I think it’s down to people being skint and wanting to save fuel.
I dont really see the problem, if they are doing 48mph you can easilly over take them doing 56mph.
Ive only a problem when they speed up when you start to overtake or sit beside you for miles on end matching your speed.
I drive a lot slower on my motorbike when going to work, i usually sit just a bit faster than trucks, so i aint getting in their way, but found saving quite a bit of fuel. Can go to work and back twice on a tank where as before i couldnt and time wise taking about 5-10mins max longer and to be honest a lot less stressfull. A lot of the time trying to do 70-80mph on the motoway sitting in the fast lane your doing 80mph then its slowed down to 50mph, then its 80mph, rather just cruise at 60mph save fuel and not have to be braking every few minutes.
Kenny1975:
I dont really see the problem, if they are doing 48mph you can easilly over take them doing 56mph.Ive only a problem when they speed up when you start to overtake or sit beside you for miles on end matching your speed.
A lot of the time trying to do 70-80mph on the motoway sitting in the fast lane your doing 80mph then its slowed down to 50mph, then its 80mph, rather just cruise at 60mph save fuel and not have to be braking every few minutes.
Spot on - i usually do 65 mph ish(in the car) on the motorways for the same reason .
Should be fast enough as not to impede a HGVs progress, unless its Austrian !! 
Im all for a minimum speed limit for cars, 60mph is reasonable enough for the slow brigade who dont want to do 100mph (i assume thats the national speed limit now judging by the most motorway drivers ) and it keeps em out the way of trucks.
I think what the most annoying thing about these situations where a car is trundling along at 45/50mph is the fact that a car can easily accelerate above and beyond that of a truck at will, but choose to hold up traffic as and when they feel like it, whereas a lorry cannot due to being limited and hence get moaned at by car drivers for being slow 
If you cant do over 50 in a car on a motorway catch a bus.
Seen more hassle, frustration and near misses due to folk going slow than anything! These slow drivers are also the ones who stick glued to the inside lane when your trying to pull out to join a motorway.
Folk can defend them to the hilt but the fact of the matter is if your not keeping up with the flow of traffic your a danger.
ajt:
if your not keeping up with the flow of traffic your a danger
Which flow - the lone truck doing 56 on a busy saturday afternoon motorway where the rest are doing more than 56 is not…
Grayham:
Im all for a minimum speed limit for cars, 60mph is reasonable enough for the slow brigade who dont want to do 100mph (i assume thats the national speed limit now judging by the most motorway driversI think what the most annoying thing about these situations where a car is trundling along at 45/50mph is the fact that a car can easily accelerate above and beyond that of a truck at will, but choose to hold up traffic as and when they feel like it, whereas a lorry cannot due to being limited and hence get moaned at by car drivers for being slow
Is the crux of the point I was making in the first place.
If you were on a driving test (okay, motorways wouldn’t apply to cars then anyway, but we’ll say NSL dual carriageways for them) and you plodded along waaaaaaaaaaay below the speed limit when it was perfectly safe to drive to the speed limit, conditions allowing, wouldn’t you be marked down for failing to make progress or some other faulting offence?
I just fail to see how plodding along at 45MPH on a motorway or dual carriageway is a pleasant experience; surely there are other roads to your destination that avoid motorways, if you don’t want to travel any faster than 45. 
I was on the motorway today. The motorway was clear as I’ve ever seen a motorway. This may be irrelevant. I was in the left-lane doing what 70-75mph. There was a Porsche Cayenne Turbo doing around 60 in the middle lane. I over took him in the left-lane as well as cars over taking him in the right-lane.
hammer:
Grayham:
Im all for a minimum speed limit for cars, 60mph is reasonable enough for the slow brigade who dont want to do 100mph (i assume thats the national speed limit now judging by the most motorway driversI think what the most annoying thing about these situations where a car is trundling along at 45/50mph is the fact that a car can easily accelerate above and beyond that of a truck at will, but choose to hold up traffic as and when they feel like it, whereas a lorry cannot due to being limited and hence get moaned at by car drivers for being slow
Is the crux of the point I was making in the first place.
