Rob.
When you sat your test…how long did it take between leaving the test centre, going on route & returning & finishing the test?
Record time probably, with Michael Schumaker a distant second!
Did you sit your test? or are you, as I am beginning to suspect, not a real driver at all, but in reality, Steve Wright in the Afternoon’s old arch nemesis…
MR ANGRY! 
TP
No longer lost in the Delta Quadrant…
Oi! Muckles , - I drive a BMW! 
I’m not a smug git though -it’s a 1990 model (3 series, old shape). It’s only worth about £800 but it does me - I only use it about 100 miles each week. 
Your right what you say though, too many people drive around stressed out and hyper nowadays.
Other road users are not the enemy!!!
Incidentally, I like to think of myself as a Do -Gooder as I enjoy passing on hints, advice and information if I can to the younger ‘next -generation’ of forum members here on TruckNet.
As for being a Liar, - well yes I suppose I am,now and again.Better than being a homicidal maniac though, eh…
Oi Muckles and me!
Iv’e got a 5 series
Forgive me! for the last 3 months it’s been parked up since I bought a Range Rover ( Luxurious,comfortable, but 10 mpg)
I used to do 50 on motorways a lot in the old car, until summer hit round here, and I met loads of people doing that speed at work, now I do 56-60, and try to keep up with the trucks around me. I know how annoying it is to have to pull past cars doing abysmally slow speeds in a truck, it’s a pain in the [zb].
By the way, I’m one of those annoying people who does around 40 on single carriageway roads in the truck. So if you see a rigid obeying the limits, it could well be me. And yes, I’ve even done that in a tipper 
Yes, driving on the limiter doesn’t leave any room for accelerating, but on a long trip in a truck without cruise control, it’s often far easier to nail the old boot to the floor and let the limiter sort it out. No point making excess work for yourself. And yes, it is sometimes easier to ease off a bit and not bother overtaking that fractionally slower wagon, other times you can take the minute or 2 to pass safely.
Honestly, the most annoying thing is the truck you pass on the uphill, get 3/4 of the way past, who then goes straight through his limiter on the downhill and winds it up to 60+, and then slows down below 50 again on the next hill. It’s even worse when you’re empty, and running flat out at a nice constant 56, it’s like a [zb] yoyo…
I used to obey all the linits when I worked for Tesco, It was amazing how many cars I could accumulate behind me on the A5 between Weedon and Towcester
Yeah, I look upon 40mph as my personal vengeance upon idiot car drivers. BTW if we all did it, they’d soon get around to reviewing it.
I am sooooo looking forwards to driving in the US, 36t artics at 75mph down the freeway 
Pity you have to have stone-age tech trucks to do that 
You got a job in the US then Allikat. I want to work in New Zealand any ideas?
allikat:
Yeah, I look upon 40mph as my personal vengeance upon idiot car drivers. BTW if we all did it, they’d soon get around to reviewing it.
Right… Just have a good look out of your window and you’ll also see some pinky-brown animals with curly tails flying about on the horizon…
I get slated for suggesting that people get their toe down so as to keep up with everyone else; not getting under other folks’ feet to keep the ever-increasing congestion to a minimum and do a sensible speed on single-carriageway roads to try to keep the yearly RTA death toll to a minimum by death-wise cars and vans overtaking on blind bends and crests in frustration and then here we are with one member who deliberately does 40mph just to aggravate the car drivers EVEN MORE
I give up; I really do…
I know I’m out of my depth a long way here, but I’m still trying to work out how it isnt safe to do more than 40 on a single carriage-way road 
Karl,
It’s because over here on the mainland, 40 is the limit for goods vehicles over 7.5 tonnes on that type of road. Some of us are very proud of our clean,endorsement - free licences and hope to keep them that way for as long as possible. Considering the huge mileages covered by us lot, it’s a very satisfying achievment, and can also have other benefits too, such as lower insurance premiums for our cars and a (relatively )stress-free end to each journey.
Some roads are suitable for exceeding 40, and some drivers do go over the limit sometimes.That’s their choice, and some have inevitably got the endorsement points on their licence to prove how clever they were !
The enforcement agencies are cracking down on speeding goods vehicles by checking tachograph charts for signs of excessive speed, tip offs from their off duty colleagues in other parts of the country, silent checks in unmarked cars, the various types of cameras of course and also police helicopters and spotter planes.
Of course, it wouldn’t help if you came on a public forum like this which is regularly visited by staff from the police intelligence and traffic area offices (who deal with vocational driver licence renewals after disqualifications ) and ,for example, stated several times that exceeding speed limits was OK if you decided it was safe to do so. 
V8KARLV8:
I know I’m out of my depth a long way here, but I’m still trying to work out how it isnt safe to do more than 40 on a single carriage-way road
It has very little to do with safety and more to do with Chief Constables wanting to produce good figures for speeding offences and VOSA wanting to meet targets. Those drivers who decide not to slow down will be caught either on the road or from tacho checks.
OK so 40mph annoys car drivers, but they probaly the same drivers who complain to thier MP’s about speeding trucks and they are not going to thank you for driving at 50mph.
rob
was that you that was on the a1 south bound at borobridge reg n808 .i was going up hill and it come passed like i was standing still,i was empty on the limiter.
is this speed thing a company thing 
and then here we are with one member who deliberately does 40mph just to aggravate the car drivers EVEN MORE
i give up…
im sorry to say but that is a proffesional driver doing his/her job in accordance with the laws of this country.until the law is changed thats the way it will stay.
you stated in a earlier thread that your previous ride had a accident due to brake failure,imagine it wasn’t on the slip road at jnc 28 but going through some rural village blasting along at 50/56 mph instead of 40. ok there still maybe carnage but they stand more chance of getting out your way.
i know thats a way over the top statement but worth thinking about.
maybe better planning then there would be no need to rush.
jon
The reason I stick to the limits is because of insurance, There are just too many cameras hidden behind trees and signs that its easy to get flashed without knowing till its too late.
