Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart......

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Wed 10 Jun 2015 22:40
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Trilogy

from the numpties that choose to tailgate car drivers. I have to say this is about the most intimidating and unsettling driving style ever. Tonight it was a British one in a '30' limit. These drivers should hand in their licence telling their boss they are no longer fit to drive. Failing that, I won't write here what I would like to do to these individuals.

GB, I'm sure you would never do anything like this.

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Wed 10 Jun 2015 23:29
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Bilboman

It happens to me quite regularly, despite fixed and mobile speed cameras and the occasional traffic cop (I live and drive in Spain btw.) I never realised the film "Duel" had such a cult following!
Coned-off lane closures and an automatic 80 km/h/50 mph speed inevitably brings a vindictive, impatient HGV driver on some kind of life-and-death mission to within inches of my rear bumper. Over a 10 km stretch, a drop in maximum speed of 10 km/h means, at most, an extra 1m40sec on a journey time, hardly a catch-the-ferry/miss-the-ferry conundrum, but mathematics is not the strong suit of all drivers.
My response? Avoid eye contact at all costs - tilt the interior mirror down a little. A bully continues to bully if he gets a response. Where there is a space for the driver to overtake, I slow down passively (foot off the gas), flick the nearside indicator and (as required by the Spanish Highway Code) move as far to the nearside of my lane as possible.
If none of that works, there's always the "Thelma and Louise" solution...

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Wed 10 Jun 2015 23:48
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - gordonbennet

Trilogy i could not agree more with you, they are not nor will they ever be as long as they have a certain orifice, lorry drivers.

They are not from the old school of lorry driving (which isn't an ageist thing, its the standard you set yourself and work to), if you put them in a proper lorry with a proper gearbox that required some skill to drive they wouldn't get the thing out the gate in the first place., and they wouldn't be doing the job when it was about graft muck and bullets anyway.

The tailgaters by their idiocy and the accidents they get involved in will see all lorries fitted with adaptive cruise (many are already but it will be more intrusive), the main purpose of this will be to ensure that safe distances are maintained, and the vehicle will brake for them whether they like it or not, they'll also find themselves confined increasingly to the inside lane only on dual carriageways, they are totally to blame for whats coming from their own bullying half witted stupidity, and they're too stupid to see it.

We, the majority who try to do our jobs right will suffer for the idiots, as usual.

I assure you genuine lorry drivers are sickened by tailgaters, lorry bullies and idiots in general, proper drivers take pride still in what they do, there's still more of them than the numpties but the percentages are going the wrong way.

Unfortunately the dumbing down of the lorry test isn't helping, thats our own standards without getting involved in the foreigners here in legion driving their own as well as Brit regd lorries, we need to get away from box ticking and back to overall competence as it once was.

Did you know new drivers have for some time now been able to take the lorry test in an automatic and provided they have a manual car licence they get a full lorry licence issued, if thats not lunacy i don't know what is.

Part of the answer would be to link a vocational drivers insurance and accident record to their licence, that would stop those who leave a trail of destruction from moving from one company or agency to another incognito, why this hasn't happened i do not know, it would mean the genuine shortage of real drivers would be highlighted and they would be highly sought after.

You might be interested to know that my company take an extremely dim view of anything like this, i won't go into details but anyone driving like this reported, (and we have cameras fitted that can transmit data when requested), will face up to it and will if its genuine serious enough and proved be dismissed...i have no problem with that, we are paid way above the norm for very reasonable hours and we are not pushed or rushed in any way.

Edited by gordonbennet on 10/06/2015 at 23:49

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Wed 10 Jun 2015 23:55
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - gordonbennet

Forgot in my rant, yes they're stupid enough to tailgate other lorries too.

Darwinism in action.

