Been on the (single) car transporter and trailer (limited to 55mph/90kph) the last few weeks and have noticed what seems to be a huge increase in the number of cars being driven at about 50 to 55 mph on motorways. It's probably to save fuel which is understandable with today's fuel prices. Now, this might not seems to be important, but it does "force" many trucks to overtake at a low speed differentiation which often takes a long time. Two lanes are therefore "blocked" causing congestion on busy motorways.
I'm not one to complain (!) but why do these drivers not realise that a couple of miles an hour extra would not increase fuel consumption significantly and would ensure that they do not have a 40 tonner alongside for long stretches and would not cause congestion?
Just to be provocative, the majority seem to be a) Grey haired gents (I'm past that - I'm getting to be white haired!!) and b) ladies of varied age (but almost always hunched over the wheel)
Anybody else noticed this?
Phil
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Yep, the A55 is infested with these mimsing craphounds - bearing in mind I go at max speed everywhere - hair not grey yet.
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I go at limit + a bit on motorways. And I find I go from low to high speed ASAP. This 170PS diesel is fun. MPG suffers but it's only a percentage thing.
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>> hair not grey yet.
... unlike the faces of your passengers and the drivers of other vehicles as you appear sideways over the horizon in a cloud of tussocks and pebbles...
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Only on the bike, I ride considerably quicker...
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>>
>> ... unlike the faces of your passengers and the drivers of other vehicles as you
>> appear sideways over the horizon in a cloud of tussocks and pebbles...
>>
"I'd like to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like his passengers"
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On Phil's OP: he is complaining about stupid, rigid and inconsiderate driving by stingy carphounds in silly little cars. I couldn't agree more.
Unless your car is a genuine illegal-immigrant pile of poo, the difference between 55 and say 58 or 59mph isn't going to be much. It may not even be measurable. Only a bog-standard British road halfwit would drive at a speed that compelled lorries to overtake him or her with painful slowness.
I blame cruise control. A sensitive foot is more economical and less obtrusive. You can waft past 56mph governed HGVs downhill without guzzling juice. To drive in the slow lane with trucks breathing down your neck is completely and utterly moronic and despicable unless your jalopy forces you to do it. I'm afraid though that the people who do it think they are being bullied and intimidated by other traffic. Like NowWheels in the other place, an intelligent lady of modern culture but a motoring wimp and self-righteous with it. The road just isn't a socialist place and I hope it never will be.
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>> I blame cruise control
I'm now working in the same industry as PhilW (you're not far from me Phil, which company's transporter do you drive?) and I find the opposite. The 53-54mph merchants often vary their speed up to 57mph and back down again, usually just as you've drawn level with them. Cars with the cruise control switched on can be treated the same as lorries, as we can accurately plan out the overtake as it happens.
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>> The 53-54mph merchants often vary their speed up to 57mph and back down again, usually just as you've drawn level with them.
Nothing to do with cruise control then, just passive-aggressive idiocy. All too likely.
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Dead right Dave - nowt worse than coming up behind a car doing 52, waiting for a good gap in middle lane, then going for overtake and finding it accelerating to 55 or 56 as you are alongside so you look a twassock for trying to overtake. Strikes me that some of these "mimsers" (thanks RP!) drive at this speed yet don't like to be overtaken. They also seem to have the characteristic of always looking absolutely staight ahead and never looking in a mirror.
Will PM you with company I drive for - never know when you might need a lift when plating! I'm the "emergency" transporter driver but I enjoy it - at least always have a vehicle home! Good trip up to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Fort William yesterday and today - interesting in the gales, rain and floods!!
By the way, for car drivers, difference between 50 and 55 might not seem too much but when on tachograph it can mean not getting home and having to spend another night out in some truckstop.
Phil
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How do I PM Dave? Forgotten how to go via mods!
Phil
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I'll send him your e-mail Phil if that's ok ?
Last edited by: R.P. on Tue 29 Nov 11 at 20:49
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"mimsing craphounds"
"stupid, rigid and inconsiderate driving by stingy carphounds in silly little cars."
"moronic and despicable"
And I was trying to be so polite in my original post!!
Mind you, not sure that cruise control is to blame - most of the cars doing this don't seem to be to type to have CC.
Phil
Oh, and here's another. See car coming down slip road, pull out into middle lane and flash lights to let them come out. At end of slip road, truck and car are now alongside each other in inside and middle lane. Car from slip road persists in doing 50-55 on inside lane so truck can not overtake and then pull in. Do they not realise we have limiters and can't just accelerate past?
