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)) 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?
That’s what I meant about modern drivers not having a clue.The flash is only there as a help but it’s up to the driver who’s returning to the inside lane to make sure that he’s built up a sufficient gap before returning in front of the truck which has been overtaken.But limiters are one of the biggest causes for that not being done sufficiently together with drivers who don’t seem to be able to judge distances by looking in their nearside mirrors these days and as I said it seems like they’ve got the order of it all mixed up as it should be check the gap is sufficient FIRST using the mirrors then you may or may not get a flash if you do then thank him with the tail lights or indicators THEN indicate and only THEN start the lane change.Having said all that it’s obvious that with only a 1 or 2 mph speed differential it’s going to take forever to create that 121 122 in Polish gap by which time there’s going to be a good sized line of traffic building up in the centre lane including inpatient coach drivers with their higher limiter settings.Limiters are causing a road safety hazard for those reasons amongst others.
read all above and agree to an extent.But i find the biggest problem is easily solved if your being overtaken by a slightly faster limited truck lift off the pedal so easy and saves everyone hassle and lots of teethgrinding.The A14 is the perfect example of this im just glad turners are based at soham(warsaw) and not felixstowe
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
I’d have to pull over and clean the inside of the windscreen!!
I’m off to Poland tomorrow Orys, do I have to say that or can ?I stick with - “Only a fool breaks the two second rule”?
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.
100% agree. and speed limiters are the problem too.
Speed limiters are not the sole problem. I drove a truck with a limiter as early as 1990/91, It was an MAN and the pedal shoved your foot up when you reached 55mph.
Talking of the lack of a flash is slightly off the mark too, the original idea of flashing someone in came from the old lads who had a mirror the size of a tax disc hung on a wobbly vibrating arm. if the driver who had been overtaken gave them a flash it shone onto the road and lit trees up to let them know it was safe to come back in. Nowadays we have much better telltale devices, huge accurate mirrors, lamposts, white lines, cats eyes and marker posts.
The beginning of this post asked the question Why■■?
But Newmercman has only been away for 2 years as he mentions, not 20
its only a thought but sometimes i think that other drivers pull in too soon to be flash by saying look at me i know exactly where the rear of mt trailor is
ROG:
I would say that speed limiters are only a problem if the driver allows them to be such
limeyphil:
that’s very true. but if we didn’t have them, the driver wouldn’t have to avoid them being a problem in the first place.
There are many things that restrict a LGV driver but those that are professional should be able to cope with all of them.
most of us can cope with all the problems. but are they put there as some sort of experiment? we are being treated like lab mice. they put another obsticle in our way, then another, and another. they look and see what happens with peoples lives. but when they get it wrong, they never back down, they know we will just carry on regardless.
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.
what does that have to do with the price of cheese? im from a background of sparkys and fishermen, im the first driver in my familyl (and probably last if it gets any worse) fact is i can drive an artic, i can get the truck wherever you want it. i have been driving since i was 12 years old (private land) i drove my first truck at 17 which was a seddon atkinson (again private land)
ive had an interest in trucks from a very young age so really what difference does it make if i was born into the job or not?
I don’t think it makes a difference if you’re a born & bred driver or a born again trucker, surely self preservation exists in both? I think the limiter does have an effect, but only because people are using it as an excuse for bad driving, as Wheel Nut says I’ve only been gone a couple of years, I don’t remember it being so bad before I left & limiters have been around for quite a while now, in fact a lot of drivers have never driven an unlimited lorry, so I’m thinking that we must have worked out how to drive with them by now?
newmercman:
I don’t think it makes a difference if you’re a born & bred driver or a born again trucker, surely self preservation exists in both? I think the limiter does have an effect, but only because people are using it as an excuse for bad driving, as Wheel Nut says I’ve only been gone a couple of years, I don’t remember it being so bad before I left & limiters have been around for quite a while now, in fact a lot of drivers have never driven an unlimited lorry, so I’m thinking that we must have worked out how to drive with them by now?
i think its more to do with planners make delivery times too tight plus the limiter doesnt help, im lucky with most of my work being at tesco, never need to rush to a store, quite happily sit at 52 all day unless im despertate for a wee, always let faster trucks by me etc etc. plus it gives me more time to have a rave in my truck, strobe lights an all that jazz
Wheel Nut:
Speed limiters are not the sole problem. I drove a truck with a limiter as early as 1990/91, It was an MAN and the pedal shoved your foot up when you reached 55mph.