I’m sorry mate but you can’t have it both ways, what’s the difference between you plodding along at 50 mph even though you could go faster and a car plodding along at just bellow 50 even though it could go faster
hammer:
I’m a committed Motorway plodder (50mph usually)
Lets just suppose a 60 mph minimum speed limit was brought in for cars on a motorway, who would decide when it was or wasn’t safe to do 60 mph ?
In bad weather vehicles often have to drive slower than 60 for safety, some people will happily do 60 mph in atrocious conditions whilst others will only feel safe at slower speeds even in relatively poor weather.
Who decides what’s a safe speed and when, or do we say it’s 60 regardless of road conditions ?
tachograph:
Now if you want something to complain about mate, why not have a go at the idiot truck drivers I see holding back or blocking lanes at motorway incidents
Northbound M1 traffic at around J16/J17 was held up on Friday by a minor incident in lane three, what do I see but two muppet truck drivers going as slow as they could and blocking lanes one and two with about a quarter of mile of almost empty motorway in front of them and several miles of bumper to bumper traffic behind them and this was well back down the queue from the incident, bloody amateurs
So what do want them to do? Race up to the back of the queue & then stand on the brakes? Glad you don’t drive for me wasting fuel & brake linings.
From your description these 2 clued up drivers were keeping the approaching traffic at a steady roll, rather than, stop, set off, accelerate, change up, (umpteen times) brake, stop. repeat, ad infinitum.
Now let me see, which is easier to do & better eco driving? 
Never noticed that when a m/way gets into a stop/start type situation, it tends to be the left lane with all the trucks in it that keeps rolling & makes progress?
hammer:
Is it just me or is there a hell of a lot more cars doing 45-50mph on the motorways lately? I’ve done virtually no Motorway driving in a truck for around 9months () but the last two weeks I’ve done a fair bit and I’m sick of tripping over OAP’s (usually) doing about 48mph in the inside lane.
I’m a committed Motoway plodder (50mph usually) but even I had to move out and pass a few this past week. It just makes everything extra dangerous with virtually all the trucks on the road (plodders like me and boys on the limiter) in the middle lane, plus those car drivers who will ONLY drive in the middle lane no matter what.
Its time to get these mugs out of the nearside lane. If you’re car can’t do 60mph or you can’t handle that kind of speed, then you shouldn’t be on the bloody road ffs!
I don’t make you wrong. These muppets really are a menace 
Coffeeholic:
Ark-Angel:
as you enterd a M/Way it had a sign at the start of the slip road listing all the restricted vehicles and that DIDstate that vehicles with a maximum of 30mph or less were prohibited.Prohibiting vehicles with a maximum speed of 30 mph is not the same as a minimum speed limit.
Correct, you don’t see many showmans (fairgound) outfits. i.e. 20+ yr old Fodens + 2 trailers, doing 30mph+ up say Windy Hill M62, though quite cabable of eventually winding up to 50+ on the flat.
Driveroneuk:
tachograph:
Now if you want something to complain about mate, why not have a go at the idiot truck drivers I see holding back or blocking lanes at motorway incidents
Northbound M1 traffic at around J16/J17 was held up on Friday by a minor incident in lane three, what do I see but two muppet truck drivers going as slow as they could and blocking lanes one and two with about a quarter of mile of almost empty motorway in front of them and several miles of bumper to bumper traffic behind them and this was well back down the queue from the incident, bloody amateursSo what do want them to do? Race up to the back of the queue & then stand on the brakes? Glad you don’t drive for me wasting fuel & brake linings.
From your description these 2 clued up drivers were keeping the approaching traffic at a steady roll, rather than, stop, set off, accelerate, change up, (umpteen times) brake, stop. repeat, ad infinitum.
