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But can we also dispel this myth about lorries being set at 52mph? Last Friday afternoon I was unable to overtake an artic without breaking the 70mph speed limit on A38 from Plymouth - not an ancient smoke belching unrestricted lorry, a recent registration 06 or 08 plate. Or is that not an example of "all new lorries"?
.. old lorries (most firms) was 56mph for better fuel, but now some green headed muppet says its better set at 52mph which most firms do. And some firms now got computers to monitor the waggon engine (like mine) so I cannot over-rev so makes go slower up hills which in turn waggons pull out to try and pass, if not you would a big convoy on motorways....
Listen this forum can go on for a long time but it will get u know where..you a car driver got speed behind you, lorries dont!. All I can say drive a lorry then it will become clearer.
Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 2543 Location: Rainham, Kent. England.
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 1:19 am Post subject:
Quote:
so I cannot over-rev so makes go slower up hills which in turn waggons pull out to try and pass, if not you would a big convoy on motorways....
We do, all the poor car drivers stuck behind the rolling road block. To me that's driving without due consideration to other road users. Let's do it the French way AND also ban lorries on Sundays like they do. _________________ Formerly known as Lost_Property
And NO that's NOT me in the Avatar.
Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 14888 Location: Keynsham
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:47 am Post subject:
jowett69 wrote:
old lorries (most firms) was 56mph for better fuel, but now some green headed muppet says its better set at 52mph which most firms do.
Whether 56 or 52, neither of those is the 70mph I came across on the A38 last week (on the flat mind you, not downhill with a tail wind)! It does your argument no good at all to use figures which most of us see as mythical out on the roads.
Lost_Property wrote:
all the poor car drivers stuck behind the rolling road block
It was always explained to me that usually a slowing lorry has to drop through a load of gears, then work hard at getting back up through them afterwards. I'm not a lorry driver and have never even seen the inside of the cab of a modern one, so this was something I was told by an artic driver. I believed it and consequently I always try my best to not obstruct a lorry to make it slow down and also try to give way to them when possible to save them effort - they're working, not out for jollies. My van (and all those lovely cars out there) can get back up to speed really easily, hardly losing any time at all - a couple of seconds to get back to 60, not a couple of miles. _________________ Dennis
Joined: Jun 20, 2005 Posts: 1096 Location: Solihull, UK
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:59 am Post subject:
Lost_Property wrote:
Let's do it the French way AND also ban lorries on Sundays like they do.
... and why not even consider a ban during rush hours? - Say 8-9 in the morning and 5-6 in the evening. Drivers have to take rests at some point, so they could build their schedules around this. _________________ Garmin DriveSmart 50 LMT-D
Joined: Jan 05, 2009 Posts: 170 Location: Mid Sussex
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:35 am Post subject:
Lost_Property wrote:
But, and there's always a but. Truck 'A' slows to 52-54mph on inside lane up incline, truck B, doing 56mph, pulls out to overtake and you get a rolling road block. Why oh why? Slowing 2-4 mph until reaching the flat isn't going to make them a week late. Is it? Plus Truck 'A' will probably get back to 56 along the flat. I think we should follow the French, no overtaking on inclines for large vehicles, it works a treat over there.
On the M25 J8 on Reigate Hill (about a 2 mile incline) although this is a 4-lane stretch I've encountered on several occaisions trucks travelling about 45mph overtaking in 3 lanes, very, very annoying!
I've also lost count of the number of times I've almost been wiped out in traffic on the M25, by (mainly foreign) lorries pulling into my lane to overtake whilst I'm in their blind-spot. _________________ TomTom ONE Series 30 (v8) & TMC traffic
App 8.010, UK & ROI Map v860.3126, TT Home 2.7.6.2056
Let's do it the French way AND also ban lorries on Sundays like they do.
... and why not even consider a ban during rush hours? - Say 8-9 in the morning and 5-6 in the evening. Drivers have to take rests at some point, so they could build their schedules around this.
I agree they sould be not lorries on roads at weekends!! but ban during rush hour , we should ban all lorries and buses off roads for ever!
I will have a word with my council about this matter
Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 2543 Location: Rainham, Kent. England.
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:47 pm Post subject:
When they do it on a two lane road it cause a tailback as vehicles doing 70 soon catch up to the 54 mph rolling road block.
On three lane roads it's not so bad but, yet another but, imagine you are travelling at 70 mph in the middle lane overtaking slower traffic, you're approaching a lorry who suddenly pulls out to overtake. Often you have to brake fairly hard but end up behind him doing 54 mph. The outside lane has cars coming past at 70 (or 70+) which prevents you overtaking. The cars further back in the middle lane see what's happening and manage to get out to overtake without having to slow much, then the car which was in front of them gets out to lane 3 and so on. There I am, Mr.Innocent, minding my own business, am now stuck behind the lorry with little or no chance of getting past until he has completed his 'dirty deed'. Unless of course I do what he did but pull out from lane 2 to 3 and 'tough' on those going about their business.
I've never come across this problem with lorries in France.
Get more freight back on the railways, especially the longer runs, which is what they were originally built for, and reduce the number of large lorries on the road.
Finally. Two trucks going from A to B at the same time. Truck A is limited to 56 mph and truck B to 52 mph. If they drive non stop for 4 hours truck A covers 224 miles and truck B 208 miles. This puts truck A 16 miles ahead of truck B. But truck B travelling at 52 mph would take only another 17 minutes to reach the destination.
The 17 minutes is the maximum difference if the 56 and 52mph were maintained throughout the journey, depot to delivery. But their speed will be similar getting to and from the Motorway, plus there would be other hold ups on the way, probably caused by 'rolling roadblocks', so the 17 minute time difference could probably be halved, at least.
