Seen on the A299 Thanet way in Kent was a Mercedes Sprinter with Sainsbury’s home delivery on its side. On the back I could see it had a sticker saying it was limited to 60 mph. It attempted to overtake a rigid truck and after a few miles failed and had to get back behind it. Following in my car, i measured its true speed on GPS to be 56 mph, which is what the truck is governed to.
What is the point of governing down a light van which doesn’t even gross 3.5 tons to 60 mph - a speed which it can’t apparently even achieve anyway? This van was in use in Kent as opposed to London where high speeds aren’t necessary. Silly I think.
Probably a fuel saving measure by Sainsbury’s.
because they have too many of them in accidents.
The things are top heavy because of the frigde body and dont like going round corners.
They and Tesco have had a good few roll over.
basically they have no real need to do more than 60 and as (most of) the Thanet way is a dual carriage way it shouldnt have been doing more than 60 anyway.
And as said it saves fuel. they use a lot less fuel at 60 than say 70.
Also like Tesco they employ a lot of retards to drive their vans and the limiter stops them tear-arseing about at 90 all over the place. It might even be an insurance condition.
I’m sceptical about the acuracy of GPS speed measurement. There is always going to be some degree of inaccuracy in any speedo, Hence HGV’s are limited to 56, it allows for any discrepancies in the speed setting.
By coincidence i was following a Sainsbury’s merc on the same stretch of road in a VW LT the othe week and noticed the sticker too. Acording to my vans speedo he was on 60 all the way, but then how acurate is my speedo?
With a good 3-D lock - and a view of at least 4 GPS satellites GPS is extremely accurate for speed measurement at a constant velocity. Far more accurate than a tachograph and easily more accurate than a car speedometer. In this instance at 56 mph, my speedo indicated 62 - a wild overread. As these Sainsbury’s vehicles gross less than 3.5 tons,i’m assuming they wouldn’t be fitted with a calibrated tachograph? This being the case, if the speed measurement is taken off the inaccurate speedo it explains why only 56 mph was achieved.
You’re right in that the whole of the Thanet way is a 60 mph road for such vehicles; the 70 limit for the motorway only starts at Bremley Corner on the M2! However if both the rigid truck and tesco delivery vehicle has been driving at their correct legal speeds, the 4 mile failed overtake by the tesco vehicle would never have happened 
dennisw1:
because they have too many of them in accidents.
Also like Tesco they employ a lot of retards to drive their vans and the limiter stops them tear-arseing about at 90 all over the place. It might even be an insurance condition.
I wonder if this just applies to their van drivers? I heard you needed experience to get a job as Tesco HGV 1 driver. Tesco trucks seem to be well driven and looked after too.
daveb0789:
dennisw1:
because they have too many of them in accidents.
Also like Tesco they employ a lot of retards to drive their vans and the limiter stops them tear-arseing about at 90 all over the place. It might even be an insurance condition.
I wonder if this just applies to their van drivers? I heard you needed experience to get a job as Tesco HGV 1 driver. Tesco trucks seem to be well driven and looked after too.
Not some of the ones from the new Peterbrough DC. I’ve had them come past me on the limiter down the Frank Perkins Parkway. I know most of us will do 56 in a 50 from time to time 
, but Tesco vehicles have always been well known for their ‘leisurely pace’ - even on motorways.
And remember that Tesco, like all the supermarkets use a lot of agency drivers, who will have received less training on the job, and Tesco will have less control of.
I am not suggesting for one second that all agency drivers ignore speed limits. Everyone is capable of that!
But from my own experience of working for various supermarket transport operations, I know some (like some staff drivers ) do not adhere to company policies regarding speed. Indeed, some are not even made aware of such policies.
daveb0789:
dennisw1:
because they have too many of them in accidents.
Also like Tesco they employ a lot of retards to drive their vans and the limiter stops them tear-arseing about at 90 all over the place. It might even be an insurance condition.
I wonder if this just applies to their van drivers? I heard you needed experience to get a job as Tesco HGV 1 driver. Tesco trucks seem to be well driven and looked after too.
Well i was just talking about their respective dotcom vans.
You’re right in that the whole of the Thanet way is a 60 mph road for such vehicles
Well the reason i said ‘mostly’ is that there are actually two thanet ways, the old one which is still named ‘Thanet way’ and the new one.
Something as simple as having the tyres incorrectly inflated could fool the vehicles speedo. generally comparing with my own GPS sprinter speedos read about the same as my GPS unit.
As i said though, retards, he/she must’ve known how fast the van could manage so why even bother to try and over take?
Incidentally i spent 5 years driving for tesco.com and the reason i left was due to the fact they were employing more and more muppets!