Technically it's illegal to use hazard flashers for anything other than indicating a hazard - and illegal on a moving vehicle except during an emergency stop.

HGVs used to use the L-R indicators in quick sequence to say thank you for being flashed after overtaking but it now seems to be 2-3 flashes of the hazards used.

As a caravanner, I find some HGVs flash when it's safe to pul back in, but many don't bother - I suspect because many car drivers don't bother to say "thank you" - I've now adopted the hazards flash style of thank you.

Coaches never seem to say thank you to caravanners, I don't know if they do to HGVs.

The indicator waggle is actually quite a recent thing, lorry drivers of a previous generation might or might not indicate after receiving a flash, the accepted thanks in those days was a short flick of the side lights followed by a longer period, say one second followed by two/three seconds, if at night then shorter off flicks of the lights were the rule.

Not many lorry drivers use hazards to thank people, its not ideal because if hazards are needed to warn people in an emergency, well its the same as crying wolf.

The side light flash isn't possible for many now because so many lorry's side lights are permanently on when running, along with those idiotic DRL's.

My own method of thanks is usually two or three flashes of the indicator the way i'm going, then a gap of a couple of seconds and another couple of flashes the same way...i do not agree with any indication that could confuse, and indicating the wrong way is common enough among the incompetent anyway without any more.

warning minor rant moment, please feel free not to read the section below.

As an aside, i nominate Oxfordshire for having the most ill mannered discourteous and thoroughly incompetent car and van drivers (putting themselves in danger) of all the counties, and oh boy is there some competition out there.

You expect London to be a place where manners have been abolished, where showing courtesy would be something almost to be ashamed of even if they were aware of such a thing, and you would be right, but i thought the good folk of Oxon thought themselves a cut above, especially noticeable among older men (who really should know how to behave) and women in pseudo 4x4's who have abolutely perfected discourtesy.

By the way i'm not expecting pro driver standards (nor would i expect to perform other people's jobs as well as they do), but if people wonder why us low life lorry driver types have lost some of our good natured courtesy, its because we were not put on this earth to protect you from your own idiocy, nor do we take kindly to it being obvious we are lower forms of life who need not be thanked when we have yet again , for the umpteenth time in the last hour taken appropriate action to help you or in too many cases save you from yourselves, and been competely ignored for our courtesy and trouble.

By the way, i never ever fail to thank a courtesy from someone else, doesn't matter how low or high they are on the social scale (sadly this is part of the problem here i suspect), a thankyou waved and or smiled costs nothing.

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/10/2017 at 20:02