As a bike rider I already pay too much but if I get 6 points it is virtually impossible to get insured. If I get done in the truck it shouldnt count, but it does.
I remember a friend of mine in Holland getting done for something in his car, he was banned from driving to work but could still drive a lorry. not sure whether that system is still in force.
It is easy enough to get points without tempting providence.
I have a clean licence and have had for the last 23 years
I can see both Alikats view and that of Rob K.
We know that if we drive at 40mph on a good wide A road cars queue up behind and, in between making phone calls and playing with himself mr sporty german car driver will make an attempt to get past. Often with disasterous consquences…
However these same people have some influence, or is it effluence, and maybe one might be a Daily Mirror or Sun “newspaper” editor and create a campaign to get the limits re-set.
As long as we keep going at 50 in a 40 nothing will be done, and we are paying for this with penalty points and fines.
Just a week of every HGV keeping to the 40 limit PROVIDING IT WAS WELL PUBLICISED ON TV RADIO AND NEWSMEDIA , as to why we were doing it would get these limits reviewed.
I know the police are broadly in favour, (ask any traffic cop when hes had 6 pints) and they would support it.
Take your time
why speed when your hourly paid?
Merlin
The skate-boards doing 50 in the granny lane on a motorway are a pain, but with some prior planning allied to observation, the pain is minimal.
What really gets up my nose is when you are in a 50 limit (like for roadworks ). There I am on the reset cruise-control at 50 (ish). Joe Pubic goes past me at 60-70 and pulls back in front of me, sees a speed camera, and slows down to 40-45 , right in front of me. Normally I can’t pull out to overtake because of the ban on anything over 6’6" wide in the other lane. If not that then its all the other vehicles in the next lane where we have all bunched up due to the lower speed limit. Then I have to slow down even more to regain some semblance of a braking distance . Just as I settle down again they are off, back up to 60-70, still in the 50 limit, till the next speed camera. The two worst places I can think of are on the A1(M). One at Stannington, on the dual carriageway where it normally has a 50 limit with cameras, the other is at Elkesley which is the same. At least at these to places we can overtake, or at least pull out so as to keep the speed up and not loose momentum, even if they then speed up again in the granny lane.
i did a day run yesterday, the first in a while. may i just say the two supermarket drivers (pale blue volvos cant remember the chain) on the a1 north near donny were a prime example of how not to do it. 45 mph/50mph.. ok not very fast and causing a bit of hassle but its there choice. UNTIL YOU PULL OUT to go around them.. then decided to wap it up to the limiter? why? very very annoying and a bad example of professional drivers. im no angel or a perfect driver, but i sometimes despair at the standards of p-eople who do this for a living.
jonboy:
robwas that you that was on the a1 south bound at borobridge reg n808 .i was going up hill and it come passed like i was standing still,i was empty on the limiter.
No. I think that’s a new driver . My current one is N929SOV, the only low roof on the fleet but soon I’ll be back in my silver Globey L444MFT (famous last words). I won’t grass up another (fellow) driver though, about the speed limiter on it. If you wish to complain about it you’ll find the company number on the RHA website. The speed limiter on mine is set bang on at what it should be as it also is on L444; maybe a slight edge like 57 but nothing higher. Afaik, the limiters are all working on the others. Maybe the driver pulled a fuse
is this speed thing a company thing
Pass. I do my own thing.
you stated in a earlier thread that your previous ride had a accident due to brake failure,imagine it wasn’t on the slip road at jnc 28 but going through some rural village blasting along at 50/56 mph instead of 40. ok there still maybe carnage but they stand more chance of getting out your way.
Firstly, I also clearly stated at the time that it wasn’t me driving it and it also wasn’t brake failure, although I had had an issue with the brakes at the end of the previous week, which was unfounded by the Ministry apparently.
Secondly, if there is a marked speed limit, eg. 40mph, then 40mph I will do; same with 30mph, 50mph. It’s only in national speed limit areas - predominately countryside - where I toe it to 50mph where I feel it safe to do so.
This is a bit of a follow on. To day coming down the M4 in the usual rush hour traffic i came to the end of the queue. Traffic moving at 55mph in both inside and outside lanes. When i get to the front of the queue there is a car being driven at just under 55mph. So i have to get in the outside lane to overtake. In front of this car there are two totally empty lanes of motorway until the next car about a mile and a half away. Now if the motorway is empty or the traffic is light i have no objections what speed people want to drive at. But at rush hour i call it totally inconsiderate that they fail to drive at motorway speeds and ‘make progress’. Because of this driver the traffic was backed up in two lanes all jostling to get in the outside lane to pass. I call that highly dangerous.If they had been doing the speed of the rest of the traffic 60 to 70mph then there would have been no problem. Somebody is going to say again what about lorries doing 52 to 56mph. Well my reply is that you expect them to be moving slowly and anyway can usually see them some distance off and can plan well ahead to move out. A car you can’t. Just my opinion. Oh and by the way before some bright spark says it i was driving 7.5ton today.
tartanraider:
What’s so important that you HAVE to do 56 in your truck instead of 50?
as 50mph is 10mph under the speed limit for motorways and 56mph is still less than the legal speed limit on motorways,so you are not driving at the limit!,i agree those that drive at 50mph on motorways should stick to duel carriageways…On another thought when you ask someone how far is it from a2b how do they answer?? 3hrs drive mate ok ta o by the way is that at 50mph or 56mph?? and at 56mph you climb hills better when laden