Talking of the lack of a flash is slightly off the mark too, the original idea of flashing someone in came from the old lads who had a mirror the size of a tax disc hung on a wobbly vibrating arm. if the driver who had been overtaken gave them a flash it shone onto the road and lit trees up to let them know it was safe to come back in. Nowadays we have much better telltale devices, huge accurate mirrors, lamposts, white lines, cats eyes and marker posts.
The beginning of this post asked the question Why■■?
But Newmercman has only been away for 2 years as he mentions, not 20
A flash from a set of 1950’s or 1960’s headlights at midday on a bright sunny summer’s day on the unlimited M1 would’nt have lit up the road or any trees and I first drove a limited wagon in the early 1990’s too and contrary to newmercman’s and those comments the problems caused by the ridiculously low speed differentials which came with limiters were there then as now.
It isn’t speed limiters or being under pressure, it is 100% attitude. People don’t give a ■■■■ anymore, it is everyone for themselves.
20 years ago we would race one another to the docks for fertiliser loads. It was as competetive as NASCAR and we all wanted to be ahead in the queue. But after loading, we helped each other anyway with roping it down and sheeting. Nowadays, the race is on and nobody helps. That is all attitude, end of story.
I have been gone 4 years now. I aim to go back for a visit this year. I am interested to see how things have changed.
Mark, you and I will have to compare notes after that.
bobthedog:
I have been gone 4 years now. I aim to go back for a visit this year. I am interested to see how things have changed.
Mark, you and I will have to compare notes after that.
You’re in for a shock Rob, I’ve just done a couple of weeks over here & haven’t enjoyed one minute of it, in fact I hated it that much that I am back on holiday again, I was planning to work a bit while I’m here so I didn’t eat into my savings too much, but the thought of another day of getting up at 4am to be cut up while sitting in a perpetual traffic jam (the M25) being treated like a second class citizen by goods in clerks & security guards, hanging around drivers rooms for hours while being tipped & then parking up in a rat infested lay by at night was not really selling the idea to me, so I’m now going to sit on my fat arse & watch Jeremy Kyle until I’m reunited with Pete
Driveroneuk:
‘… Doesn’t matter what your “ex”. The point being that you weren’t born & bred into the job…’
Perhaps that’s an overly quaint review of a mythical golden age through a rose tinted monacle? How about the reality being that no-one in authority gives much of a stuff about road discipline and a growing majority within society is chosing to take a path of self-indulgence because it can?
My proof:
a) Vehicle insurance covers costs arising through road prangs. This creates jobs & brings in more taxes.
b) Why should politicians care about what drivers get up to? Obvious transgressors will eventually be punished by a cheap to administer electronic network of cameras whereby ‘no camera’ and/or ‘no prang’ equals ‘no-problem’.
c) We’d rather spend UK tax money on giving it to Europe & bossing foreigners in their own back yards rather than policing the British bits of European roads.
d) The status quo of confrontation evidenced within this thread is keeping us at each others throats. This conveniently diverts us from realising how shabbily we are all being led & (non)managed by all tiers of governance, whether its elected (ie, it’s pro-European) or it’s imposed (ie, Brown, Mandelson, Kinnock, etc). Those of us that care a little might join the IAM or endorse similar groups, but they are largely toothless charitable talking-shops despite making excellent sense & which general British scepticism usually sees as soft kids getting pasted in a fight.
e) Who likes to be sensible when Clarkson is so funny?
It’s nothing to do with either ‘birth or breeding’ - surely we have got the consequences of what we deserve because we either voted for it or choose to embrace it?
Happy Keith, whilst I agree with your anti government sentiments, I fail to see how even the poorest government can be held responsible for people not leaving enough room when overtaking
On an entirely different & somewhat tongue in cheek note, I bet bedtime stories were a riot for your kids
So are we looking at it all with rose tinted specs, Mark? After all, we see numptys over here on a daily basis but I still don’t think they are as bad. Admittedly, their threats are more entertaining (the offer to confront a 357 magnum is quite frequent), and I still laugh at being called aussie. But there is not as much general abuse here, I am fairly sure of that. The general standard of driving is as bad here in many ways but still, I think, is less aggressive on the whole.
Some here have suggested that being in a safe bubble of a vehicle, like modern trucks are, is contributary, so that must be an advert for trucks like ours then… Others say it is the pressure of timed deliveries, but we have those, too.
Hard to say. The tax return is in and completed. I just have to go and pay for it and will be able to book the flights when I get the money. I suppose I will get the chance to see.
gap by which time there’s going to be a good sized line of traffic building up in the centre lane including inpatient coach drivers with their higher limiter settings.Limiters are causing a road safety hazard for those reasons amongst others.
