I’m a bit [zb’d] off at myself tonight. - I got flashed by a Revenue Generator, opps! I mean Speed camera on the A556 between Manchester & Knutsford, the posted limit is 50MPH, unfortunately,as I’m sure we all know…, the limit for HGV’s is 40MPH & numb nuts here was doing approx 47MPH… What really narks me is I know ■■■■ well about that stretch of road, its notorious for us truckers…
I let my concentration lapse my lame excuse is that I forgot to set my cruise control to 40 rather than 50 which I use alot to keep my speed in check and I’m sure I’ll now have to pay up (£60 I’m guessing?) and have points on my licence again. Grrr!
I can’t complain too much in all honesty it was entirely my fault for a momentary lapse, until tonight my licence has been clean for a fair few years, not bad for somebody who lives on the roads…
I was caught on that stretch a year or two ago when I was pulling fpr TNT out of Winsford
With travelling along there in the dark hours,I must admit my concentration was not as sharp as it should be and I never even saw the flash.
First thing I knew was when the traffic office numpty told me the following week,“You’ve been clocked speeding on the Chester road,most of our drivers have been done along there,and some of the Morrison’s drivers have been done twice!”.He thought it was quite humerous.
I said,“Thanks a lot for the heads up pal!”.
Soon kicked TNT into touch!
It didn’t lighten my mood because I’d been done two weeks earlier in my car on the A51 at Weston.
To go from a clean licence to 6 points in two weeks was definitely not planned!
If I remember correctly,there was a big item about this stretch of road in the truck magazines about how many truckers had been clocked because of the confusion about the definition of a dual carriageway and the confusing 50 limit.
I feel some of your pain my friend. I was done on a quiet stretch of road 55 in a 7.5. tonner. We could all drive at 40 for a designated week and really screw up the road network.
alamcculloch:
I feel some of your pain my friend. I was done on a quiet stretch of road 55 in a 7.5. tonner. We could all drive at 40 for a designated week and really screw up the road network.
I already do and get ■■■■■■ off by the idiots who think that sitting 2 metres away from my arse end will make me go faster.
Smee:
I will let you all into a little secret of how to avoid being caught by a speed camera…
…Don’t exceed the speed limit…Simples
But we don’t have ‘a’ ‘speed limit’ we have variable speed limits in which what was ‘the speed limit’ suddenly becomes a different lower speed limit because some idiot sitting behind a desk who’s one one of the commie,green,army decides that it would be best all round if we all travel at an ever decreasing rate of knots on roads which should be and were subject to a higher limit.So you can be driving on a British motorway,single carriageway,or dual carriageway which we’ve paid for out of our taxes to use at a totally different speed than what the PC [zb] decide to post on it on a whim even to the point where you’re on a motorway subject to the national speed limit which continuously keeps changing to different lower limits while you’re actually running on it.That’s even before we get into the argument concerning truck speed limiters set below the national motorway speed limit and vehicles which were subject to a 70 mph limit suddenly being limited to much less (coaches and 7.5 tonners) and the ridiculous outdated 40 mph single carriageway national speed limit for trucks which causes even more problems (how many people have been involved in fatal overtaking accidents caused by inpatience which probably would’nt have happened if trucks were travelling faster on them?.But have you notice how it always seems to be those roads which have totally unsuitable lower or variable limits on them which always seem to be the ones which have a camera/s ‘strategically placed’ on them for maximum conviction potential.
Smee:
I agree with most of what you say, but the speed limit is set you have signed warning of this and the law is the law, right or wrong…
In the case of the A556 the posted limit is 50 so it requires the LGV driver to know what the speed limit is in that situation for their vehicle - going by the posted limit is therefore not an option.
Smee:
I agree with most of what you say, but the speed limit is set you have signed warning of this and the law is the law, right or wrong…
That’s the problem.It’s the same law which says let’s spend millions building a dual carriageway or motorway with 2 or 3 lanes in each direction so that we’ve got one lane on the inside and one more to go faster than that one and maybe one more to go even faster than both of those two all of that so traffic can run legally at around just 10-15 mph faster than it could when it was a single carriageway road.But then after spending all of our money doing it they decide let’s put the same limit,or an even lower one for some vehicles,on it than it had when it was a single carriageway.
Smee:
I agree with most of what you say, but the speed limit is set you have signed warning of this and the law is the law, right or wrong…
In the case of the A556 the posted limit is 50 so it requires the LGV driver to know what the speed limit is in that situation for their vehicle - going by the posted limit is therefore not an option.
Truckinghell has said that this was caused by a simple lapse of concentration, he wasnt concentrating on the road. that in itself should be enough to make anyone he was following worry, he accepts it was his fault for his momentary lapse,and I am not judging him here.
But from the other comments it should be fairly simple for a professional driver to work out from the road markings what the speed limit is a motorway speed limit is 60mph, a dual carriageway is 50mph and a single carriageway is and should remain at 40mph
Carryfast should remember when the speed limits for lorries were raised especially as he always talks of his beloved A frames. The speed limit was raised from 30mph to 40mph and to 60mph on motorways.
I doubt I will be popular for this post, but the drivers who suggest that going faster will cause less accidents because of frustration might also make the situation worse. If a truck is doing 50mph the traveling salesman in the BMW or Ford Mondeo will still want to overtake using the same hand gestures
(how many people have been involved in fatal overtaking accidents caused by inpatience which probably would’nt have happened if trucks were travelling faster on them?
