What is it with these?
One on the M23 yesterday, one on the M20 and two on the M25 today.
Do they try to drive them like cars in the wet? Do they fall asleep - all these were early morning. Is it the foreign trucks?
The way you see them tailgating in the wet I suppose we're lucky there are not more. Do the rozzers EVER do anything about dangerous truck driving?
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One of the M25 ones was a car transporter prang which shut the M25 at junction 28 (A12) early this morning.
The road was damp but not that wet.
Falling asleep is a possibility.
A car transporter is unlikely to be foreign.
Another possibility could have been a car driver cutting across the granny lane when entering or exiting the motorway, forcing the truck to hit the brakes and jack-knife the artic.
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..and why do they always seems to overtake at the begining of a hill on dual carriageways only to find out a few hundred yards later that they cannot accelerate past the slower traffic?
Methinks they get a perverse pleasure watching us car drivers getting stuck behind them.
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..and why do they always seems to overtake at the begining of a hill on dual carriageways only to find out a few hundred yards later that they cannot accelerate past the slower traffic? Methinks they get a perverse pleasure watching us car drivers getting stuck behind them.
Snail racing lorries has been disussed at length in a couple of threads recently. There are pros and cons. Can't understand why some car drivers overtake at 0.1mph faster than the other car too though. No excuse for that and just as bad as lorries doing it.
As to lorries tailgating in the wet, is it any worse than the huge number of car drivers who do the same?
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GJD, I agree about car drivers tailgating - but given the extra weight and braking limitations I can't understand why so many trucks do it. Often to other trucks!
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The answer is complacency and stupidity. Just like the car drivers except more dangerous.
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Same reason as a lot of lorries don't have seatbelts - the laws of physics.
If you're in a 40 tonne lorry and you hit a 1 tonne car, you don't need a seatbelt to restrain you, your lorry won't slow down violently enough to injure you seriously.
If you're in a 40 tonne lorry and you hit another 40 tonne lorry, you're dead. Seatbelt or no...
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Steve,
The reason truckers tailgate each other is that the slipstream effect causes them to use considerably less fuel.
With most of their days spent on the m-way this amounts to a small fortune, specially for owner operators.
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You can definitely get this slipstreaming effect following a lorry on a motorbike.
At the right distance behind (close enough to get the effect but not TOO close!) you can travel with the throttle almost closed.
Drop back a bit and the slipstream blows you all over the place!
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In the days when lorries were slower, the favourite trick of the unscrupulous racing cyclist was to slipstream a truck during a time trial. Could save quite a few minutes if you hung on for long enough.
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I've never been able to fathom out why some cycling speed records are undertaken behind a shield on a train or car.
With the right aerodynamics and gearing and a long enough run the limit must be almost infinite!
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The problem with gearing is that it can only be raised to a certain point because the main way of doing it is to increase the diameter of the chainring. Too large and it would run out of ground clearance. The major problems experienced in previous record attempts have been in developing a cycle tyre that can cope with the high speeds (120 or 160mph, I forget which). There was also a worry about stopping safely at the end of the attempt. Unless the bike kept pace with the train during the slowing down distance, the rider would either rear-end it or the sudden wind blast should he lag behind would throw him off.
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Did you see the video clip of a mountain bike slipstreaming a van, then peeling off, up a ramp to jump onto the flat roof of a 2 storey house?
Missed the roof by a foot and dropped into the bushes, with a sort of gurgling sound.
Strange people, these Yanks..........
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Did you see the video clip of a mountain bike slipstreaming a van, then peeling off, up a ramp to jump onto the flat roof of a 2 storey house?
LINK, LINK, LINK!!!!
--
These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads.
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>> Did you see the video clip of a mountain bike >> slipstreaming a van, then peeling off, up a ramp >> to jump onto the flat roof of a 2 storey house? LINK, LINK, LINK!!!!
www.1888fastlap.com/images/pull_up.mpg
Short memory TOTH?
You provided another one from the site a few months ago. The IOM TT "lets rev the nuts off our bikes" clip!! Remember?
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Funny you should say a car transporter Brian.
The other night I almost rang plod about a car transporters antics. Only stopped by the females of the family exerting their SWMBO status dammit.
Basically this driver was into a serious bit of tailgating and indiscriminate bullying lane swapping on the M42 Northbound between the NEC and Tamworth.
However what made it worse was that everytime he braked there was the most horrendous sound of metal dragging on the road and a shower of sparks out the back. His braking performance was well below par and on more than one occasion he had to swap lanes sharpish to avoid rear ending someone. We saw a couple of occcasions where folks in lane one had to take to the hard shoulder to avoid a side impact. Visibility was rather grotty so it was difficult to see the source of the sparks.
We kept a lot of distance between him and us once he had overtaken, nevertheless I still feel guilty about not doing anything re a report. This was one vehicle and driver who needed removing from the road IMHO.
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FiF
I used to audit the accounts of a big car transporter group (OK, Tolemans, actually, since merged with Silcock and Colling and absorbed by some other group).
Some of the accident reports were quite entertaining.
Transporter drivers were almost unsackable due to union pressure (this was pre Thatcher) and when one wrote off a transporter and its load he stayed, but they sacked the insurance manager when next year's premium doubled!
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Traffic cops always seem to me to be parked up on A roads turning over lorries. Always assumed this to be an unhealthy interest in tachos, airbrakes etc.and generally picking on on artics, but having read this thread fully support it.
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Dear All,
What is the official speed limit for Commercial vehicles on A roads.
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Same as a B Class?
Highway Code after the Pedestian section.
DVD
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Brian,
Is it true that some of these transporters almost never stop rolling. ie driven by a team of drivers on shifts?
Also with drivers being rotated round vehicles so that no vehicle ever had a regular driver and vice versa? Seems like a recipe for disaster.
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Certainly is true FIF. And this happens with many thousands of HGVs.
One of my son in laws drives a HGV from the North Midlands leaving at 3.0am in the morning down to the east of London where he meets a French vehicle of the same company loaded with motor vehicle components.
They change vehicles and return back to base.
Trailers changed and the next driver repeats the process.
Evening time and it happens again.
Much of this in the motor car industry is the principle of "just in time" for the assembly line.
alvin
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Thanks for that Alvin.
So being totally ignorant about this how does the drivers tacho and record system work then?
I can see if they just swap trailers its not a problem as the records will stay with the tractor unit and the driver.
But taking your "they swap vehicles" literally are there two sets of records as to who has driven what and when?
One set that stays with the vehicle and one set that stays with the driver?
Otherwise how does poor old plod sort out if the driver is over his hours. He could have already done a shift on a vehicle which is now in N France together with the tacho charts. Lets face it with agency style drivers he could say I didn't work yesterday. Or ???
I'm sure we've all followed a heavy continually drifting onto the hard shoulder until he has enough of a fright to wake him up.
Some things that happen terrify the life out of me. Re one transport firm we used to use but no longer after they were prosecuted by DofT inspectors and we found out what was going on. In the course of the investigation they (DOT) followed one driver who picked up a load in Felixstowe, drove to Aberdeen, tipped, loaded again and was back almost in Felixstowe without any rest other than shortish meal breaks. No sleep at all. They stopped him short of the port because the inspectors, who were themselves driving two up, were falling asleep at the wheel. Scary or what!
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The driver uses the same tacho disk for his shift whatever number of vechicles he drives. There is space on the rear of the tacho disk for additional vechile details and milages. Therefore the police can still check on the drivers hours.
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FiF
Alvin has answered it better than I could, my experience with transporters is way out of date now.
Now: if it was the Charities Act ............ !
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