Rumours are circulating that limited use the outside lane of motorways will
be available to PCVs to allow them the opportunity to avoid getting caught
in slow moving lines of LGVs, a situation the police apparently deem
hazardous and a potential accident waiting to happen. Any thoughts out
there?
absolutely spot on, so they should too when necessary.
what they should really do is speed limit 7.5 tonners to 56mph, like hgv’s, take those out of the outside lane and put the coaches back in them like they used to be and like many foriegners still are.
more prosecutions for car and vans with trailers using the outside lane too, or perhaps more notice that they aren’t actually allowed to use the outside lane.
there are very few if any bad coach drivers, most have the utmost care of the passengers in mind when they are driving, i feel sure that if the accident rate for coaches on motorways in this country is no different now to what it was before they were removed access to the outside lanes.
put them back and this may encourage more people to use them, take the limiters back to 70mph too for them.
ps, i do not drive a coach, i am a hgv1 licence holder and do not hold a pcv/psv licence and never have.
70 mph for a coach is too fast, I saw two coaches on the m42 yesterday tailgaiting each other and the car in front. It only takes one. Fair enough them using the outside lane but only at 100kph. Cars and vans towing a small trailer should be allowed to use outside lane in this limited fashion too. Fines to be introduced if hogging outside lane. I know they are going to limit 7.5 tonners to 56 soon but are they also going to limit hgv’s to 50 mph as I have heard? Man that would be boring, be falling asleep even more then.
There are no plans to limit larger HGVs to 50 mph. The plan is for all goods vehicles to be limited to 56. Vehicles transporting hazardous goods apparently are set for a maximum of 53.
I think 70 mph is okay for a standard 12 metre single deck coach, but anything longer or double decked should be set at 65.
Isnt a double deck bus classed the same as a hgv?
Everything except cars & light vans should be limited to 60mph, simple enough to enforce, and alot easier to catch the speeders as it would be obvious who is speeding.
It seems strange that an empty rigid is limited to 56, yet a coach carrying 53 young kiddies can do 70 isnt it?
Why should there be a difference between Double and Single deck buses? There is absolutly no difference to be had when driving except the hieght which isnt realy much of a problem on motorways as you dont get Low bridges there. If anything single deck buses take more care to drive due to the longer lenth and longer rear overhang, where as Double decks are shorter and without much overhang. This is the one thing people always say to me, Oh must be hard driving a double decker.
I also drive articulated Volvo coaches, These are perfectly capable to do 70mph safely, They are also much easier to drive than the rigid version. I would not be soo sure about the city version which has the engine in the rear trailer pushing the front, It might become a little unstable above 60, But 56mph in one was pretty solid from my experiance with one.
I think the limiter’s increased in coaches to 70mph, With the use of Lane 3. After all were all profesional drivers, We are all capable of driving safely but you will ALWAYS get the bad apple who thinks its his god given right to be on the road, driving 2 ft from the vehicle in front, Usualy talking on a phone - but we get them no matter what job you do, from Van driving, taxi, bus, hgv, lgv driving - we will always have them. They will either get fed up, or get found out by there managers and kindly walked off the permises. After a while there job options are to work only for the select few indy operaters out there with no regard to the law, But only to the £££ sign!
I think im finished 
I can go have dinner now, Just finished a shift of chugging along the M8 all day in a nice double decker coach
johnny:
what they should really do is speed limit 7.5 tonners to 56mph, like hgv’s,
But that willl just cause more long overtaking maneuvers when one truck is doing a 1/4K more and the one on the inside wont lift off. 
I disagree about single and double deckers but this is just my experience. In Ireland, double decker buses are only permitted 40 mph on single lane A roads whereas coaches are allowed 50.
We have Scania/Volvo double decker buses. At top speed (50 - 55 mph) they need constant attention to stay in a straight line and lean a lot going through even slight corners. The mid engined B10M coach sticks to the road far better.
I thought they did allready :rolleyes:.
take all other vehicles off the motorways and leave it for truckers 