After driving elsewhere for the last couple of years I recently returned to the UK to sort a few things out, it’s taking longer than I thought so I’ve had to do a bit of work over here & I am not enjoying it one bit
There are a lot of factors involved, such as the terrible way in which we are treated, poor facilities, ridiculous HSE requirements, crap lorries etc etc etc, but one worries me more than than the others & that is the way people drive & by people I mean lorry drivers Why does everyone drive so close? Not only when they’re following me, but when they’re overtaking, half the time I’ve been overtaken the other lorry has pulled back in front with less than a car’s length between us, I slowed down to 85k to see if that made a difference, but it made it worse, most of the people overtaking me gave me a dirty look as they went past & then wiped my number plate with their under run bar
One other question is, why do people leave it until the last minute before using their indicators? As an example, I’m in the middle lane, at least a lorry length behind whoever is in front of me, I’m approaching a lorry who is a little bit faster than the one in front of him, I can see him having a look at me in his mirror so he knows that I’m far enough back for him to come out in front of me, I see no indicator so I keep going & then at the last possible moment his right indicator flashes, by then I’m almost level with the back of him, so I have a choice, back off & let him out, just let him out & sit right up his arse or keep going & ■■■■ him, the first option would be my preferred choice, everyone goes about their day safely, option two is not an option for me, option three usually results in a hand signal from the other driver, this bit really gets my goat, I don’t consider I did anything wrong, by the time he indicated it was not safe for me to let him out & yet I get abused because of that
it’s the speed limiters that promote tailgating.
as for the last minute indicating, it’s because they are idiots.
and the pulling in too early, that is because of speed limiters too.
i also find that since being limited to 51 i have more trucks cut me up. ive also noticed that there seems to be a fair few who will pull out to overtake me from 500 yards behind and then pull in with only 5 foot of clearance.
now funny enough i dont recall getting cut up anywhere near as much 20 years ago and i dont blame limiters so its got to be the barclays bankers behind the wheel who are to blame
newmercman:
After driving elsewhere for the last couple of years I recently returned to the UK to sort a few things out, it’s taking longer than I thought so I’ve had to do a bit of work over here & I am not enjoying it one bit
There are a lot of factors involved, such as the terrible way in which we are treated, poor facilities, ridiculous HSE requirements, crap lorries etc etc etc, but one worries me more than than the others & that is the way people drive & by people I mean lorry drivers Why does everyone drive so close? Not only when they’re following me, but when they’re overtaking, half the time I’ve been overtaken the other lorry has pulled back in front with less than a car’s length between us, I slowed down to 85k to see if that made a difference, but it made it worse, most of the people overtaking me gave me a dirty look as they went past & then wiped my number plate with their under run bar
One other question is, why do people leave it until the last minute before using their indicators? As an example, I’m in the middle lane, at least a lorry length behind whoever is in front of me, I’m approaching a lorry who is a little bit faster than the one in front of him, I can see him having a look at me in his mirror so he knows that I’m far enough back for him to come out in front of me, I see no indicator so I keep going & then at the last possible moment his right indicator flashes, by then I’m almost level with the back of him, so I have a choice, back off & let him out, just let him out & sit right up his arse or keep going & [zb] him, the first option would be my preferred choice, everyone goes about their day safely, option two is not an option for me, option three usually results in a hand signal from the other driver, this bit really gets my goat, I don’t consider I did anything wrong, by the time he indicated it was not safe for me to let him out & yet I get abused because of that [/quote]
That’s one of my biggest bugbears too.
If I can see he is going to want to pull out, why can’t he/she?
As I keep trying to impress on my Son, who is learning to drive, ‘It’s all about planning!’ Planning which can only be achieved with good intelligence ie observation, is what makes the job easy or hard. When you have to plan for other professional drivers too, that doesn’t help
Dave do you think it might be because 20+ years ago truck drivers were exactly that. Often born & bred into the job, going out with Dad, no H & S/insurance bollox, roping & sheeting in all weathers man & boy. They knew how to drive 'em & they knew how to fix them aswell and could & would help out others broken down.
Whereas nowadays you have all sorts of people from a variety of other backgrounds driving automatic, electronic, quiet, comfortable, heated, power steered, air conned, leather seated tin boxes. Ex IT engineers, ex warehousemen, ex army, etc. etc. There’s few old school left now.
As I’ve said to many a car learner: indicators are to show others what you intend to do in the future, not what you are doing now. Once you are already doing it, the indicators become superfluous because it can already be seen what you are doing.
How many car drivers do you see, approaching a junction on the left, brake first, then indicate?
