Why do the majority of so called Proffesional drivers act like big bullies by following rediculously close to the vehicle in front?As anyone with an ounce of sense knows this is a very dangerous practice and causes many bad accidents.The sooner the Police get these morons off the road the better.No doubt some will come up with the pathetic excuses of speed limiters or fuel saving or not enough time to do the job but basically they are bad drivers with no consideration for the safety of other road users or their own.Most pople these days have no respect for truck drivers and its not hard to se why with such a poor standard of driving.[/b]
Or such a poor standard of spelling… 
Welcome jimmy0000 
Do I assume that you have been ‘tailgated’ by a lorry 
If yes, how did you make the situation safer
jimmy0000:
Why do the majority of so called Proffesional drivers act like big bullies by following rediculously close to the vehicle in front?As anyone with an ounce of sense knows this is a very dangerous practice and causes many bad accidents.The sooner the Police get these morons off the road the better.No doubt some will come up with the pathetic excuses of speed limiters or fuel saving or not enough time to do the job but basically they are bad drivers with no consideration for the safety of other road users or their own.Most pople these days have no respect for truck drivers and its not hard to se why with such a poor standard of driving.[/b]
I agree with you about tailgating, but car drivers tailgate too, it’s just more noticeable when you’ve got a truck too close, that’s not an excuse for lorry drivers just an observation.
On the question of bad drivers, why do so many car drivers refuse to adjust their speed to suite the traffic flow when going on to a motorway, I’m not trying to take the topic away from bad truck drivers just pointing out that there are good and bad in all walks of life so don’t tar us all with the same brush 
Had a problem lately with tailgating?
jimmy0000:
Why do the majority of so called Proffesional drivers act like big bullies by following rediculously close to the vehicle in front?As anyone with an ounce of sense knows this is a very dangerous practice and causes many bad accidents.The sooner the Police get these morons off the road the better.No doubt some will come up with the pathetic excuses of speed limiters or fuel saving or not enough time to do the job but basically they are bad drivers with no consideration for the safety of other road users or their own.Most pople these days have no respect for truck drivers and its not hard to se why with such a poor standard of driving.[/b]
so much anger.
Maybe try going faster than 56mph and if your not don’t speed up when they try to overtake you 
That has GOT to me one of my pet peeves. Even when driving coaches you still get the driver that thought it was clever to drive at 50, you’d catch up with them with cruise control on try to pass them and then they speed up.
You sink in behind them looking sheepish because the cars that are now passing you think you can’t drive.
Oh and guess what the car in front slows down again
Si 
I think it’s someone who got bored with complaining about his layby being used as a tip and has come up with a new campaign against us now.
Problem is it’s not always as it seems, I end up tailgating cars briefly several times a day because the morons think it’s clever to cut in about a foot infront of me, or slow down significantly after pulling infront of me. I will either slow down or pull out to overtake if there’s room but you can’t just jam the brakes on when someone does this to you.
The other problem is idiots doing the as above said, driving their car at 54mph and then speeding up as you overtake, then slowing down once you pull back in, or coming off the sliproad and being so incompetant they cannot figure out how to get themselves onto the motorway without causing chaos.
Some trucks do tailgate though, had one behind me for about 5-6miles tonight on the M40, nothing on the motorway so didn’t bother me and it’s him that’ll get squashed if I have to brake hard.
jimmy0000:
Why do the majority of so called Proffesional drivers act like big bullies by following rediculously close to the vehicle in front?As anyone with an ounce of sense knows this is a very dangerous practice and causes many bad accidents.The sooner the Police get these morons off the road the better.No doubt some will come up with the pathetic excuses of speed limiters or fuel saving or not enough time to do the job but basically they are bad drivers with no consideration for the safety of other road users or their own.Most pople these days have no respect for truck drivers and its not hard to se why with such a poor standard of driving.[/b]
OK Jimmy 4 holes, where and when did you conduct this survey that told you that the majority (your words not mine) of professional drivers do this?