You call them clued up drivers I call them inconsiderate morons who were keeping numerous trucks behind them whilst some cars in the outside lane were able to go to the front of the queue, meaning that it would take even longer for the trucks behind these two idiots to get through the obstruction.
On this occasion only the two nearside lanes were being obstructed by two incompetents but I’ve seen all three lanes blocked on previous occasions
We have the police and highways agency to control traffic on motorways we certainly don’t need idiots playing at being king of the road to do it.
By the way, if you encourage your drivers to behave like that I’m also glad I don’t drive for you
MrPanther:
If you were on a driving test (okay, motorways wouldn’t apply to cars then anyway, but we’ll say NSL dual carriageways for them) and you plodded along waaaaaaaaaaay below the speed limit when it was perfectly safe to drive to the speed limit, conditions allowing, wouldn’t you be marked down for failing to make progress or some other faulting offence?
Yes, definately.
In some instances, a good ‘rolling road block’ can be a useful SAFETY tool to keep everything moving but it must be done with consideration for other road users and only done ‘as necessary’ - keeping a quarter of a mile gap in front does seem excessive.
If the rolling block enables those joining the rear of the queue to keep going, albeit at a slow pace, then that is preferrable to stopping.
Stopping at the rear of a queue on a fast moving road is the one place that secondary incidents tend to occur.
It’s an interesting dilemma…
ROG:
In some instances, a good ‘rolling road block’ can be a useful SAFETY tool to keep everything moving but it must be done with consideration for other road users and only done ‘as necessary’ - keeping a quarter of a mile gap in front does seem excessive.
If the rolling block enables those joining the rear of the queue to keep going, albeit at a slow pace, then that is preferrable to stopping.
Stopping at the rear of a queue on a fast moving road is the one place that secondary incidents tend to occur.It’s an interesting dilemma…
I don’t agree that’s it a lorry drivers place to be running rolling road blocks except in the most extraordinary circumstances, but anyway how does blocking two lanes of a three lane motorway keep things moving
In this incident the drivers in lane three were simply gone past and joining the original queue which was still moving slowly as only lane three appeared to be blocked by the incident (car breakdown I think), leaving anyone in lanes one and two even further back in the queue
I was going in the opposite direction so obviously had limited view of what happened but you can imagine that drivers in lanes one and two seeing traffic going past in lane three would have been trying to join them, would that create a safe situation ?
I understand where you’re coming from, but the simple fact is that generally when these things happen as in this particular incident the truck drivers are in no position to see exactly what’s happening further up the road where the incident has taken place, they cause confusion and impatience amongst other road users, they also cause longer tailbacks which can sometimes block motorway exits causing even further problems and hold-ups for people trying to use the motorway.
On a busy motorway traffic that’s crawling will eventually lead to stationary traffic further back, when these people block lanes as often as not they simply create two queues instead of the one original queue, how is that safe
If these people want to crawl in order to avoid braking or to save fuel let them do it in lane one where they will cause the least problems for other road users, but then that wouldn’t satisfy their over inflated ego’s would it 
There may be occasions where the height of a cab gives a driver a good view of something that’s happened further up the road and a rolling road block can then become a good safety option but these times are rare in my view.
Generally the policing of the motorways is best left to the people who are trained to do it and have the information to know exactly what the overall situation is, namely the police and the Highways Agency.
tachograph:
how does blocking two lanes of a three lane motorway keep things moving
It will not as lane 3 is not part of the rolling block - will just get those passing in lane 3 and cutting back in - pointless to try it
Driveroneuk:
From your description these 2 clued up drivers were keeping the approaching traffic at a steady roll, rather than, stop, set off, accelerate, change up, (umpteen times) brake, stop. repeat, ad infinitum.
Yes but a quarter of a mile, are you for real?!
1/4mile = 440 yards. That’s just a bit more than the distance of the 300 yard countdown markers to an exit.
Pretty close to an incident i’d say.