Think I’ll make this my last post on subject, rose, tinted, glasses, springs to mind, as I’ve said before, in perfect world this would happen but don’t expect to see it in my lifetime, thanks
The problem with being the better man or professional, is that the second you lift off to let matey (who shouldn’t have started the overtake unless enough speed differential for reasonable progress) get past the bod(s) tailgating you will then seize the opportunity and pull out to overtake you as well, this carries on enough you’ll end up at 24 mph to let tractors past, well ok that’s a bit of an exaggeration but you get my point.
This is a small island and we’re overpopulated as it is, we don’t have the road network to support the lorry volumes needed to service the rapidly and make no mistake here deliberately growing number of people, our politicians have through their decisions over decades helped destroy the self sufficient industrial and agricultural landscape of the country, we are now a consumer nation who make bugger all where almost everything expect basic foodstuffs have to be brought in, economies of scale have seen the establishment of massive rdc centralised warehousing which means products travel hundreds of miles only to be sorted/restacked then travel hundreds of miles often over the same roads to a final destination.
If they’d built an integrated road/rail system from the start, then we wouldn’t be in this road mess, but politicians arn’t there for the good of the country or for genuine public service, if any of them thought of the future we would still be an independent manufacturing nation of 55 million people that had never seen the likes of Heath and we’d have never joined the EEC.
As for standards of lorry driving and all it entails, the industry willingly dumbed down the skills required for drivers (item number one in evidence, the automatic gearbox and all the electronic safety systems its spawned supposed to stop idiots who should never have been let anywhere near a lorry doing idiotic things) in order to put any passing bum on a driving seat because that’s what they picture when they think of drivers, lo and behold dedicated skilled lorry drivers are not the massive majority any more, what did you expect would happen, speed limiters were always going to have bunching and elephant racing as a result any fule could have predicted it, when gps controlled speed limiters come in for cars they’ll be in exactly the same boat.
Get used to gridlock, its the future, the population will be increased by millions over the coming years thanks to an electorate who keep voting for the same charlatans whilst expecting a different result, definition of lunacy, however things should level out a little when the great unwashed, us, are priced off the road, the great move to utopia via electric cars isn’t planned for us, we’ll be back on bicycles or the bus where those who own the country think we should be, the Zil lanes will be coming in due course for the use of those that are more equal.
AIUI the is no actual law against undertaking. There’s advice against it, but no actual law. The police take a dim view of it so they might want to ‘have a word’.
Juddian is spot on with his comment about letting one through and you let the rest through till you’re travelling at nought snails a fortnight and letting agricultural machinery pass you.
I’ve always told car drivers who object to elephant racing: lobby your MP. Get the speed-limiter outlawed. The Germans invented it. The Germans then discovered how dangerous it was. The Germans lobbied EU to get the legislation reversed. And failed. Having failed that, they went for LGV no-overtaking zones, as I described further up the page. That worked. It would work here if we applied it to the M2, the A14 etc etc.
Hi all, there are 1 or 2 of the no over taking by HGV on the A34 & A14 with times on them but it is surprising how many ignore or don’t realise the vehicle they are driving is over 7.5 tons. Also on one of these police stop programs the other night a lad was done for undertaking a slow car on a dual carriageway the police man said it was dangerous driving. 
Juddian:
The problem with being the better man or professional, is that the second you lift off to let matey (who shouldn’t have started the overtake unless enough speed differential for reasonable progress) get past the bod(s) tailgating you will then seize the opportunity and pull out to overtake you as well, this carries on enough you’ll end up at 24 mph to let tractors past, well ok that’s a bit of an exaggeration but you get my point.This is a small island and we’re overpopulated as it is, we don’t have the road network to support the lorry volumes needed to service the rapidly and make no mistake here deliberately growing number of people, our politicians have through their decisions over decades helped destroy the self sufficient industrial and agricultural landscape of the country, we are now a consumer nation who make bugger all where almost everything expect basic foodstuffs have to be brought in, economies of scale have seen the establishment of massive rdc centralised warehousing which means products travel hundreds of miles only to be sorted/restacked then travel hundreds of miles often over the same roads to a final destination.