Times, places, dates, locations, then I’m sure you will get everybodies attention. Until then STFU
jimmy0000:
Why do the majority of so called Proffesional drivers act like big bullies by following rediculously close to the vehicle in front?As anyone with an ounce of sense knows this is a very dangerous practice and causes many bad accidents.The sooner the Police get these morons off the road the better.No doubt some will come up with the pathetic excuses of speed limiters or fuel saving or not enough time to do the job but basically they are bad drivers with no consideration for the safety of other road users or their own.Most pople these days have no respect for truck drivers and its not hard to se why with such a poor standard of driving.[/b]
In my experience those that criticise others driving are usually the worst drivers on the road, I used to be one of them, sounds like you are too!
If your being tailgated slow down gradually, to increase the distance from the vehicle in front, then if there is going to be an incident you have more time to react and braking should be longer and more gradual giving the moron behind more reaction/braking time. If he doesn’t like your speed then he can always overtake, but most get the message and back off.
Everyones driving style is as diverse as their personalities and to label the “majority” of HGV drivers as morons is unacceptable, if these incidents are happening far too frequently to yourself then I’d be taking a look at your driving style and wondering wtf am I doing wrong!
Well well,believe it or not I know a little bit about driving but wont bore you with the details like you have done with your answers.The problem is most people dont know what a safe distance is but think they do,then one day something out of the ordinary happens and they cannot stop.People pass a simple test,(car and LGV)drive and get in to bad habits and dont realise what they are doing wrong.That is why the driving standards are low and the accident rate high.Everyone should be assessed every couple of years and this would help but there will always be the morons who think they know it all and have no respect for other road users.Truck drivers used to be known as knights of the road but that is a fading memory.
one example of many—driving a car towing a motorbike on a trailer doing 50mph.articulated truck with loaded trailer about 10 feet at the most behind me.Come to a downhill with double white lines in the centre of the road and he swings out to overtake but an oncoming car suddenly appears so he has to brake violently and pull back in,then proceeds to drive even closer flashing his lights as he goes.This carries on till I turn right,I move into the center of the road to turn and he comes up the inside slows down and guess what,puts his finger up as if its my fault.What an intelligent chap that was!!!
I love the idea of re-tests every few years, cos people obviously aren’t clever enough to drive sensibly for a few hours before they go back to their normal tear arse-ing around.
jimmy0000:
This carries on till I turn right,I move into the center of the road to turn and he comes up the inside slows down and guess what,puts his finger up as if its my fault.What an intelligent chap that was!!!
Probably deserved in your case, I may be a “bore” but I’m a bore that gets home everyday after work not all hot and bothered .
Just out of curiosity how did you see his finger■■? for you to be turning right and the lorry on your inside (with the cab several feet higher than you) were you watching the junction or busy gesticulating to your aforementioned friend, I re-iterate for one to be a good driver, one has to be self critical, I suggest you keep your eyes on the road, then you can make good progress and not hold up any HGV’s.
If you don’t like this advice then please don’t patronise any retail outlet that is supplied by HGV’s, then we’ll not have any jobs making the roads a safer place.
Andyroo:
I love the idea of re-tests every few years, cos people obviously aren’t clever enough to drive sensibly for a few hours before they go back to their normal tear arse-ing around.
That’ll come though…re-tests…cos people with smart arse ideas and big mouths seem to be people who get into positions to bring this sort of rubbish in.
Meanwhile every member on here can type 10 stories each about what some idiot in a car or van has done to them since last tuesday…if we can be bothered. 
OK. i’m slightly confused here. This guy has ONE bad experience and says the MAJORITY truck drivers are bad drivers. EVEN if the HGV in question was in the wrong (from the accounts of Jimmy) by trying to overtake on double whites and flashing his lights etc. This is just one lorry out of… wait a second I’ve run out of fingers and toes
Again only to clarify what MADBAZ has said. For you to of seen him stick his finger up, you must have been trying to look for it and not watching the road. So in turn YOUR bad driving, not watching the road could have caused an oncoming overtaking motorbike (wether it be a legal or ILLEGAL overtake) to have a head on collision with yourself.
SO WHO’S THE BAD DRIVER NOW MORON!!!
