I think they should be banned from motorways if they can not do 56 mph they are a nusance and selfish along with cars that do 48mph .
Retired Old ■■■■:
Maybe no “apparent” health problems, cf. But my contention has more to do with the possibility of brain damage. Why do you think that the vast majority of old lorry drivers (you & me included) are complete nutters?
Aw come on ROF, that’s unfair, I reckon we were all complete nutters long before we got into transport 
puntabrava:
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
dont know why we cant run on red diesel like busses and farmers can as i always thought we run an essential service like they do i.e without trucks the country gets nowt!Used to be a good advantage at 3.5ppl, and white was 35ppl, now red is 70ppl. Do buses run on red?
No they don’t, they run on the same diesel the same as everybody else. Bus firms can claim an operators’ grant back from the government for every mile operated in service however which is the ‘development’ of the old fuel duty rebate that was in force.
O.K. Simon, maybe you DO have to be a nutter before you are allowed into transport. Just because I went directly from my pram into a cab I tend to think everyone followed the same route.
If I had my time over…
Retired Old ■■■■:
O.K. Simon, maybe you DO have to be a nutter before you are allowed into transport. Just because I went directly from my pram into a cab I tend to think everyone followed the same route.
If I had my time over…
If you had your time over, you’d probably do exactly the same again 
Funnily enough in another post I put up with regards to asking why no young blood was coming into haulage one of the reasons I thought was speed limiters being set so low along with the high taxation on fuel etc of course no matter what I put on some hero hits back that I am talking nonsense. They reckoned the government had no choice with speed limiters as the EU insisted on them, well its funny how years ago when the EU demanded fuel be taxed in line with the rest of Europe the worst chancellor Britain ever had ie Gordon Brown sent them packing insisting that was a national matter.funny how they can hunt the EU when it suits them. Of course I am of the view that like it or not, if you want to run lorries you have to buy diesel!!!
I used to drive a truck that was limited to 52mph. No governor fitted, it was an old D series that was just flat out at 52mph. It was certainly relaxed, as you never had to worry about overtaking things on the motorway.
LIBERTY_GUY:
I used to drive a truck that was limited to 52mph. No governor fitted, it was an old D series that was just flat out at 52mph. It was certainly relaxed, as you never had to worry about overtaking things on the motorway.
We have been restricted to 52 for a few years now i don’t find it a problem you soon get used to it and i find it relaxing, let’s face it you save 4 minutes for every hour you drive on the motorway, so Bristol to Sittingbourne which i do sometimes at 4 hrs i could save 16 minutes at best but with heavy traffic etc i’ll probably save no more than 10 minutes so big deal.
Slower speeds definately save fuel with a truck that has a wide enough torque band, and would not cause any engine damage. On a 300 mile trip the time difference is about 15 minutes, so not a gret deal slower. Also if you are on hourly pay what’s the problem?
xamtex:
a company i drove for on the agency a while back had 6 of its 55 plate dafs turned down to 85kph and the savings were so good the new fleet on 58 plates were all at 85kph and they reckoned they were saving over 3 grand a week in feul at that 1 depot alone.
more recently i was driving a MAN wagon and drag to bridgwater from crick 5 nights a week and then they turned it down to 85kph and i was putting 10 litres of feul LESS in each night…thats 1 truck…do the maths.
the autobox dint like it but as said…use the manual shift to keep it out of top on hills.
i find that at 85kph the driving is much less stressful…no more 1/2 kph race for miles side by side and when im paid by the hour its more profitable for me aswell.
I
This!
Best thing they ever done limiting our new fleet to 52!
For example. It’s now 10 litres less for a Felixstowe run. That’s an average size run. 23 trucks, twice a day, 10 litres each…
I used to drive at 52mph and it’s great, just sit in the inside lane minding your own business and let all those who have to go everywhere flat out worry about what they’re doing. You have none of this idiotic carry-on where you’re involved in overtakes which take half an hour wondering whether the guy coming past is going to come in to soon and all that ■■■■■■■■.
On the odd occasion you come across Tesco or whoever at 48mph you also have an extra 4mph to scoot round them without taking all day.
Many Companies like Scania run courses for the benefit of Drivers and their Employers,to show how their particular vehicle should be driven to achieve maximum efficiency.
Drivers being drivers always know best and drive the same way as they have always done irrespective of what they have been shown or told.
When the Company I worked for changed to Scania,we went on a course run by Scania,on a 40 mile run there was only 3 minute difference time wise to the way I normally drove,and on a round trip of 200 mile the fuel was 2 mpg better.
Olog Hai:
I used to drive at 52mph and it’s great, just sit in the inside lane minding your own business and let all those who have to go everywhere flat out worry about what they’re doing. You have none of this idiotic carry-on where you’re involved in overtakes which take half an hour wondering whether the guy coming past is going to come in to soon and all that ■■■■■■■■.
Without wishing to put the cat among the pigeons, if I’m being overtaken by someone going four inches per week faste rthan me, I just knock my cruise off and let them past. Granted, this is easier to do on nights when there’s rarely anyone behind, but I can’t see much point in keeping someone out in the middle lane for longer than necessary if they’re going faster than you. It’s very rare I keep my truck on the limiter these days when I’m being overtaken.