If they’d built an integrated road/rail system from the start, then we wouldn’t be in this road mess, but politicians arn’t there for the good of the country or for genuine public service, if any of them thought of the future we would still be an independent manufacturing nation of 55 million people that had never seen the likes of Heath and we’d have never joined the EEC.As for standards of lorry driving and all it entails, the industry willingly dumbed down the skills required for drivers (item number one in evidence, the automatic gearbox and all the electronic safety systems its spawned supposed to stop idiots who should never have been let anywhere near a lorry doing idiotic things) in order to put any passing bum on a driving seat because that’s what they picture when they think of drivers, lo and behold dedicated skilled lorry drivers are not the massive majority any more, what did you expect would happen, speed limiters were always going to have bunching and elephant racing as a result any fule could have predicted it, when gps controlled speed limiters come in for cars they’ll be in exactly the same boat.
Get used to gridlock, its the future, the population will be increased by millions over the coming years thanks to an electorate who keep voting for the same charlatans whilst expecting a different result, definition of lunacy, however things should level out a little when the great unwashed, us, are priced off the road, the great move to utopia via electric cars isn’t planned for us, we’ll be back on bicycles or the bus where those who own the country think we should be, the Zil lanes will be coming in due course for the use of those that are more equal.
Your 3rd paragraph is the one that i can understand best. The problem is it’s too late , there isn’t a driver shortage anymore well not where i live anyway. I have been looking for quite a while now and the only ones worth applying for don’t want to know. Usually a reply from HR with thanks but no thanks. The industry is littered with drivers who don’t give a toss , we have them where i work who just take the ■■■■ blatently and nobody cares. I hate getting up every morning its a horrendous job (and so is my spelling). The taking over scenario though as been going on for quite a few years now and i find the worst offenders are the ones i pull into the middle lane to let out onto a motorway and they just sit at the side of me , its come to the point where i dont always pull over now because the last time it happened i nearly missed my exit. Ive 10 years of this ■■■■ left and i honestly dont know if i will last
ramone, i do have to agree with moving over to allow someone to join it’s amazing how many do just get up to speed and leave you siting out there to get all the s–t from other drivers.
ramone:
Juddian:
.Your 3rd paragraph is the one that i can understand best. The problem is it’s too late , there isn’t a driver shortage anymore well not where i live anyway. I have been looking for quite a while now and the only ones worth applying for don’t want to know. Usually a reply from HR with thanks but no thanks. The industry is littered with drivers who don’t give a toss , we have them where i work who just take the ■■■■ blatently and nobody cares. I hate getting up every morning its a horrendous job (and so is my spelling). The taking over scenario though as been going on for quite a few years now and i find the worst offenders are the ones i pull into the middle lane to let out onto a motorway and they just sit at the side of me , its come to the point where i dont always pull over now because the last time it happened i nearly missed my exit. Ive 10 years of this [zb] left and i honestly dont know if i will last
I was at that point around 2009 Ramone, i’d reached the absolute end and was exhausted mentally and physically and my wife, a woman far better than i deserve told me to pack what i was doing in because she could see where i was at, i’d become part of the machine in some ways,3 weeks later i got stitched up for the last time and put my notice in that day, should have done it years before.
Dossed around on agency for a few months but something in the back of mind told me to cold call where i now work, they weren’t advertising they never had so i knocked on the door and was welcomed with open arms. Never been better treated nor respected nor paid in a job, so here i am past retiring age and to be honest quite happy top carry on.
These places who value the old ways do exist, i’d never given working here a moment’s thought before, my only regret is not trying for it decades ago.
I agree there isn’t a driver shortage now, and there wasn’t when i got taken on here 3 weeks after cold calling, think outside your normal box mate there might just be something that you can enjoy for the next 10 years so you won’t want to give up either.
