rob most of the parcel companies have the speed limiters set to the maximum tolerance + or - upto 10% so reality most trucks will sit between 52-54 so the ones that seams to come flying past are actually legal they are doing an actual 56mph even though you tacho will read fifty 56 your actually doing 53 ish so how do you know what speed you truck does the answer is to get hold of gps
receiver and use it in the truck and gps speed is more acutate than you speedo though there is a time delay of upto 2 seconds on speed delay on the gps units display
Parcel companies are the worst, no its the drivers who are the worst like
the Richards at our place who are pulling fuses to gain 10 minutes on a 3 hour run.
I am paid on hours, I get paid 8 hrs from my start time less 3/4 for a break so if
I start at 23.45 my finish time is 08.30.
I work as a full time relief because it is boring doing the same run for 25 years so I go to all our company drops.
Im sick of the jibes I get because Joe Bloggs gets here 10 minutes before you, where have you been?
I dont want to drive on cruise control at 95kmh so I drive at my speed. I still get tipped, washed and in bed 1/2 hour before my finish time.
What is the rush? 
alix776:
rob most of the parcel companies have the speed limiters set to the maximum tolerance + or - upto 10% so reality most trucks will sit between 52-54 so the ones that seams to come flying past are actually legal they are doing an actual 56mph even though you tacho will read fifty 56 your actually doing 53 ish so how do you know what speed you truck does the answer is to get hold of gps
receiver and use it in the truck and gps speed is more acutate than you speedo though there is a time delay of upto 2 seconds on speed delay on the gps units display
Alix, I agree with your theory but in reality my wagon doesn’t do “53ish” mph. When driving through the day it has no problems keeping up with everyone else who does 56mph (assumed to be doing 56mph given the quantity of wagons) and in fact if I wanted to really push it I would be able to creep past most of those too so I’m fairly sure it’s set at 56mph, maybe 56.5mph.
However, TNT and the like have no problem coming past me with a good 1-2mph difference; APC being the biggest culprits.
its not a theoery rob it fact all admit if im doing 56 on the tacho some trucks do come past havent had a rpoblem with tnt only had a couple of subbies of theres come screaming past the trucks may be doing 60 which is legal UK limit as opposed to 85kph which is EU legal max the 85kph max allows a tolerance up to 90kph ie 53 and 56 respectivley
GPS handheld units work by comparing the time taken between the last position and the present one. They do this once per second. I’ve found the tachos in our coaches to be accurate to 1 mph. Goverened speeds vary between 97.5 and 99.5 km/h which in my opinion is not enough to overtake 90 km/h trucks safely.
Cliff Warby:
daveb0789:
From next year 2005, all goods vehicles > 3.5 tons must have have speed limiter set in such a way that the speed cannot exceed 90 km/h (56 mph)It really is getting ridiculous over there, if you have to have speed limiters, at least set them at a more realistic speed in regards to the rest of the traffic, if cars can do 70 mph why can’t trucks be allowed to do at least 65 mph?
I think the answer to this is that it is most fuel efficient and more environmentally friendly for trucks to run at this speed (56 mph). Making sure the lower weight trucks have no top speed advantage over heavier ones makes for fairer competition. (my opinion)
You may all think I’m mad, but I think speed limits should not be changed. I like the fact that despite the fact my gaffer wants me tipped and back yesterday, I can only go as fast as my limiter / the speed limits allow me. It’s 2 fingers to him if he thinks otherwise.
Also, there’s two many drivers out there who are in too much of a hurry as it is. How many of you listen to Sally Traffic of an afternoon and think something Mrs Mix would edit when you hear of a driver who has overturned his wagon on a busy roundabout and caused a 5 mile tail-back? If the speed limit was higher I think there would be more accidents. And more injuries / fatalities, and I definitely don’t want that.
Speed limits = more relaxing drive 
i was coming up the M8 westbound last night and just short of j4 bathgate/whitburn there was an artic on the hard shoulder( boyle transport.) 2-3 mins later he passed me and the next thing he is gone.now i’m sitting at 56 and i thought ok it’s a scannia and they are slightly faster than this MAN,so he passes me flashed him in give him his due he said thankyou,but that was the last i saw of him.now i’m wondering why was he pulled up on the hard shoulder he was not on the phone so mayby he was pulling the fuse on the limiter i don’t know. or was it that he had to catch the boat at cairnryan or stranraer from our depot to cairnryan is about 2hrs in clear traffic,from where he passed me your talking 15mins more on to that time.if i’m not mistaken the boat sails at midnight from cairnryan so this is at 19.30, 2hrs 15mins down road your talking 21.45 -22.00 your going to arrive for the midnight boat,with plenty of time to have a 45 if required and still make the boat. is why put himself at risk by getting stopped by the police and cause yourself more hassle and could end up causing you to miss the boat or cost you your licence, is the job really that good that you have to do what the boss wants because he has told mr customer that they will have there freight on saturday morning no matter what the cost. i think not.there is always the next boat,yes it might be 9 hrs later or so, but at least your legal,and the customer would still get his freight saturday.
Cliff Warby:
daveb0789:
From next year 2005, all goods vehicles > 3.5 tons must have have speed limiter set in such a way that the speed cannot exceed 90 km/h (56 mph)seems to me that the more the faceless beaurocrats in Westminster/Brussels regulate your everyday lives the more you seem to want them to!
Yeah right…course we do !
dont be so silly, telling me you can influence anything over there?..nope, didnt think so…good 'ole Americky, the land of the free (read ‘lobotomised’) & the home of the brave (read ‘dumb’…sir, yes sir 
) .
