Why do some lorry drivers think keeping their momentum is more important than safety?

[itaintemeyouno]

One of the things I find most frustrating is HGV drivers who pull out in front of you - or even into the space you are occupying, forcing you to swerve into the next lane. Often, with no indication whatsoever.

I know they need to keep up momentum, but this should never take precedence over road safety. It happened several times on the M1 yesterday.

 

[cinek]

Because they don't normally drive their own vehicles, because they are bigger than most other users, because they simply don't care.

On other hand however, how many times a car driver overtakes a lorry, cuts back in front of it and then slams his brakes because of slow moving or static traffic ahead?

For some reason it is like an ego thing, that driving behind a lorry is demeaning...just like driving in nearside lane on the motorway (for some drivers that is).

 

[jotter22]

And also remember a slow moving lorry can sit in the left hand lane with his indicator on for ever because a lot of car drivers don't want to get stuck behind 44t climbing back up 12 gears......Not all LGV drivers are the same!

Tony.

 

[BlueQuinn]

And a lot of cabs on motorways are left hand drive. They can see a hell of a lot less than you might think. Maybe they think it's clear?

 

[Troon]

My "holier-than-thou perfect driver" top tip for the day — watch for LGVs gaining on the traffic in front of them and make space for them to move out. Flashing them out when they indicate is nice but not strictly legal.

You live a bit longer and make their life easier You'll also find that with a bit of observation practice, you very rarely get taken by surprise by this — the manoeuvre is almost always to pass slower traffic.

One more bonus hint from the one time I piloted a 56-mph-limited 7½-tonner: don't sit in lane 1 varying your speed below and above the trucks' limiters. This really annoys them.

 

[developer]

For some reason it is like an ego thing, that driving behind a lorry is demeaning....

I don't like to drive behind anything that I can't see past - it's monotonous.

I also won't stay behind anything that has stuff attached to it, (cycles, roof rack accoutrements etc.) fastened by the owner, just in case...

 

[cinek]

I don't like to drive behind anything that I can't see past - it's monotonous.

I also won't stay behind anything that has stuff attached to it, (cycles, roof rack accoutrements etc.) fastened by the owner, just in case...

True, but what choice do you have on single carriageway?
Each time you overtake one, there is another one ahead.

 

[tombo5609]

One of the things I find most frustrating is HGV drivers who pull out in front of you - or even into the space you are occupying, forcing you to swerve into the next lane. Often, with no indication whatsoever.

I know they need to keep up momentum, but this should never take precedence over road safety. It happened several times on the M1 yesterday.

They were once called the knights of the road but I now have another name for them.
Myself and most others understand the need to keep schedules but there is no excuse for a lorry doing 61mph overtaking another lorry doing 60mph and then spending the next 10miles trying to get past him. In the meantime blocking two lanes of the motorway and forcing all other traffic to go in the outside lane. It happens continually and is dangerous by forcing fast and slow moving traffic to use the one lane.
If you leave a safe gap it is just an excuse for a large lorry to jump in the gap and force you to slow down to his speed for the next half hour.
Rant over

 

[developer]

and then spending the next 10miles trying to get past him.

I've told you a million times ...

 

[wemorgan]

Car drivers do it too, it's just that HGV are so much more noticeable because of their size.

 

[cinek]

Car drivers do it too, it's just that HGV are so much more noticeable because of their size.

Not all HGV drivers are fat

 

[davidjpowell]

My "holier-than-thou perfect driver" top tip for the day — watch for LGVs gaining on the traffic in front of them and make space for them to move out. Flashing them out when they indicate is nice but not strictly legal.

You live a bit longer and make their life easier You'll also find that with a bit of observation practice, you very rarely get taken by surprise by this — the manoeuvre is almost always to pass slower traffic.

One more bonus hint from the one time I piloted a 56-mph-limited 7½-tonner: don't sit in lane 1 varying your speed below and above the trucks' limiters. This really annoys them.

******** to that.

Sure fire way of being stuck in an elephant race for 30 miles.

