Has anyone noticed the number of 4x4, transit size vehicles and cars that are now using the outside lane with trailers or has the law changed?
These drivers are not towing a tiny lunchbox trailer but big trailers for carrying a mini digger and horse boxes with horses inside and are often breaking the speed limit.
Are these driver qualified to tow a trailer if they passed a cat B test after 1997? If not, do they know they have not got the B+E on their licence.
Where are the speed cops when these drivers are commiting the offence? If I used the outside lane, you can bet Pc Plod would like me to “sit in the back seat of the nice shiny police car” and be pay a visit to my local police station.
The law hasn’t changed, these idots just choose to ignore it or have never even known that law.
It amazes me to see trucks speed by me in the extreem left lane (USA) regardless of the huge fine they face, they are usually Mexicans or Hispanic guys, not that I want to seem racist, its just the truth.
I do it in a coach in the very early hours of the morning if there are two artics trying to overtake for 10 miles. Always get flashed in and never a ‘non flash of disgust’.
Write and complain.
They won’t know the law.
On a similar note, I bet if the police started doing spot checks on drivers towing trailers & caravans they would find a lot aged around 30 or under doing so without the B+E entitlement on their license. Not because they are deliberatly breaking the law, just didn’t know and assumed they were OK because their dad can do it.
cieranc:
Write and complain.
Dear Mr Ifor Williams…
You can drive in the outside lane with a trailer because there are very few plod left on the roads and the cameras are forward facing 
If I’m towing a car on a trailer with the van then I’ll use lane 3 to overtake 2 lorries that are both stuck on the limiter trying to pass each other. I’ve got the momentum up and not gonna lose it just coz the driver being overtaken wont knock it back a notch to let the other one past. If I back off, sit behind and wait til the truck in lane 2 is back in lane 1 then try pass them both with only 100hp towing 5 tons all up, then it’s just causing more congestion behind as I crawl past both trucks trying to get my speed back up. Then I’ll pull back into lane 1 in front of the trucks only to hit a hill and as I’ve no momentum, my speed will drop down to 40mph meaning the trucks have to pull out and pass me again.
You can tow a combination of upto 3500KG gross train weight without a B+E.
Just sayin
I used the outside lane on 2 occasions coming back off my hols on Monday with my caravan on the back.
First time was because I was passing a truck when we hit a downhill, he left me for dust, I was doing 60mph on the sat nav (63 on my speedo), was most of the way past when he let it roll, he must’ve been clocking 75 - 80 to get so far ahead of me, so I dropped to inside lane, watched him approach another truck just before the uphill and he pulled out to the middle lane. As I approached, I pulled to middle, started closing on said muppet who was now losing speed fast and would not manage the overtake so I pulled to outside lane and passed him.
Second was a Sainsbury wagon passing an R Swains truck, yeah right, 3rd lane and gone, not a chance I’m dropping to 50mph for 10 miles.
My car will sit at 60mph easily all day long with the 'van on the back, but drop to 50 and it’s down to 4th gear, now, in normal circumstances I don’t mind, but when it’s just because these tools want to block the road, I’m off-ski and I’ll take the risk of the fine / points.
In the past, I’ve also done it in a truck with no limiter and in a coach, but again, always only if I think it’s going to be more than a couple of miles before 1 gets the sense to realise it was a futile manouver.
To be honest, the 1st guy in this really wound me up, it’s fine using the downhill momentum, but to blatently blast over the speed limit like that, and then start a passing manouver on another vehicle when he had no chance of succeeding, if he’d have held 60mph, he’d have been a comfortable distance behind that truck at the start of the hill and the middle lane wouldn’t have been blocked - you just know that even after failing to pass, he wouldn’t have pulled in and stayed in the middle lane to try and pass after the summit.