The rules are not something we can change, just like you have no say whatsoever regarding what ‘chimp features’ Bush does over there.
Legislation is legislation wherever you live, personally I would rather be limited to 56 mph than have the extra stress (yes there is more stress if you drive faster, been proved many times) of tear arsing about at 75 mph in 50s technology.
alix776:
rob most of the parcel companies have the speed limiters set to the maximum tolerance + or - upto 10% so reality most trucks will sit between 52-54 so the ones that seams to come flying past are actually legal they are doing an actual 56mph even though you tacho will read fifty 56 your actually doing 53 ish so how do you know what speed you truck does the answer is to get hold of gps
receiver and use it in the truck and gps speed is more acutate than you speedo though there is a time delay of upto 2 seconds on speed delay on the gps units display
Scania deliberately make their vehicles over read by 2 Kph so the limiter kicks in at a lower true speed thereby increasing fuel economy & making it look like a more economical motor.
Next time toy go in for tacho head seals ask the bloke that seals the head, its true.
That is why loads of stuff gets passed as its only doing 53/54/55 really.
Lostpup:
Also, there’s two many drivers out there who are in too much of a hurry as it is. How many of you listen to Sally Traffic of an afternoon and think something Mrs Mix would edit when you hear of a driver who has overturned his wagon on a busy roundabout and caused a 5 mile tail-back?
Not all rollovers are down to high speed they can occur at low speeds as well. I remember an interesting article in one of the truck mags a while back on low speed rollovers where they explained how it could happen.
malcn:
how come when i am tootling along on cruise control at 55 so many new lorrys come flying past , remember before speed limiters i used to go along at around 62 ( volvo f12) and most other drivers did the same there was only a minority who used to really fly, and the job was done a lot safer with not so much tailgating and if you needed to get past a slower vehicle it was done in no time at all, not like today when you spend ages side by side, trying to pass each other, as the speed limit on motorways is 60 why limit trucks to 55 is this a case for infringment of our civil libertys?? being forced to do less than the law allows, on the note of vehicles passing each other if you are struggling to pass me i will just dab the exhaust brake to let you in but do you ralise what this does to fuel economy,? oh life was much easier then
I dunno, on occasion, for a special treat, id wind my buffalo up to over 70, got to be in the adequete mood tho, it was a interesting ride! 
Mal.
I was taught about the dangers of slow-speed rollover when I first did tank work. Tankers, containers full of loose freight, and hanging meat wagons are, as ever, most susceptible… 
It’s difficult to explain but without using diagrams, but I’ll give it a shot… 
It’s most likely to happen on either roundabouts or a series of s-bends…I’ll take roundabouts for this example, and use a tanker as our hypothetical vehicle, for ease of explanation.
Think about where the liquid in a tanker goes as it takes a roundabout, a step at a time…
- Tank driving straight. Load is fairly stable, err-ing towards the back of the tank due to a combination of inertia (of the load) and forward movement (or the lorry).
- Tank brakes as it approaches roundabout. Inertia means that the load continues to move forward, ending up at the front of the tank.
- Tank accelerates onto the roundabout whilst steering left The load heads for the back of the tank again, this time into the right hand corner.
- Tank steers right around roundabout Load stays at the back of the tank, but goes into the left-hand corner.
- Tank steers left to exit roundabout The load goes back to the rear right-hand corner again.
- Tank straightens out after leaving roundabout The load settles centrally at the back of the tank, and all is well.
That, of course, is the ideal. Notice that apart from when he first approached the roundabout, our driver didn’t brake.
If he had dabbed his brakes a tiny tad too hard…well, lets take the point where he has finished steering left (onto the island) and has started to steer right again…
If he braked just at the wrong moment, instead of just going from one side to the other of the back of the tank, the load will go diagonally across the tank…so it goes right to left (because of the change of direction) and back to front (because of the braking)…finishing up in the front left hand corner of the tank…
It is this diagonal serge into the “shoulder” of the vehicle which can make it flop, even at very low speeds…I kid you not, a fitter from the firm I was on when this was explained to me took a loaded tank out of the yard and put it on it’s side at less than 20mph as a result of this one…no-one’s fault, just lack of knowledge on his part and unfortunate timing with the brakes!
How to avoid it? Take all roundabouts slowly, and above all, smoothly if you are pulling a trailer which contains any type of “loose” freight - or a rigid of the same ilk, for that matter…and try and spot the cars cutting 'round which might make you brake early enough to do it gently. 
Hope that makes some sort of sense… 
Thanks for that Lucy, that was pretty much what the article in the truck mag I read said. Interesting reading
Well Put Lucy, now had I been writing that I would have condensed it into:
Beacuse the load sloshes about Lol
Cav203k:
Cliff Warby:
daveb0789:
From next year 2005, all goods vehicles > 3.5 tons must have have speed limiter set in such a way that the speed cannot exceed 90 km/h (56 mph)seems to me that the more the faceless beaurocrats in Westminster/Brussels regulate your everyday lives the more you seem to want them to!
Yeah right…course we do !
dont be so silly, telling me you can influence anything over there?..nope, didnt think so…good 'ole Americky, the land of the free (read ‘lobotomised’) & the home of the brave (read ‘dumb’…sir, yes sir
The rules are not something we can change, just like you have no say whatsoever regarding what ‘chimp features’ Bush does over there.
Legislation is legislation wherever you live, personally I would rather be limited to 56 mph than have the extra stress (yes there is more stress if you drive faster, been proved many times) of tear arsing about at 75 mph in 50s technology.
At least someone took the bait and bit!