Thanks to the two idiots who wouldnt give in on the M25 last night @ around 9.30pm, i sat behind a Waitrose artic in lane 2 trying to overtake a MRS artic from the A10 slip through till the A1 turn, not one would admit defeat and either slow down to let the other one in or slow down and pull back in!!! Up hill, down hill on that section neck and neck at 52mph, kept flashing as was getting â– â– â– â– â– â– off by these idiots showing totally unprofessional driving, by ignoring the massive pile up of trucks behind them, just embroiled in there own little battle to overtake, not let him in!!!
yes annoying isnt it!!
whats the MRS driver in lane 1 done wrong? its down to the overtaking vehicle to drop back in my eyes.i very rarely let off for some numpty who gets a run on down hill and ends up along side. if the MRS driver eases off he would then be sat no doubt 6 inches off the waitrose trailer till it or he turns off.
I totally sympathise with you, those speed limiters are the biggest stress inducer for drivers, all they do is cause misery to everybody, you end up sitting far too close to other vehicles, you get cut up by cars wanting to get from the outside lane because you’re stuck in a 53mph train, I hate them with a passion, as most of you know because I go on & on & on about it, I now drive in Canada & the USA, I don’t have a limiter, although my firm likes us not to go over 75mph too often 
it makes it so much easier on me, I recently came back to England for a couple of months & while I was there I did a couple of weeks trucking, all I seemed to be doing was losing my rag all the time, since I’ve been back I haven’t got the hump once, yeah I know the roads are quiter in places, but even running through Chicago yesterday (which has as much traffic as the M25) I wasn’t once stuck behind anybody, if someone was in the way I just put my foot down & went past, I may have gone over the limit a bit, but even though I was technically speeding it was a lot safer than pushing someone down the road for miles on end.
That’s the problem over there, everyone has this big hard on about speeding, even in a car, I went down to Devon to visit some family & on a single track bit of the A303 overtook a few cars, I was doing 65-70mph, of the ten or so cars I passed, three of them went beserk, flashing their lights & making Nescafe signs at me, at one of the roundabouts I stopped & wound my window down & asked the bloke who’d just flashed me WTF he was flashing for & he said because I was speeding, I asked him WTF it had to do with him, did he have a calibrated speedo, was he the law etc etc? He had no answer, which was probably a good thing as I was ready to uphold a personal law of my own (The one that requires me to punch stupid people in the face) but getting back to the subject, before limiters, most of us used to run around 60-65mph, if you caught something up, you went around it, simple really, contrast that with today & you eventually catch somebody, you have a few choices, overtake, no matter how long it takes, sit right up his/her arse or back off, this will then cause the bloke behind you to come around & get in the space you’re trying to leave in front of you, it’s madness & yet it’s supposedly for safety reasons 
I would bet that 99% of rear end shunts between lorries would not happen if there were no limiters.
They should bring in overtaking bans to stop that sort of thing. 
Coffeeholic:
They should bring in overtaking bans to stop that sort of thing.
Be careful what you wish for
I’m convinced we’ve got to thank the transport managers for pushing their drivers too hard in years gone by (and the drivers for doing it) for the introduction of the limiters in the first place & we’ve still got the same people to thank for the activity of some drivers today. It’s the same for reps in cars though, my brother in law was a rep & the miles he had to cover to get all his calls in was simply unbelievable. All down to those who programmed his work & made his appointments.
I know a chap who is always pushing himself too hard, trying hard to keep the lorry up on the limiter all the time & pushing for that extra place on the motorway. I appreciate you have to ovetake a lorry if it’s going at a silly speed otherwise we’d all be as fast as the slowest lorry on the slab but you have to go an awful long way at a higher speed to make up any time but people just won’t accept it & go with the flow.
BB
had a similar thing happen to me few years back two numpties side by side up the m6 got so wound up and â– â– â– â– â– â– off i passed them both in the 3rd lane thinking about it after it was me who was the numpty for using the 3rd lane but thats how wound up it gets you
I love doing this,I could drive side by side all day,it dunt half wind people up.
Basilbrush,
I don’t know about that, pre limiter most people used to run close to the limit, yes there was the odd one doing 70+, but they were few & far between, the majority would run at 60-65mph.
I can’t for the life of me work out what went through the minds of the idiots that came up with speed limiters, ok the lorries will not be going as fast when they crash, but the chances of crashing increase dramatically when everyone is running along in a line, it eliminates the ability to get your own piece of road, the whole idea makes no sense at all. if it was a proven way of reducing accidents then why are cars not limited, they’re involved in far more accidents than lorries, ok so it reduces fuel consumption (if the lorry is geared correctly) but when did the Government ever care about that? the more fuel we use, the more tax they get to spend on crap that nobody needs
I cannot think of one legitimate reason for speed limiters, myself & many others were out there pre limiter & I don’t remember it being dangerous, in fact I saw a lot less lorries smashed into the back of each other, yeah traffic volumes may have increased, but only cars, there are about the same amount of lorrries on the road, so just what was the reason for the implementation of limiters in the first place?
yorkshireborn:
its down to the overtaking vehicle to drop back in my eyes.
163
You should move quickly past the vehicle you are overtaking, once you have started to overtake. Allow plenty of room. Move back to the left as soon as you can but do not cut in
168
Being overtaken.
