously when you are learning in or on any vehicle you need to stick to the speed limits. I’m sure we all know lots of car drivers and bike do more than 30 in a 30 when they’ve had their licence for a while, the point I’m trying to make is I was following a artic the other night on a stretch of single carriage way road with a national speed limit. I know the speed limit for large vehicles on this road would be 40mph. The arctic in front Me was doing his maximum 56mph. Car and bike drivers/riders haven’t got a tachograph reading their speed constantly where as lorries have. So the big question is how do lorries get away with speeding? I see it quite often, trucks going faster than they should. I’m not saying I don’t break the speed limit in my car and that truckers need to meet their deadlines but I haven’t got a tachograph in my car recording my speed!!.
Sounds like I’m just being an annoying newb I know but it’s just somethin that I couldn’t fathom.
I stick to speed limits, when on duel carriageways loads of lorries pass me but I’ve just spent a lot of money getting my licence and don’t want to lose it, if I’m late then I’m late, if they want to sack me for not being on time, I can always look elsewhere for a job, something you can’t do without a licence
Unless you’re caught in the act - who’s to know the driver wasn’t on a motorway?
I’ve been told a number of times, even if it’s obvious the vehicle was on a slower road and the driver was speeding - the tacho’ can’t be used as proof of this, you still have to get caught to be prosecuted. However, if your yard’s next to a dual carriageway and every driver gets straight up to 56 and is doing 56 when he/she returns, it’s gonna stand out a bit and people are gonna start sticking their nose where it’s not welcome if you see what I mean.
At least one of the fruit/veg firms out Boston and Spalding way have their drivers doing 40 everywhere within 30mins - 1hour of their yard for this very reason.
I’m not condoning it, you makes your own choices in life and you live with the concequences.
As far as dual carriageways are concerned you should remember that speedometers generally do not show the correct speed so a vehicle showing 56 mph on the speedo is likely to be doing something like 52/53 mph, the guidelines for prosecuting for speeding offences is that you should be doing 10% +2 mph above the speed limit before being prosecuted so a lorry doing 56 mph on a dual carriageway would be inside these guidelines especially when you consider that given the speedo inaccuracy the vehicle probaly wouldn’t be doing 56 mph anyway .
As far as speeding on single carriageways is concerned, people chance it
Simple reason is that all our plod are sat in an office on facebook while the only ones out on the road are white van man with cameras and a few static sites. Once you learn where the cameras are likely to be, you can tear along the dotted line
Unfortunately the limits are fixed by an act of parliament, some roads can cope with faster speeds, some cannot, so we have a blanket 40mph on single carriageways, even if they have two lanes
I got pulled by the old bill just before Christmas for doing 33 in a 30. He said 1more mph and he would have been giving me 3points and a fine. Moral of the story i suppose is you make your own choices. Can your transport manager try and catch you out by sending you on a run that is all single carriage roads and check you tacho readings when you get back? Just some of the transport managers I know would actually do that. End of the day I would sooner have a clean licence and be late rather than arrive on time or early but picking up points to do it. I was talking to a polish agency driver at work the other night. He has 9 points on his licence, all for speeding in the lorry. On one occasion he said he was caught doing 74 in the truck. Knocked it out of gear when going down a long hill.
remember that there are a few speed cameras that can tell a car from a hgv.
i got 3 points from one on A5/A444 junction north of nuneaton and that was in a unit only, paperwork said 48mph.
there is one in cheshire A556?
