I know that Maritime,Hanbury’s,and some of the other East Anglian container companies have been doing it for ages,but now one of my agency’s customers have done it to all their trucks,and I know of others that are doing it as well.
Have I missed something in law here?
I wouldn’t have thought they would benefit that much in the way of fuel consumption,as some of the automatics I have driven,are up and down the gearbox like a fiddlers elbow,as they see 52 as too slow for 12th,yet too fast for 11th,so surely fuel consumption can’t be any better.
i feel for you mate.
mines limited to 84 kph and at the mere sniff of a hill she drops a cog.
however it seems after many complaints from other drivers they are turning the limiter up to 88 kph
i dont actually mind sitting at 51 mph on the motorway but you can tell other people think you are taking the mick when you flash em in and get nothing back
our lot reckon by knocking the limiter down by 2 mph saves them a grand a year per truck on diesel
my new motor ,Daf CF 75 is limited to 52 soddin mph and it dies a death on hills mind you that could be beacause its alleged 290 horses are more like asthmatic donkeys
wheni was at frightliner they had our new ones limited to 52 and a right pain in the arse it was. i was moaning because mine was a port lorry so they stopped sending to port.
And the thing about this is,that traffic offices seem to think that you can do the same amount of work as before,and when you tell them the obvious that it is now taking slightly longer,you get asked the immortal question, ‘Why can’t you do it?’
…and the speed limit on motorways is still 60mph in this country!
I wonder how long it will be before the whole shebang grinds to a standstill thanks to those pencil-neck types (never done the job and wouldn’t have the aptitude if they did!). Once they see a little saving in fuel, the limiters will creep down to 50mph, then maybe 48mph…mark my words.
Eventually, there will be a knock on effect…trips that used to be possible there and back in 1 shift will become a night out for the driver. This incurs extra expense which will be passed on and passed on down the chain to the end user (i.e. anyone who buys anything in the shops!). On a National scale, this could cost the consumer millions of quids per year and all because the trucks are limited to well under the speed limit.
There’s the obvious safety implications of trucks going slower too…when cars speeds are much higher and regularly cruise at between 70 and 85 mph, their closing speed on trucks is 20 to 35 mph (and that’s just the sensible ones). That needs extra concentration and care on behalf of everyone.
Maybe I’m wrong, I hope so, but can anyone else see this perspective or is it just me being an arse?
Edit; to correct a spelling mistake…I hate that! LOL
Our place have just completed a trial with around six motors turned down to 50mph for a month. I don’t know the outcome but they have all been down to Scania and been turned back up to 56, so hopefully that’ll be the end of that
i tried the 52mph and 56mph thing by using the cruise control on a run…cant remember the mpg figures for both settings on the display but there was quite a difference between the two figures…
Problem is as well if the truck’s set to 52mph the chances are its prob doing 48-50mph in reality.
Our new MAN TGA’s are supposedly doing 55mph, some do., most don’t tho.
It is a problem the lower speeds. Even set at 55mph or 89kmph when its really only doing 52mph makes doing some trunks pretty hard going and basically more or less right on the limit time wise.
One of the guys who was doing our trial told me that the most dangerous thing about it was joining a motorway or dual carriageway and the vehicles already on there thinking that he would be doing 56, then having to brake or change lanes quickly to avoid him doing the lower speed
Not that i make a habit of doing it but i did a regular rond trip at 50mph. I gained almost 1 mpg, and dozed off 3 times! (just kidding). If you were on the A14 with the box jockeys doing the same speed(52) you wouldn’t notice any difference in speed.
When my new Stralis arrived it would only do 52mph. After the 1st week I landed it into Iveco on the Friday night and after some heavy words between myself and them they put it up to 56mph.
A question for you guys why are we limited to a max of 56mph when the max speed on the motoeway is 60mph
When i had my own truck and would run at 50 - 52 mph. Testing identical runs at different speeds but with everything else the same, weather, weight of load, time of day, trailer, etc, the lower speed was worth between 1 - 2 MPG compared to running at 56, and that applied with both manual and auto boxed vehicles.
1 - 2 mpg even with just the one truck was a good few quid extra in my pocket at the end of the year.
There are other benefits as well, such as keeping you out of the ‘I’m doing 0.25 kph more than you so I must overtake’ situations.
Saves money and is a far more relaxing drive so I’m not seeing the downside.
All ours have been turned down to 85 kph and on GPS apparently thats 50-51 mph .
The work load hasn’t changed,a couple of runs will put you into the 10th hour so if anything you can’t do the long jobs every night otherwise you will have to stop out and they won’t want you doing that
Honestly , looking at it , the fuel fiqures are better . It would be better if they would adjust the workload to suit the reduced road speed .
Lose anywhere between 5-10 minutes for each hour of driving.
Coffeeholic:
When i had my own truck and would run at 50 - 52 mph. Testing identical runs at different speeds but with everything else the same, weather, weight of load, time of day, trailer, etc, the lower speed was worth between 1 - 2 MPG compared to running at 56, and that applied with both manual and auto boxed vehicles.
1 - 2 mpg even with just the one truck was a good few quid extra in my pocket at the end of the year.
There are other benefits as well, such as keeping you out of the ‘I’m doing 0.25 kph more than you so I must overtake’ situations.
Saves money and is a far more relaxing drive so I’m not seeing the downside.
sounds good to me, shall be doing that in a minute,heading home from cardiff trying to use as little diesel as possible
can’t see any difference if your’e hourly paid either - more hours = more pay wonder if the fuel saving covers it
Our trucks are set at between 54 and 56, I wouldn’t mind being restricted to 50 or evn 40 as I am hourly paid! And I dont mind nights out so guess I would be onto a winner!
But I think the safety implications could be disastrous! Trucks being turned down to 50 on M way, cars still allowed to run at 70 to 85, imagine how many rear end car fatalities would happen?
:!
After the 1st week I landed it into Iveco on the Friday night and after some heavy words between myself and them they put it up to 56mph. 