Stuff the speed limiter excuse , the driver is under pressure to get his job done asap is one reason the other is the person driving the vehicle what ever it is, and they are driving too close is a person of little or no Intelligence, as the can not work out the stopping distance required by they vehicle they are driving, as for not using the indicators till it is too late, they believe they are playing speed and overtaking TO kill on the PC, perhaps■■?
I am an ex I.T engineer, I dont see how that affects my ability to drive, I do this job because I love driving and for no other reason, I could quite easily get another I.T job, but as I say why do something that I dont enjoy as much as driving.
Driveroneuk:
Dave do you think it might be because 20+ years ago truck drivers were exactly that. Often born & bred into the job, going out with Dad, no H & S/insurance bollox, roping & sheeting in all weathers man & boy. They knew how to drive 'em & they knew how to fix them aswell and could & would help out others broken down.
Whereas nowadays you have all sorts of people from a variety of other backgrounds driving automatic, electronic, quiet, comfortable, heated, power steered, air conned, leather seated tin boxes. Ex IT engineers, ex warehousemen, ex army, etc. etc. There’s few old school left now.
now that would be a tough one to answer mainly because there are plenty of drivers out there who done another job before driving even going back 20 or 30 years ago.
there was definetly more comaraderie years ago because drivers fixed there trucks if they could, roped and sheeted and helped others and they actually talked to each other all of the time and there was no mobile phones or even communication with the office once mobile.
tbh now when was the last time a driver from another company ask you if you knew the directions to a place ■■?, ive had a few foreigners ask recently but mobiles and sat navs have put an end to that. you even see drivers from the same company in cafes sitting at seperate tables.
recent posts on this forum ive read seem to indicate that drivers moan if they have no electric windows, analogue tachos or that it is not there job to change a bulb or work more than 8 hours a day but all this does,nt mean they will be crap drivers.
i just think it down to these idiots thinking that because they have spent longer overtaking than they would have in there modern 200 horse power car and are holding people up gives them the right to pull in as early as possible.
dont know as i said a tough one to answer.
It’s a mixture of many different reasons but limiters are definitely one of them.In the days before limiters and high speeds the stakes were much higher and it was a case of help each other and cooperate.The speed differentials between faster and slower trucks were usually much greater and in the case of overtaking someone who was closing on an even slower truck both of you would make a quick and correct decision based on the distance and speed criterea between all of you.It went along the lines of if the wagon being overtaken was seen to be closing on another one at a faster rate than he was being closed on by the first one you’d flash him out while he was checking his mirrors BEFORE he’d even indicated he’d then give you back a thanks with the tail lights or the indicators and only then indicate and start pulling out AFTER all of that.In the case of where the closing speed of the wagon overtaking was more both drivers could easily see that and the one on the inside would stay where he is and the faster one would go through first.When returning to the inside lane after overtaking it was a similar procedure of pass as fast as possible and build up a big gap first THEN check the mirrors and you’d usually get a flash and give back a thanks and only after all that gradually change lanes by which time there’d be at least a two trucks length gap.But these days it’s a combination of speed limiters removing that speed differential and therefore the possibility of building up that gap before the return lane change,driving schools telling new drivers not to get involved in such lane changing cooperation,and modern drivers who just don’t seem to have a clue of how to drive at high speeds.
That’s bring back my question. You can flash to show them that you let them pull in. What should you do if you DON"T want them to pull in?
I am using my 121-122 rule for distance (I have to be AT LEAST as long behind preceding vehicle that if he pass some object I have to be able to say “stodwadzieÅ›ciajeden, stodwadzieÅ›ciadwa” (121, 122 in Polish)) before I reach that place. So I never have a chance to flash anybody in, as they don’t wait. They just put their indicator and wait for few secs for my flash, if I don’t flash them, they just pull in. So what’s the point to look for flash at the very first place, if you don’t bother if I am NOT flashing?
orys:
That’s bring back my question. You can flash to show them that you let them pull in. What should you do if you DON"T want them to pull in?
I am using my 121-122 rule for distance (I have to be AT LEAST as long behind preceding vehicle that if he pass some object I have to be able to say “stodwadzieÅ›ciajeden, stodwadzieÅ›ciadwa” (121, 122 in Polish))
Jeeeze Ory’s I’d be stationary until I managed to say that Lol
Why does everyone drive so close? Not only when they’re following me, but when they’re overtaking, half the time I’ve been overtaken the other lorry has pulled back in front with less than a car’s length between us, I slowed down to 85k to see if that made a difference, but it made it worse, most of the people overtaking me gave me a dirty look as they went past & then wiped my number plate with their under run bar 
My parents allowed me to do my own choices 