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>> Do they not realise we have limiters and can't just accelerate past?
No, in general, they don't :)
See: the witness widely quoted after the recent M5 crash as saying all the trucks were thundering by at 80 or 90.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Tue 29 Nov 11 at 20:11
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>> No, in general, they don't :)
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>> See: the witness widely quoted after the recent M5 crash as saying all the trucks
>> were thundering by at 80 or 90.
>>
And, of course, not being corrected because the media wouldn't like the facts to get in the way of a good headline.
I think the perception of HGV's travelling faster than they actually are is largely down to the size of them; I can be doing only 20mph through a village and still have pedestrians and cyclists glaring at me and flagging me to reduce my speed even further.
Naturally I return the glare but usually refrain from gestures....
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A few years ago I had to drive 60 miles or so down a motorway with a spacesaver tyre limited to 50mph. A truly unnerving experience. I wouldn't want to drive at that speed on a motorway if I didn't have to.
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I drove over a hundred miles along the A55/M56 at the start of the summer on a restricted 125cc motor-bike - you have to keep your wits about you. Max speed was around 55mph on the flat ! Ruallt Hill (Pat knows it) was a nightmare. Not good.
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>> A few years ago I had to drive 60 miles or so down a motorway with a spacesaver tyre >>limited to 50mph. A truly unnerving experience. I wouldn't want to drive at that speed on a motorway if I didn't have to.
>>
A few years ago I did quite a few l trips on the M3, M25, M40 in a knackered Fiat Uno that really struggled on the hills but did get up to about 50.
50 was slow enough for the lorries to overtake fairly easily so I was fairly relaxed ( but bored at my progress ) .
When they had passed me I always gave then an "all clear flash" and I thank you flash of the ambers followed.
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The slowest I've been on the A55 is 35mph, I wasn't driving though, it was my mates Fezza, running on 3 cylinders going up the hill in Flintshire I think!
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Had a drive down to the NEC for the bike show on Sunday in the Ceed. 70MPH there avg 44 MPG. Nice steady cruise back at 60 MPH took the avg up to 49.5MPG. Not an inconsiderable fuel saving of 5.5MPG.
It was dark and traffic was moderate and cruising at 60 was unflustered and a breeze. During a daytime you seem to get sucked into travelling betwixt 75 And 80 or get stuck at 57 amongst the artics and fighting to get into lane three.
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If the cars are doing 50-55 MPH, why do HGVs need to overtake them?
I thought 56 MPH is a limit for HGVs and not a target.
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If a car is doing 50mph then it's holding up a lorry that could be doing 56mph. With the strict limit on hours a lorry driver can drive, they may fail to get to a destination before they reach the limit.
And I'd never be foolish enough to drive at such a speed to have an HGV tail gating. I've had an HGV crash into the back of a car and that was not nice and I was lucky to have only minor injuries.
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I bless cruise control and would not now be without it, having had it in our current Alhambra, for the first time in my car ownership.
These days I tend to set it at +-65 mph on motorways and find that fuel economy is pretty good at, or around, that speed.
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>> I thought 56 MPH is a limit for HGVs and not a target.
56mph is the most efficient speed for HGV traffic, they are geared to be running at the maximum torque figure at that speed. Even slowing down by 4mph or 5mph would necessitate using a lower gear to stay in the peak torque band, with the resulting increased fuel consumption and emissions.
Virtually all HGV traffic on motorways travels at 56mph with cruise control engaged. 44 tonnes takes a lot of energy to accelerate and decelerate, so the less number of times an HGV driver has to do that, the better.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Thu 1 Dec 11 at 16:17
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>>I thought 56 MPH is a limit for HGVs and not a target.<<
Someone should tell the transport manager and planners that.
They also have trackers in the office now and it isn't unusual to get a phone call asking you what you're playing around at if your not moving at the speed the tracker expects for the type of road your on.
My answer was always 'I'm the captain of this ship when I'm out of the yard' and it doesn't happen much after that!
Seasoned drivers won't be pushed, but it's not so easy for new ones who are eager to make a good impression.
But on the other hand seasoned drivers keep up to speed and maximise profitability.
Pat
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Anyone else remember the 50mph limit imposed on motorways in the '70s?
I used to achieve phenomenal economy. I had to as many filling stations would limit you to a couple of gallons. Made longer journies interesting.
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Were their motorways in the 1870s?