On the subject of speed limiters, why do we now have loads of trailers with things like “LImited to 50mph” or “52mph” written on them - but being pulled by third party tractors that have no such limits. If you’re lucky, once will tear past you at 56 in the roadworks. Some euro cab hire firms will be passing you at 60 though, pulling a supermarket trailer.
The signs should be covered up to prevent misleading the public (let alone the rest of us drivers!) surely?
limeyphil:
In pre speed limiter days you’d be doing 65mph at 1400 revs.
correct Phil, and when we were on the wire in our scanias top of the green WASN’T going to get us caught by SMOKEY in his JAM BUTTY! 
them were the days 
Winseer:
The signs should be covered up to prevent misleading the public (let alone the rest of us drivers!) surely?
To be fair Winseer if you’re sat on the limiter and a supermarket truck with a “limited to 50mph” sticker comes hooning past you it’s neither ambiguous nor misleading is it? I can’t imagine that the sticker on the back of anything changes the way anyone drives.
It certainly doesn’t me and I’ve definitely made a dog last a day or two after Christmas!
limeyphil:
It dosn’t save any fuel at all, Usually quite the opposite.
A lorry set at 58mph but shows 55mph on the tacho will cover more miles than the computer thinks it has, Therefore it will have a lower mpg figure on paper than the actual mpg.
The opposite happens with those that have been wound back. A lorry doing 52mph but showing 55mph will cover less miles than the computer thinks it has, Therefore it will have a higher mpg figure on paper than the actual mpg.Also, The manufactuers make trucks to run at an optimum rpm for maximum fuel consumption. This may be 1400 rpm but the pen pushers want it down to 1300, Why mess with it?
In pre speed limiter days you’d be doing 65mph at 1400 revs.
I think you’ll find that this was not the case, in pre limiter days most lorries would’ve been doing 1700-1800RPM at 65mph
Now, to speed and the effect it has on fuel use, the faster you go the more fuel you use and that is a fact, the laws of physics are at work here and they are not disputable
There are four factors that can improve fuel mileage and all four of them can be improved by lowering speed.
Those factors are first and foremost, aerodynamic drag, the slower you go, the less drag there is and you will use less fuel 
Secondly, rolling resistance, tyre choice is a huge factor here, but whatever tyres you have, you are still overcoming rolling resistance and the slower you go, the less energy you need to overcome it
Thirdly, mechanical resistance, low friction oils can help here, but as with rolling resistance, it has to be overcome and the faster you want to go, the more energy you’ll need
Lastly, thermal efficiency, not a lot you can do here apart from making sure your engine is performing at its optimum efficiency, decent air filters, valves set up correctly that kind of thing, engines will have a sweet spot where the SFC (Specific Fuel Consumption) is at its lowest, but that is always triumphed by lower speed
So the slower you go, the better your mpg will be
You can say that you’ve tried going slower and it has no effect, but that’s not the truth, you need to measure for more than half an hour to take into account all the variables. so many things can have an impact on mpg, different trailers with different tyres, not just different brands with different rolling resistance, but a worn down tyre will give a 6% saving over a new tyre. Then you have the wind, this has a massive impact on mpg, then there are different road surfaces and they can contribute greatly to rolling resistance, a few extra cars in front of you at a couple of roundabouts will have a detrimental effect when compared to rolling through.
If you want to get accurate mpg figures for your lorry you will have to start with a full tank, run for at least a week and on the last fill for the week add up all the miles between, divide this by the fuel used and you have your true mpg figure, do the same again for another week at a lower speed and if nothing has changed in regard to the four points I mentioned above, I guarantee you that you will have used less fuel
I ran fully loaded down to Southfleet on Friday, I then fully reloaded at Northfleet to Thrapston, then ran empty to Bicker in Lincolnshire, I averaged 10.8mpg running at 85kph on the motorways, the most efficient way to save fuel is to accelerate slowly, from Bicker to Peterborough I can average 9.5mpg and that is all single carriageways with lots of roundabouts, it really is about how you accelerate and decelerate upto junctions.
We run heavy too carrying a lot of veg/fruit.
NewLad:
I ran fully loaded down to Southfleet on Friday, I then fully reloaded at Northfleet to Thrapston, then ran empty to Bicker in Lincolnshire, I averaged 10.8mpg running at 85kph on the motorways, the most efficient way to save fuel is to accelerate slowly, from Bicker to Peterborough I can average 9.5mpg and that is all single carriageways with lots of roundabouts, it really is about how you accelerate and decelerate upto junctions.We run heavy too carrying a lot of veg/fruit.
Unless you filled the tank for each leg of the journey the numbers you gave are not going to be true numbers, however even if your dash readout is inaccurate (99% are) if you get 10mpg on one leg and 10.5mpg on another, then there’s a good chance that you used less fuel on the second one
Well done for trying to get decent mpg anyway, the driver can be responsible for a 30% swing in fuel economy, the best drivers being 30% better than the worst, sounds like you would be up there in the best drivers category
I think the limiter should be put up to 70. Some lorries have the limiter put up and they don’t crash