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 00:00
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Leif
Fortunately aggressive driving down here is rare. I did have one numpty zoom up, smear nasal mucus over the rear of my car, then when he could, overtake, and brake sharply, coming to a halt as a punishment beating. He was a car driver, if drive is the right term. Most lorry drivers here are decent. Then again this is a quiet area, and watching wood warp is too much excitement for most locals, and is invariably followed by a short lie down to recover.
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Thu 11 Jun 2015 00:35
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Bilboman

Gordonbennet, I am heartened when I read a posting like yours and I would like to believe that drivers like you are still in the majority!
Way back in my school days, the one summer I spent as a driver's mate at a building company taught me more about driving than all the (car) lessons I later took. I find myself constantly slowing down (or speeding up) to create a gap, moving lanes and giving way to bigger vehicles, as I know it makes their lives easier, makes the roads safer for everyone, puts the driver in a better mood, which may prove to be contagious, and, apart from anything else, is plain courtesy.
But the dumbing down of so many stages of the learning cycle (school exams, higher education, professional and vocational qualifications and of course, driving) all takes its toll and standards can only get lower as more and more candidates pass more and more exams. On Sunday I saw an Estonian cab towing a Croatian trailer, and the driver seemed to be playing chicken with a Turkish 44 tonner; I don't think either of their speed limiters were working, and as for their tachographs - no full loads allowed on a Sunday IIRC, but where's a traffic cop when you need one?

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 01:05
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Wackyracer

This does prove one thing, The driver CPC is a worthless scam to just make money but, I suppose at least when these baffoons crush the car infront they can then use their basic first aid skills learned as part of the driver CPC to attend to their victims!

Cynical? me?

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 08:24
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Leif
Generally driving standards are lower in other countries, with higher rates of drink driving, and other dangerous practices. I have only once been in a car where one passenger was on the verge of screaming and I was terrifed. We were being driven at night, in rain and fog, round mountain roads, in Italy, by a native. Indian driving is said to be poor.

But I think standards here are improving. Or are cars just made safer? ;)
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Fri 12 Jun 2015 16:42
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Engineer Andy

I agree that anyone tailgating is reall terrible driving (especially from HGV drivers who should know better, being profressionals and having a very heavy missile under their control), but as someone who lives in an area that has frequent accidents involving lorries (the infamous A14/M11 area in Cambridgeshire), quite a good deal of them are caused by idiots in cars and vans cutting up/across HGVs, coaches etc who then brake to enter a slip-off (quite often those are not very long, hence the rapid braking), making the HGV driver brake suddenly, which often leads to a jack-knifing/skid and a follow-on serious multi-vehicle accident.

What's also noticeable is that, thanks to vans getting better handling and becoming larger, van drivers (who may migrate up to driving HGVs) are now driving their Transit vans as they would their Audi A3 2ltr. Everyone drives faster nowadays (especially on motorways/dual carriageways, where most people take the speed limit as X + 10% at least), but particularly commercial vehicles, who despite advances in braking technology, still cannot ever hope to handle or stop anywhere near as well as cars.

I'll leave my comments about bikers for another day...

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 01:09
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Avant

Agree entirely with GB. Only occasionally have I been tailgated by an HGV - far more often by a black car.

I haste to add that not all black cars are driven aggressively - it just seems that most of those that are are black!

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 14:29
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Ethan Edwards

Same here. Last night going home...HGV tailgating me whilst I was at precisely 40 in a 40 (there are camera's you see).

I'm on cruise control so he was wasting his time if he thought he was going to intimidate the cruise into going faster...If he bent my car he pays for it. So I just relaxed and watched the plonker get more and more frustrated...until it went to a 60 then I left him standing.

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 14:44
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - gordonbennet

Ethan the problem there is that you're probably doing a real 37/38 mph where the lorry has a calibrated accurate speedo, and yes that 2 moh is life and death to some of the bulging eyed stressed fools behind the wheel of all sorts of vehicles.

Most of us take that into account and go that bit slower, meself i run the M1 50 mph roadworks between junctions 15/19 at around a genuine 46 mph, much more relaxing allowing the majority of cars to cruise gently by, if i come up behind someone slower i'll make the judgment whether to pass or knock it back another couple of clicks.

Unfortunately there are some who haven't a minute to live, they know that in practice they can run down the 50mph average cameras on the limiter @ 55mph without worrying, so they do and woe betide anyone who gets in their way, i've seen artics overtaking in third lane 6'6" width apart from being the third lane, then cut across all three and undertake on the hard shoulder then carve the offender up when the come back out again to teach them a lesson, pathetic, they made a whole 30 seconds up that way...where's the face palm smiley when you want one...more importantly where the proper traffic officer who can pull them up and delay them there for an hour whilst they MOT the vehicle and read the riot act.