Plus, good places deserve to have good lorry drivers applying, let those who wouldn’t know a lorry driver from a bar of soap employ the other sort and reap what they’ve sown, funny thing through this job is the first and only lorry driving job where they required a CV before even looking at you, i know it seems odd to many but whatever the idiocyncrasies of getting in might be the end result was worth it, the other tip i have is if you get a sniff or an offer rip their arms off, i’ve known good drivers apply here but mucked about, have to have a chat with the mrs and/or think about it, kiss of death for getting your feet under the table here. Cold call and try and pigeon hole the boss for a few mins, it might just work.
My last two trucks had the limiters set at 52 mph so I rarely passed anything! 
I remember back in the late 90’s coming south on the two lane stretch of the M18 from the M180 and following two trucks blocking both lanes all the way from there down to the A1M split. An horrendous queue of vehicles behind them but neither gave way until one turned down the A1M, I thought at the time that this isn’t helping the HGV drivers cause in getting sympathy from other road users. 
We travelled home to Matlock from Berwick in our van yesterday and things haven’t improved alas. 
Pete.
Juddian:
ramone:
Juddian:
.Your 3rd paragraph is the one that i can understand best. The problem is it’s too late , there isn’t a driver shortage anymore well not where i live anyway. I have been looking for quite a while now and the only ones worth applying for don’t want to know. Usually a reply from HR with thanks but no thanks. The industry is littered with drivers who don’t give a toss , we have them where i work who just take the ■■■■ blatently and nobody cares. I hate getting up every morning its a horrendous job (and so is my spelling). The taking over scenario though as been going on for quite a few years now and i find the worst offenders are the ones i pull into the middle lane to let out onto a motorway and they just sit at the side of me , its come to the point where i dont always pull over now because the last time it happened i nearly missed my exit. Ive 10 years of this [zb] left and i honestly dont know if i will last
I was at that point around 2009 Ramone, i’d reached the absolute end and was exhausted mentally and physically and my wife, a woman far better than i deserve told me to pack what i was doing in because she could see where i was at, i’d become part of the machine in some ways,3 weeks later i got stitched up for the last time and put my notice in that day, should have done it years before.
Dossed around on agency for a few months but something in the back of mind told me to cold call where i now work, they weren’t advertising they never had so i knocked on the door and was welcomed with open arms. Never been better treated nor respected nor paid in a job, so here i am past retiring age and to be honest quite happy top carry on.
These places who value the old ways do exist, i’d never given working here a moment’s thought before, my only regret is not trying for it decades ago.
I agree there isn’t a driver shortage now, and there wasn’t when i got taken on here 3 weeks after cold calling, think outside your normal box mate there might just be something that you can enjoy for the next 10 years so you won’t want to give up either.
Plus, good places deserve to have good lorry drivers applying, let those who wouldn’t know a lorry driver from a bar of soap employ the other sort and reap what they’ve sown, funny thing through this job is the first and only lorry driving job where they required a CV before even looking at you, i know it seems odd to many but whatever the idiocyncrasies of getting in might be the end result was worth it, the other tip i have is if you get a sniff or an offer rip their arms off, i’ve known good drivers apply here but mucked about, have to have a chat with the mrs and/or think about it, kiss of death for getting your feet under the table here. Cold call and try and pigeon hole the boss for a few mins, it might just work.
The problem up here is there’s nothing any good , my company now want me to move depots to one the far side of Leeds which is around 36 mile round trip every day x 6 is going to devalue my car and my wage fuel alone £60 or above more than i put in now. The reason is about 3 years ago Bradford Council decided we were going to have a clean air zone and our company never acted on it so now its costing £50 a day run out of Bradford in my 12 year old Daf. There’s a few hauliers around here the usual 15 hours a day 4/5 nights out a week or agency where the rates have dropped dramatically
Try and get away from hire and reward Ramone, own account still enjoy the best terms and conditions.
Juddian:
Try and get away from hire and reward Ramone, own account still enjoy the best terms and conditions.
I am i work for a waste company that is owned by a multi billion pound organisation who bought us last year they have left the corrupt old regime in with woefull management