I would counter that it is probably the same amount of people involved in head on smashes because they misjudged the speed of the other vehicles as they tried to overtake.
Speed limits in Europe are generally lower than the UK except for France with many roads signed at 60kmh although many still have even lower speeds for heavy vehicles
I travelled on the A92 between Dundee and Arbroath at the weekend. When I was a child the road was single carriage way 60 mph. speed limit.Today its a dual carriage way with a 40 mph limit What is all that about.
alamcculloch:
I travelled on the A92 between Dundee and Arbroath at the weekend. When I was a child the road was single carriage way 60 mph. speed limit.Today its a dual carriage way with a 40 mph limit What is all that about.
It comes down to what the authorities think that the lowest numpty driver can cope with.
Wheel Nut:
Truckinghell has said that this was caused by a simple lapse of concentration, he wasnt concentrating on the road. that in itself should be enough to make anyone he was following worry, he accepts it was his fault for his momentary lapse,and I am not judging him here.
But from the other comments it should be fairly simple for a professional driver to work out from the road markings what the speed limit is a motorway speed limit is 60mph, a dual carriageway is 50mph and a single carriageway is and should remain at 40mph
Carryfast should remember when the speed limits for lorries were raised especially as he always talks of his beloved A frames. The speed limit was raised from 30mph to 40mph and to 60mph on motorways.
I doubt I will be popular for this post, but the drivers who suggest that going faster will cause less accidents because of frustration might also make the situation worse. If a truck is doing 50mph the traveling salesman in the BMW or Ford Mondeo will still want to overtake using the same hand gestures
(how many people have been involved in fatal overtaking accidents caused by inpatience which probably would’nt have happened if trucks were travelling faster on them?
I would counter that it is probably the same amount of people involved in head on smashes because they misjudged the speed of the other vehicles as they tried to overtake.
Speed limits in Europe are generally lower than the UK except for France with many roads signed at 60kmh although many still have even lower speeds for heavy vehicles
When I started driving HGV’s in 1980 the limits were 40 on single carriageway,50 dual,and 60 on motorways and no drivers who I saw then bothered to differentiate between drawbars or artics and if you look under the how fast did they go thread on the older stuff you’ll see what most of us thought about speed limits including most of the older drivers who I worked with but the difference today is that I still hold exactly the same views on speed limits as we all did back then but for some reason too many people seem to have swallowed the modern day PC bs.But I’d always prefer an A frame wagon and drag anytime than those artics which I was driving at those types of speeds because the jacknife risk is’nt there especially in the 4x2 configuration tractor units which were regularly driven (safely) at the 60 mph motorway limits back then and surely you’re not trying to say that everyone,if anyone, from this country at that time on continental work stuck by those continental speed limits in those great days before limiters and even better before tachos?.But even today I’ve seen plenty of trucks running through France on single carriageway RN’s at well over 40 mph without any major disasters happening and that extra speed does make people less inpatient when following them and when waiting for a good place and the right situation to overtake them.But of course we’re now limited to less than 60 mph on British motorways which we’ve paid a fortune for and on which we’re going much slower with much more powerful vehicles than we were 30+ years ago.While at the same time the rail industry shouts about the benefits of running at ever higher speeds both from the point of view of fuel consumption and safety.But the Germans have been trying to run larger trucks at higher speeds on their motorways for years but nothing seems to have happened so far.No prizes for guessing why.
I read your link, an interesting concept and another push for LHV from a consulting agency. I doubt the rest of the fatherland are going to put up with that though. Whether you believe the climate change argument or not, I doubt the people in Germany will be happy to see a 48 tonne truck with 2 trailers running on the many 2 lane motorways. As you will know there are vast numbers of the BAB that are restricted to a single lane for heavy trucks. The general limit in Holland & Germany is 80km or 60km on most country roads, with even lower 50km speeds in built up areas.
I mentioned that France ran at higher speeds which you then used as a bone of contention in your reasoning. 30 years ago the roads were much less congested than today, This thread hasn’t really anything to do with the rail argument, which I have said in many posts is not the whole answer, however to move huge quantities of fuel, oil, chemicals or wheat, it has to be more economical, road friendly and more efficient to have one or two engines do the work of sixty lorries. No-one wants to drive a supermarket trolley locally when the open road beckons. I didn’t have the opportunity like you to drive in every state of the USA, but did my fair share in Europe and most drivers did actually stick to the lower limits, Italy and Portugal apparently were very expensive and the fines were levied on the spot. What we did do was to act like the locals, unobtrusive, plenty of small breaks and plenty of hours:P
This thread could be batted back and forth for weeks without resolve. However my stance remains, listen to the radio between 6am and 1900 tomorrow and tell me how many accidents & road closures you hear about. If drivers do not behave themselves, then current legislation will be tightened to make us conform.
As I am typing this, a good mate is reading it over my shoulder, he hasn’t driven a truck since Tilling Stevens stopped supplying the engines but his rant is the stupidity seen on the A42 / M42 with the two trucks overtaking for 9.7 miles with a speed difference that needs measuring with a motor racing transponder.
Thanks for the replys chaps, as I said in the OP, yes entirely my own fault, and I feel a right idiot for it, to make it worse, I was being followed by an old workmate from Irlam’s at Stoke where I previously worked (now at Stobart, Middleditch) so at least he got a reminder to check his speed as he saw the “flash flash” on my back doors!
On the plus side, I’m sure a few here have raised a smile at the thought of a Stobart driver getting caught out!