If a driver is trying to overtake you, maintain a steady course and speed, slowing down if necessary to let the vehicle pass. Never obstruct drivers who wish to pass. Speeding up or driving unpredictably while someone is overtaking you is dangerous. Drop back to maintain a two-second gap if someone overtakes and pulls into the gap in front of you.
newmercman:
Basilbrush,I don’t know about that, pre limiter most people used to run close to the limit, yes there was the odd one doing 70+, but they were few & far between, the majority would run at 60-65mph.
I can’t for the life of me work out what went through the minds of the idiots that came up with speed limiters, ok the lorries will not be going as fast when they crash, but the chances of crashing increase dramatically when everyone is running along in a line, it eliminates the ability to get your own piece of road, the whole idea makes no sense at all. if it was a proven way of reducing accidents then why are cars not limited, they’re involved in far more accidents than lorries, ok so it reduces fuel consumption (if the lorry is geared correctly) but when did the Government ever care about that? the more fuel we use, the more tax they get to spend on crap that nobody needs
I cannot think of one legitimate reason for speed limiters, myself & many others were out there pre limiter & I don’t remember it being dangerous, in fact I saw a lot less lorries smashed into the back of each other, yeah traffic volumes may have increased, but only cars, there are about the same amount of lorrries on the road, so just what was the reason for the implementation of limiters in the first place?
That’s the voice of reason from better days but it was usually run at 65 mph and overtake at 70 mph+ on night trunking 
ROG:
yorkshireborn:
its down to the overtaking vehicle to drop back in my eyes.168
Being overtaken.
If a driver is trying to overtake you, maintain a steady course and speed, slowing down if necessary to let the vehicle pass.
So Yorkshireborn is correct and the Highway Code confirms this. As long as the vehicle being overtaken doesn’t speed up he is not doing anything wrong as far as the Highway Code goes. He is maintaining a steady speed and slowing down would only be necessary if a lane was closing or a vehicle was coming the other way, and a vehicle racing toward you doesn’t happen very often on a motorway.
slowing down if necessary to let the vehicle pass.
Where is it stated as to what all the circumstances are that the above refers to ?
Maybe my approach is wrong but I always reason that if both are on limiters at some time the guy overtaking has been faster than me at some point as he has caught me up. By the same reasoning If I ease off whilst he’s passing at some point he’s going to pull away from me anyway so why prolong the inevitable and hold every road user up in the process.
If the guy passing you has caused the traffic behind him to bunch up you have just snookered yourself if for any reason you come up on something slower. At the end of the day it just needs consideration and common sense something sadly lacking today which in itself makes the job more stressful.
A bit of forward planning would avoid these situations, when im slowly creeping up on another lorry I’m always looking for their weakness, are they slow on inclines and gradients for example, if they are then I’ll hold off til the right oppertunity comes along.
I don’t expect people to back off for me but if there’s another lorry approaching on my tail and he pulls out at a suitable distance I’ll back off and let them pass, when they’ve been tailgating me for the last five miles weaving in and out in an aggresive manner then I think (zb) em
ROG:
yorkshireborn:
its down to the overtaking vehicle to drop back in my eyes.163
You should move quickly past the vehicle you are overtaking, once you have started to overtake. Allow plenty of room. Move back to the left as soon as you can but do not cut in168
Being overtaken.
If a driver is trying to overtake you, maintain a steady course and speed, slowing down if necessary to let the vehicle pass. Never obstruct drivers who wish to pass. Speeding up or driving unpredictably while someone is overtaking you is dangerous. Drop back to maintain a two-second gap if someone overtakes and pulls into the gap in front of you.
ROG, you can post as many laws as you want but at the end of the day I don’t give a ■■■■about what the rule book says when it comes to this example. The driver doing the overtake knew fine well he was being a ■■■■. He should of known it was going to be impossible to get past, so why ■■■■■■■try? Sorry, MRS Driver done exactly what I and many others would have done.
ROG:
slowing down if necessary to let the vehicle pass.
Where is it stated as to what all the circumstances are that the above refers to ?
Well unless there is a lane closure or some other kind of obstruction facing the overtaking vehicle, which could put them in danger, then slowing down is unnecessary and it’s all obviously down to the overtaker.
Coffeeholic:
ROG:
slowing down if necessary to let the vehicle pass.
Where is it stated as to what all the circumstances are that the above refers to ?
Well unless there is a lane closure or some other kind of obstruction facing the overtaking vehicle, which could put them in danger, then slowing down is unnecessary and it’s all obviously down to the overtaker.
It could also be argued that the overtaker was struggling to pass so that the slowing down of the vehicle being overtaken was necessary to assist - which is what the HC says
How did the overtaking vehicle get beside the one being overtaken in the first place - could it be that it is the slightly quicker vehicle and so should be assisted in passing â– â– ?
There is an argument for the potential overtaker not to try it in the first place as they should consider the consequences of their actions but once committed the HC seems to favour the vehicle being overtaken as the one to ease off to assist.
As with most things in the HC - they are only advisory and not rules which leaves most things up to an individual driver and the personal perceptions of that driver
isn’t the fact that very few want to ease off to make it easier for the wagon passing them just the car driver still alive and kicking inside their heads, i always used to look at like this, 1. the wagons caught me up, so over a lengh of road he’s quicker than me and i’m not in a race, 2. is going to cost me anything to knock the cruise off for a few seconds let him pass me quicker? 3. of coarse not!
if you think it’s ok to make another wagon take 3-4 minutes to pass you then don’t get upset when other road users blame hgv’s for clogging up the motorways and duals and don’t complain when they bring in yet another overtaking ban on a road near you!