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>> >>I thought 56 MPH is a limit for HGVs and not a target.<<
If any given speed limit is set excessively low...for the various reasons planners do so... then it really ought to be a target, to keep our country properly flowing and to keep alive the interest of drivers.
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You've hit the nail on the head there WP.
I honestly never felt tired when driving before speed limiters.
Add together a constant 56mph and cruise control, and what else is there to keep anyone interested for 4.5 hours constant driving?
Pat
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>> Add together a constant 56mph and cruise control
and smooth riding suspension, and whisper-quiet sound-insulated cabs, and power-assisted controls. Driving some new lorries feels similar to going on a coach ride, only you're in charge.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Thu 1 Dec 11 at 17:36
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"smooth riding suspension, and whisper-quiet sound-insulated cabs, and power-assisted controls"
You must be driving different transporters to me Dave - ours all have rock solid suspension! Even the rumble strips leading up to roundabouts just about shake me to bits. I have bits wobbling where I didn't know I had bits!
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>> You must be driving different transporters to me Dave - ours all have rock solid suspension!
Agreed, our transporters are very bouncy when empty and wallow a fair bit with a car on. The MAN lorries at my previous job were very smooth and quiet. All curtainside bodied for carrying pallets, so a bit more substantial to start off with. Carpet in the cabs as well.
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>> Add together a constant 56mph and cruise control, and what else is there to keep
>> anyone interested for 4.5 hours constant driving?
Hmm let me see, well we have had lorry drivers reading the paper, watching the tele, and one managed to engage with his playstation.
But most of course enjoy themselves by elephant racing.
Well you did ask!
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>>well we have had lorry drivers reading the paper, watching the tele, and one managed to engage with his playstation. <<
Exactly, I rest my case.
Pat
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>> Someone should tell the transport manager and planners that
That was exactly how the first draft of my last reply started Pat!
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Dave, you'll never make a lorry driver until you learn to call a spade a spade:)
Pat
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Most of the time there are lorries in view and trying to drive at less than lorry speed is frankly antisocial - you just create a requirement for another lane, added to the extra one the elephant racing requires anyway.
If I want to travel slowly on a motorway then it's lorry speed, to minimise overtakes, with speed adjustments as required to avoid blocking/being blocked as required.
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56mph is the most efficient speed for HGV traffic ... Even slowing down by 4mph or 5mph would necessitate using a lower gear to stay in the peak torque band, with the resulting increased fuel consumption and emissions.
Really? I thought we (well, NC mostly) had debunked the idea that driving slower uses more fuel. At a constant speed, the engine will burn only the fuel required to overcome friction and air resistance. Kinetic energy is proportional to the square of velocity, and that kinetic energy can come only from converting chemical energy in fuel, so a 10% drop in velocity, say from 56 to 50, will require 19% less energy. It's hard to see all of that getting lost in reduced drivetrain efficiency.
Of course, it may be cheaper for operators for their drivers to cover the distance in less time, but that's to do with labour and fleet costs, not fuel efficiency.
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I agree with you WdeB, and in fact a lot of big logistics firms do as well.
They have been lowering the speed limiters on their lorries now for the last couple of years and limiting them to 52MPH seems to produce a huge fuel saving across the board.
Most fit a sign to tell this on the back of the trailers though.
The reason for the 56MPH legislation, even though the legal limit for us is 60MPH on motorways, is to prevent a fully freighted lorry exceeding 60mph on downhill stretches.
I can confirm it doesn't work:)
I can also confirm that it sets of all the warning signs imaginable on the tachograph and produces an infringement.
Beattock and the M20 at Wrotham are my favourites.
Pat
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>> The reason for the 56MPH legislation, even though the legal limit for us is 60MPH
>> on motorways, is to prevent a fully freighted lorry exceeding 60mph on downhill stretches.
>>
Thought it was an EU thing set at 90kph (=56mph). You live and learn!!
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Here's the official position when they were first introduced..
According to the EC directive, limiters should be set to 53mph, but the British Government, clearly unhappy with that figure, has said that we should set ours to the top end of the so-called "operating tolerance" i.e. 56mph. Our Government was originally going to set them to the motorway speed limit for lorries, 60mph, but have been forced into accepting a lower setting, although they have opted for the highest speed allowed by the EC.
Pat
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All lorry drivers that take up lane two to ride along side their colleagues in lane one holding everyone up should be pulled from their cabs and shot in front of their families!
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Is that the best you can do Mr Ecs?...not a patch on JC:)
Pat
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50 - 55mph on motorway - R.P.