Here endeth my lesson on observation and logic. _________________ Formerly known as Lost_Property
And NO that's NOT me in the Avatar.
Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 463 Location: Rainhill, Lancashire Not Merseyside!
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:12 pm Post subject:
I drive in the UK more often than not, but on the few occasions I have driven on foreign roads, I have found that HGVs tend not to move from lane to lane on the motorways, but really appear to remain in the inside lane.
In fact, I was told that in Germany, HGVs must remain in that inside lane, so the second and third lanes are generally free for smaller vehicles. This was 10 years ago now, so I don't know if it was a legal requirement. If it was, and still is, the lorry traffic appeaed to be pretty constant in its speed with no bunching or very wide gaps.
If all new HGVs are limited to 52 / 56 why would they need to use two lanes, given the calulations from Lost_Property above?
As for driving an HGV myself, I would love to try that. I'm sure it is a very hard job to do well. _________________ Ric - TomTom 520 DEAD - Passed to the great traffic jam in the sky. Now using Maps & Waze on Samsung Galaxy S4 + CamerAlert of course!
Joined: Jun 20, 2005 Posts: 1096 Location: Solihull, UK
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 5:14 pm Post subject:
Lost_Property wrote:
Get more freight back on the railways, especially the longer runs, which is what they were originally built for, and reduce the number of large lorries on the road.
I agree with these sentiments, but I heard a statistic some time ago that if the railways were filled to 100% capacity with freight, it would only result in a 10% reduction in road freight. This was a few years ago, so I suspect that figure is even less now. _________________ Garmin DriveSmart 50 LMT-D
Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 2543 Location: Rainham, Kent. England.
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:38 pm Post subject:
You're probably right Daggers, especially as they closed e.g Bricklayer's Arms Goods Depot and similar around the country and also turned station sidings into car parks.
Back in the 70's they used to have a 'goods' train travelling along the north Kent line picking up, e.g. Chips of Cherries from Rainham Station. For whatever reason that stopped and now travels up to London by road.
I've never driven an artic but did at one time drive buses. The dimentions were 39'9" long, 8'3" wide and 14'10" high, back then, until the speed limit was 'upped', we were restricted to 50mph so I have a good idea of the problems that can arise with larger vehicles and a PITA when catching up a vehicle in front doing 3 or 4 mph under the 50. _________________ Formerly known as Lost_Property
And NO that's NOT me in the Avatar.
On deliveries its all bout time.....and thats it, 5mins or 22 mins does make the diffence, its just a job like everyone else. we all take short cuts if it save us time and money, but lorries drivers do something wrong its all over the news.
Now can we close this please.
ps. and if you think sat nav bad, try it on iphones got 3 on mine and all rubbish and take you on stupid routes.
Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 15125 Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:54 am Post subject:
jowett69 wrote:
On deliveries its all bout time.....and thats it, 5mins or 22 mins does make the diffence, its just a job like everyone else. we all take short cuts if it save us time and money,
that IS a fair and valid point
jowett69 wrote:
but lorries drivers do something wrong its all over the news.
is it the lorry? the satnav? or the driver though? it gets in the news because it's another 'blame the satnav' story when in reality, and in this instance, it was driver error. if i do something wrong in my work it might only affect a small number of my colleagues/clients. the example in the initial post caused a road to be blocked for 3 hours and obviously affected enough people for it to make a story.
a truck going the wrong way and turning round doesn't make the news. a truck getting stuck and blocking an entire stretch of road for a few hours is a different matter...!
jowett69 wrote:
ps. and if you think sat nav bad, try it on iphones got 3 on mine and all rubbish and take you on stupid routes.
i disagree. i have about 8 and they all perform well. which do you have? are you referring to stupid routes for lorries (don't think there are any HGV-specific apps for iphone?)
Joined: Mar 26, 2004 Posts: 548 Location: East Midlands
Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:09 am Post subject:
Looks to me as if the driver may have been approaching Croscombe from the Old Frome Road and took Thrupe Lane without realising he was, in effect, driving into a funnel. I can't see any other reason he would be there if Dungeon Farm was his destination.
So lack of local knowledge a probable factor - I've done it myself but in a car it doesn't make the headlines.
i disagree. i have about 8 and they all perform well. which do you have? are you referring to stupid routes for lorries (don't think there are any HGV-specific apps for iphone?)
co pilot which it take you off the motorway to go back on the motorway at the same junction and IGO which the makers just forgot about, both I used in wales, I did'nt have a clue where I was and sat nav (iphone) just wanted to go down this road and only this road !! in middle of nowhere. Used Navigon which i liked (jailbroken) and tomtom which took me on motorways was pass were i wanted to be and back up on otherside via M6(toll) to cut throught town! that was on lorry settings lets just say that get a map out and look at the birds eye view (or google maps).
Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 15125 Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:47 am Post subject:
jowett69 wrote:
co pilot which it take you off the motorway to go back on the motorway at the same junction
ah, yes. default routing in copilot is pretty rubbish. we recommend creating a custom routing profile (make sure in settings you have 'show more options' selected, then you can edit the profiles there). this makes the routing a lot better.
jowett69 wrote:
and IGO which the makers just forgot about,
it was updated not that long ago? mid june if i remember correctly?
jowett69 wrote:
sat nav (iphone) just wanted to go down this road and only this road !! in middle of nowhere.
you are allowed to ignore it remember, it's a machine that looks at a map and simply calculates the shortest/quickest route to get from a to b. it may not be the most sensible and the prime message from this whole thread is that the driver has final say over everything!
jowett69 wrote:
Used Navigon which i liked (jailbroken)
well, why not keep using navigon? and why the reference to 'jailbroken'? it works on non-jailbroken phones too. or do you mean stolen/pirated?
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