Personally i prefer to let idiots like that go in front where i can keep an eye on them, if everything comes to a sudden stop, then i'm sorry but i'd rather the idiot was rammed up someone else's back side and not mine, being judged in the right on the mortuary slab isn't an alternative i want.

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Fri 12 Jun 2015 18:03
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Bromptonaut

Most of us take that into account and go that bit slower, meself i run the M1 50 mph roadworks between junctions 15/19 at around a genuine 46

Unfortunately there are some who haven't a minute to live, they know that in practice they can run down the 50mph average cameras on the limiter @ 55mph without worrying, so they do and woe betide anyone who gets in their way, .

And we wonder why barely a day goes by without the traffic flash mentioning an accident or breakdown in that section. Pretty much abandoned using it in main part of day. The A5 and A426 provide an excellent alternative whether to the M6 at J1 or M1 at J20.

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 14:47
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - SteVee

Most HGV drivers I see are excellent - I wish I was that patient with some car drivers. I do make sure that I'm not between two HGVs when I enter those 50MPH sections on motorways. I agree with 'no eye contact' suggestion - I really don't want to aggravate someone with that much weight behind them !

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 14:57
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Leif

Yes, most HGV drivers are intelligent and polite, but then again when you are pulling a huge load, and could total several cars with one wrong move, you most probably develop a sense of responsibility.

Unlike van drivers, who more often than not are numpties, or aspire to numptihood as part of their self improvement. I was nearly totalled by one, exiting a roundabout in lane 2, pulls into lane 1, where I would have been had I not emergency braked. They normally tailgate, sometimes gesticulate, don't look, speed etc etc. Blah blah rant rant blah.

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 15:03
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - gordonbennet

Quite SteVee, last thing you want to be is the sandwich filling, i've seen the results, nasty, forget that 5 start NCAP rating, it means nothing.

Changing the subject slightly, from a lorry drivers point of view i wasn't sure about the upping of the limit on single carriageways to 50mph in April, but so far i've been pleasantly surprised, we'll see what bad weather brings in due course.

Most lorries are maintaining 50 where appropriate and when able, which is probably 52/55 mph on most car speedometers, not only has this eased queues on many two way roads, it appears so far and the weather has been good, that its cut down on the suicidal overtakes of the truly incompetent who wouldn't have attempted at a higher speed, understandable though they are when a whole line of traffic is following a lorry doing 38mph.

Its noticeably better when i'm in my car too for the same reason.

Has anyone else noticed a difference in their regular single carriageway drives?

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 19:57
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Trilogy

GB, most are now doing 50 mph, while the odd one does nearer to 60 mph (car speedometer speed) but Morrisons still tend to do about 40 mph. I do feel the increase to 50 mph has been a good idea. You have mentioned suicidal overtakes. I do wonder why so many numpty motorists tend to overtake as slowly as possible i.e. in top gear. I was always taught to get past as quickly as possible. This can be very frustrating when you are the second person in a queue overtaking.

Last night, when I was tailgated I was travelling at an indicated 33 mph. Normally I give following HGVs plenty of notice if I turn of into a side road. Last night's numpty wasn't afforded that luxury, however, I didn't make him stop, so he maintained some momentum.

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 23:16
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Leif
I suspect most drivers don't know how to use the gears. Which might be why many are afraid of overtaking. I have a nice video of a van overtaking a tractor and trailer on a blind bend, coming fact to face with oncoming traffic, How a head on was avoided I know not.
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Thu 11 Jun 2015 15:00
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Wackyracer

Same here. Last night going home...HGV tailgating me whilst I was at precisely 40 in a 40 (there are camera's you see).

Let me guess, A12 by any chance? I was tailgated and bullied (blasting the horn and flashing headlamps) by a trucker when they had the works on the west bound carriageway a while back. Didn't do him much good as I stuck to the 50mph indicated on my satnav and speedo (my car has a surprisingly accurate speedo) he then did a dodgy overtake and cut in before being clear of me so I had to brake hard to avoid him removing my front wing.