I did discover a few months ago that really annoying to a lorry driver, who can't actually keep up with the lorry that he's trying to overtake (not that that actually made him think to pull into lane 1), is if the car driver happens to meander down lane 1 (not good driving, but 30 miles had pushed my patience), said meandering car then makes it into Lane 2 (without cutting up non undertaking lorry), and briefly drops to 50 mph. Lorry driver get's mad, then awakens from his stupor and spots lane 1. car get's gone. Millions of held up motorists get to go at 70mph again. and breath.

 

[kinaero]

There are more bad car drivers than HGV drivers

 

[itaintemeyouno]

I do read the road ahead and will flash them out and move into the next lane if possible. All road users are guilty of all sorts but few have the same consequences as a 44T truck side swiping you.

The other annoyance on the motorway for me are the drivers (and my brother in law in certainly guilty of this) that in order to overtake you, they think they are at Brand's Hatch and need to slipstream you by driving right up your tail before pulling out to overtake. Do they really need to have a racing line to overtake a E220?

 

[E55BOF]

I don't like driving behind lorries because I can't see through them, and I like as much view ahead as I can get - it makes anticipation and planning much easier. However, I will usually pull into the third lane, or ease off the throttle a little if I cannot pull over, to allow a lorry to move out from lane one if it is indicating to do so to pass a slower vehicle.

I think the root cause of the problem is that large lorries are (or should be...) all governed to pretty much the same speed, which it seems most of them can attain and hold except on an uphill slope, so overtaking is often a matter of the difference in accuracy of their governed speed. Usually that difference is not much. Some, of course, do sit in lane two creeping past the vehicle in lane one at an unreasonably low rate, but I try to remember both that it is their livelihood, and that it may take them a long time to regain even a relatively small loss of speed. Tolerance and consideration is the key.

Cars, on the other hand, can (nearly) all easily exceed the speed limit, and their maximum speed is not governed. I am less forgiving of cars that do the same thing. Lots do....

I long for a front-mounted rocket launcher a lot more for use on cars than on lorries.

E55BOF

 

[Scott_F]

Judging by the convoys of lorries that I regularly see on the motorway driving nose-to-tail, far too many HGV drivers seem to think that the safe stopping distance at 56mph is about 6 feet.

 

[cooks]

may be some of you people should try sitting as a passenger in a 18t or artic and see what the LGV DRIVERS have to put up with and see....then you might think before JUDGING THE BOOK COVER....

 

[Deleted member 65149]

may be some of you people should try sitting as a passenger in a 18t or artic and see what the LGV DRIVERS have to put up with and see....then you might think before JUDGING THE BOOK COVER....

Following on from Scott's comment above, what most LGV drivers seem to see most of the time is the back of the LGV a couple of feet in front of them. That's why they have to spend so long passing at a speed of 0.1 mph more - they're so stunned by the vista that suddenly opens up to them the shock locks their arms and they can no longer turn the steering wheel!

Seriously though, can any of those who are supporting lorry drivers tell us WHY they drive so close to the vehicle in front of them for such long distances. Is lorry driving such a lonely occupation that they're afraid of being too far from someone else? I know it's a fault of far too many car drivers too, but most of those aren't professional drivers - they're just idiots.

 

[ss201]

I have a some sympathy for HGV drivers - I wouldn't want their job and I do pull out in advance to give them overtaking space if I anticipate they're catching the truck in front (or if traffic is joining from the left). If it's safe to do so, of course.

I always try to leave a safe distance from the vehicle in front - which some truck drivers seem to interpret as dawdling and slowing them up - even when it's patently obvious I'm going at exactly the same speed as all those in front of me. What does really wind me up is when stuck in slow-moving traffic, some HGV drivers seem to think it's OK to drive just a few feet from my back bumper - virtually pushing me to speed up and close the gap.

One slip of the HGV driver's foot from the brake pedal or a moment's inattention - even at slow speed - and the back of my car gets mashed.

 

[artyman]

I suspect a lot of tailgating by lorries is to slipstream and save fuel. I amazes me that slab fronted design hasn't changed, it can't be aero efficient. Leaving a decent gap from the vehicle in front means you can adjust your speed without using brakes, it's braking that throws energy away. Absolutely no point in accelerating then having to brake.