 | Home > Off Topic > A1 and lorry drivers |
 
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| Martin Site Admin Member Since: 02 Apr 2007 Location: Hook Norton Posts: 6603   
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Moved to Off Topic, and remember to keep the discussion civil guys
  1988 90 Td5 NAS soft top
2015 D90 XS SW |
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19th Jun 2015 12:27pm |
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| bluebottle Member Since: 08 May 2015 Location: Not in my Landy enough! Posts: 705
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Sorry - I should probably have posted my bit in the grumpy thread anyway...
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19th Jun 2015 12:44pm |
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| leeds Member Since: 28 Dec 2009 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 8580
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Must admit I was not aware of the restrictions on the A1, you live and learn. Inconsiderate drivers or drivers not capable of adapting to unusual/different circumstances abound in all vehicles. Today in local town at crossroads controlled by traffic lights was waiting in inside lane to go straight ahead with one car in outside turning right lane. An escort vehicle with flashing yellow lights and big signs saying caution wide load etc turned left onto our road followed by a very large low loader with a track machine on the back which was wider then the lorry bed. Obviously lorry driver took corner as wide as possible but the track machine was going to encroach onto our side of the centre line. Brain dead driver sat there as the lorry driver told him to back off which he could readily do with an empty lane behind him. However brain dead driver was incapable of finding reverse gear. The escort driver had to leave his car and sprint up to brain dead driver and order him to get out of the way of a 30+ ton tracked machine which would have easily turned his saloon car into an open top coupe very easily. Chaos caused by one brain dead driver who could not readily cope with a situation slightly out of the normal. Should they be in possession of a driving licence? Brendan |
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19th Jun 2015 1:01pm |
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| GREENI Member Since: 22 Aug 2010 Location: staffs Posts: 10379
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I have my class 1, yet choose not to drive.
Truck drivers problems are truck drivers problems, it won't take much to let your foot off the gas for a bit and let the other get past. Drivers are treated like lowlives, by security gate folk, forklift drivers, transport managers, sales staff etc etc. 'SI-I I T' rolls down hill, as they say, and drivers are usually at the bottom of that hill (trying to overtake another). Car drivers are terrible too, I was towing the other day on the M1 in a 50 zone, I couldn't go in the fast lane (trailer), yet first and second lanes insisted doing 40-43mph, it was quite frustrating when I'm trying do 50....the best part was when I decided to put my lights on, to warn the driver in front of my presence...the guy indicated RIGHT and moved into the fast lane to let me by...  |
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19th Jun 2015 2:11pm |
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| Cupboard Member Since: 21 Mar 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 2971 
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YES! This is incredibly irritating. I think they're closely related to the people that swerve towards you when they see the tractor coming round the corner. Plenty of space for both on the road, but that does require the oncoming car not to be in the oncoming carriageway. |
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19th Jun 2015 4:45pm |
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| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17336 
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Or the people who stop dead when they see an emergency vehicle with blues and twos coming towards them on a completely clear road.
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19th Jun 2015 5:43pm |
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| Muddybigdog Member Since: 11 Apr 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 1016 
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Northbound on the M11 last night, was behind 2 racing elephants for over 4 miles, with about a mile of traffic behind, waiting to see who was going to win, I guess the driver let their ego's get the better of them and switched off their brains. Jumped ship to reliability - Mitsubishi L200
Puma 90 XS - Sold D3 - 2.7 S x2 (both Sold) Freelander 2 HSE - Sold Freelander 1 - Sold Disco 2 - Sold |
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19th Jun 2015 9:18pm |
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| Projectblue Member Since: 22 Nov 2011 Location: Devon Posts: 1096 
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I'm not wishing to pick the scab off a healing wound, but I have some observations on this response. And I'm not picking on anyone, but a point in general. People driving trucks are doing a job. They aren't heroes (and that word gets over used). I'm not grateful for someone delivering the consumer goods or food. They haven't run a U-boat blockade or passed through zombie infested post apocalyptic waste grounds (unless you went through Leicester). Yeah, sure, generalising about all truck drivers being vermin was too much. But, and here is a totally valid question: Why, when you can see your mirror is full of a truck that's begun to overtake and then suddenly they reach the wall of your slipstream and that's it, they can't get further, do you as a professional driver (not you personally, it's metaphorical)not back off the throttle a tad, and let the overtakee pass? New project and it's green: www.projectoverland.info |
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19th Jun 2015 10:56pm |
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| 22900013A Member Since: 23 Dec 2010 Location: Oxfordshire Posts: 3149 
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Basically this problem comes from the amount of time it takes for a truck to build up to its cruising speed. I used to drive class 2 and remember one hill on the M40 where if you slowed down you were dead in the water, crawling up the hill at about 30mph if you were lucky. I have seen some have to crawl up the hard shoulder with hazard lights on as they are so slow. In such a situation you wouldn't dare drop back for fear of being rear ended by some twonk in a BMW driving 18 inches off your back end...
This kind of thing I am told did not happen when lorries were un-limited, as passing vehicles were quick enough to get past in good time. Thing is though, get used to it, as more and more vehicles are being fitted with limiters, including ordinary cars. My works 130 is nominally limited to 70 (in reality about 6  and our MEWPS are 56ish.
Another problem is that companies can choose all sorts of limits, not just 56, many are 50, 52, 53 etc. If you consider a journey of several hundred miles, you would lose loads of time if you had to slow down for every passing truck. The simple problem was mentioned above, we are a small island and are grossly overpopulated, our road infrastructure simply cannot cope with the number of vehicles using them. To be honest I'm glad I do very little motorway or even dual carriageway driving, I'm much happier sticking to the back roads and villages which is where we do our work anyway. 2011 110 USW 1973 Series III 1-Ton 1972 Series III 1-Ton Cherrypicker 1969 IIA 1-Ton 1966 IIA 88" |
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20th Jun 2015 8:42am |
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| Cupboard Member Since: 21 Mar 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 2971
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When my old car was dying and couldn't get above 60 (and I knew it couldn't) it actually made driving far more relaxing. It added very little to the journey times too.
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20th Jun 2015 9:32pm |
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