Oh and just for the records I have seen SOME inconsiderate HGV drivers, nobody is perfect. But I can tell you now I’ve seen a lot more cars behaving eraticcly than HGV’s
Si
i do think speed limiters are a major contributor to lgv tailgating. everyone just seems hell bent on sitting at their vehicle’s maximum calibrated speed (which is perfectly understandable - on a motorway)
as if the problem wasn’t bad enough, now the dumb [zb] at the EU put them into 7.5 tonners as well. You ever noticed now how so many little trucks are stuck that close to the rear end of bigger lorries that it almost looks like wag-n-drag! ? i feel sorry for the people driving those. they catch up on a bigger wagon, pull out to overtake at a ridiculously confined speed of like 1mph uphill let’s say… finally about to complete manouevre, then the hill turns to downhill and the (obviously heavier) artic/big rigid speeds up…
and so forth…
If it needs stars it’s not allowed. Go read the rules. L.
jimmy0000:
< snip > one example of many—driving a car towing a motorbike on a trailer doing 50mph.articulated truck with loaded trailer about 10 feet at the most behind me < snip >.
So why were you driving so slowly?
Is your driving so poor that you are incapable of driving at over 50mph with a trailer?
Is your car too lightweight to be suitable for pulling a trailer loaded with a motorcycle safely?
Is your car too underpowered to be capable of pulling a trailer loaded with a motorcycle at the appropriate speed for the road?
Was the motorcycle poorly secured, so likely to fall off if you drove at the appropriate speed for the road?
Didn’t you know where you were going, so driving slowly to not miss the turning you wanted? In which case, pull over to let the truck pass, the driver was obviously in more of a hurry than you. You’re then less likely to miss the junction you want, as you wouldn’t have that truck causing you to worry and possibly distracting you at the crucial moment.
You say it was a loaded articulated truck. The driver of the truck would have to sustain speeds of over 50mph to be able to catch you up. For a loaded articulated truck to be able to sustain speeds of over 50mph, the road has to be fairly straight. They aren’t exactly built for high speed handling.
If a loaded artic’ can sustain speeds of over 50mph, why couldn’t you?
The title of this part of our site is NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS, ie it is intended for people who passed their LGV driving test recently, or who would like to be LGV drivers.
That rather hints to me that they can’t really reply to your post, because they don’t know any of the answers yet.
That then leads to the conclusion you are a bully, finding someone who can’t answer your question before you ask it. You then feel superior because the person you asked couldn’t answer your question thoroughly enough.
Might I suggest you try Honest John’s web site. You’ll find plenty of people on there who will applaud your bravery.
ROG:
Welcome jimmy0000Do I assume that you have been ‘tailgated’ by a lorry
If yes, how did you make the situation safer
I notice that this question has not yet been answered 
jimmy is right about h.g.v. tailgaiting, my biggest pet hate in my job. You can see it all around you when it’s busy, with trucks close together on the limiter, disaster waiting to happen, the only way to defend against it is to drive with the sainsbury/tesco lot, if you see what i mean, and let the drama unfold in front of you.
Another thing, is even a two second gap enough? maybe if everyone else does the same, but it simply doesn’t happen. Because if you’re driving your car at 70, the stopping distance is roughly the same distance as the phone marker posts on the hard shoulder, and they are about 3 seconds apart at 70.
try it.
And also an answer to rogs point above, one way i was taught is to very gradually slow down to increase distance from vehicle in front, then carefully increase speed to move forward of vehicle behind, think i read it in some driving tips book, cant remember which.
sidan:
Another thing, is even a two second gap enough? maybe if everyone else does the same, but it simply doesn’t happen. Because if you’re driving your car at 70, the stopping distance is roughly the same distance as the phone marker posts on the hard shoulder, and they are about 3 seconds apart at 70.
try it.
could also try using the white lane lines - one short or long lane line = 10 mph so if at 50 then have 5 in front of you - not an exact science but a good rough minimum guide
sidan:
And also an answer to rogs point above, one way i was taught is to very gradually slow down to increase distance from vehicle in front, then carefully increase speed to move forward of vehicle behind, think i read it in some driving tips book, cant remember which.
You cannot control the gap behind you (so don’t try) BUT you can control the gap in front and the speed