Like you, I left him for dead when it went back to national speed limit. I really can't get my head around plonkers like this in HGV's. Personally, I don't want and can't afford to get points on my licence as like GB I drive an artic for a living.

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 19:59
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Trilogy

Avant, I hope these are not hea***s. Not a vehicle you want to come up behind on a dark night on a quiet road.

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 22:35
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Trilogy

BTW, I didn't type the ***.

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Thu 11 Jun 2015 23:03
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Avant

Sorry - the swear filter doesn't like funeral carriages for the same reason it doesn't like the football team run by Mr Wenger.

That's one type of black vehicle that I've never been tailgated by - although some time ago I was overtaken by one on thre M4, I think, which must been doing 90 mph +.

Edited by Avant on 13/06/2015 at 15:22

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Sat 13 Jun 2015 13:11
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - ED731PDH

Late for his own funeral no doubt.

I can see why now that in car camera recording systems are becoming more popular by the day, just for evidence in the event of an accident. I really needed one a few weeks back where some local cycle club decided to have a road race on a busy dual carriageway in the Horsham area. I was outside to turn right on a roundabout, a cyclist I was giving miles of room was on the inside and just as I started my move this idiot cyclist cut right in front of me in order to skim the roundabout centre. A blast of the car horn six inches from his rear mudguard elected the usual single finger salute. They go on about having insurance on the roads but these jokers have no cover and get away with blue murder.

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Sat 13 Jun 2015 15:27
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Avant

Fair comment from your own experience - but can we make sure that this thread doesn't become a cyclist v motorist argument. As with HGVs, so with cyclists, the idiots are the minority.

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Sat 13 Jun 2015 16:32
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - gordonbennet

Just to put things in perspective, i worked today, covered about 300 miles mostly M1, and the only vehicle that tailgated me all day was an Audi Q5 in base black desperate to test the towbar out on my old Landcruiser on the way home from work, couldn't go any quicker in town queue of cars in front.

I should add the front fogs were on too which i reckon makes it a full house, black check, audi check, 4x4'ish check, idiot driving check, front fogs check, all present and correct.

In fact the only tailgating i saw today was from cars, apart from one lorry which let the side down in the roadworks near Tibshelf, no accidents or hold ups to report, excellent.

Enjoyable easy day too, rained all day but it held off while i unloaded in Yorkshire and nabbed a breakfast in their canteen, now was that the sun (ok cloud) shining on the righteous or the devil looking after his own..:-)

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Sat 13 Jun 2015 21:52
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Trilogy

GB, times like this call for a deposit of oil on the road from the back of any vehicle that is tailgated. The oil magically disappears before the next following vehicle reaches the area.

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Sun 14 Jun 2015 16:05
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - ED731PDH

No Vs versus Vs intended, just one example of the idiocy seen on the roads today. What I tend to notice is that everybody is in a hurry to get anywhere be it private, truck or otherwise. Whilst not trying to slate the average Audi driver, it is usually an Audi that's right up my rump nine times out of ten and the brand has taken over from where BMW has left off.

However, a a good point this, the levels of spped related and tailgating idiocy have notably increased since the price of petrol on the forecourts has come down. All I can assume is that up until then, people were driving frugally, and now with things on the up and fuel down the accelerator foot is being exercised more.

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Sun 14 Jun 2015 19:00
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Engineer Andy

Probably a combination of severe recession (money is tight) and rising fuel prices, so many people had to only used their vehicles when absolutely required, and then, keeping the speed down to keep the mpg up. Now things are on the mend in the economy, then I suspect many people have gone back to their previous behaviour.

The general 'in a hurry' behaviour was getting worse as cars got faster and more people bought quicker models with better brakes (ABS has a lot to answer for), but I would say that it more a reflection on society that in the last 20 years has succumbed to the 'never mind the quality, feel the width' and 'do everything as quickly as possible' attitude.

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Sun 14 Jun 2015 22:05
Most HGV drivers are excellent drivers apart...... - Hamsafar

Just give your windscreen a really good wash for a minute, that usually knocks them back, but it doesn't happen much to me as I tend to go a few indiacted mph over the posted limit.

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