I’ve taken the decision to quit driving hgvs until my licence is clean again. I risk getting up to 9. It feels like its too difficult to avoid these days. Surely its normal to make a mistake once every couple or years. It seems a bit harsh considering the amount of time we spend on the road compared to the average road use/car driver. Anyone else feeling this? Has anyone else done the same?
i guess it depends where you drive and if its regular places you go. driving in london et al is far worse with thier odd rules and regs and random speed limit changes is far more complex than simply plodding up and down motorways and a roads
Nope not really , been driving and riding 30 plus yrs and zero points ever, maybe best to give it a rest
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I aint had points for a while now either.
Doesn’t make me any better than anybody else, just a combo of me being lucky and not rushing around like a bloody idiot,… nor allowing anybody on a phone to try and push me…cos that is how the points tot up.
Exactly Robroy, take ya time and ignore the nonsense from the desk
On the one hand, truck drivers do more miles and spend more time driving than mere mortals do, so have more chance of collecting points.
On t’other hand as professionals we should be expected to drive to a higher standard.
In over 15 years of HGV driving (not counting all the 7.5T driving before that) I once got three points, but it was totally my own fault: I was overtaking a bus which meant I didn’t see the sign hidden to the nearside of the bus that told me the limit was dropping from 40 to 30mph, but really I should have known because it was a road I’d used countless times - for locals, it was the Coast Road in Newcastle, as you approach the dip into Jesmond Dene, Gatso camera at the bottom of the hill. Momentary lapse of attention, never happened again 
Conversely a long-term mate of mine managed to be regularly hovering between 6 and 9 points his whole career, but that was purely down to him being too intense and lacking any kind of empathy for anyone around him on the roads.
In France we lose points rather than gain them, but it is still 12 'till you are off the road.
It is very many years since I lost/gained a point driving lorries but post retirement doing 85,000 kms a year as a volunteer delivering dogs, I kept missing the signs. I think I got down to 8 at one point and was taking very great care, but still managed to miss some signs but just got lucky.
So far so good in a lorry - I set the cruise control with each change of speed sign and never had an issue.
In my car however, I don’t have cruise control and have become a bit complacent. Last month I got caught doing 36 in a 30 so got a speed awareness course to avoid the points. It was my first offence since passing almost 10 years ago.
I’m now doing my best to stick to the limit at all times to avoid any points, but that’s a bit tricky in Wales now they have started installing cameras in the 20mph zones. I went through an unfamiliar road on Saturday and whilst I think I was driving around 20mph, I noticed the camera on my way back through so am hoping for no mail for a week!
I imagine it could be very easy to tot up 12 points in 4 years if you are a courier or van driver with time constraints. Not something I think I could ever do.
It’s an awful weaponised speed enforcement regime using deliberately rigged and confusing and under signed limits combined with military levels of technology to enforce them.
I think if they were genuinely doing it to keep speeds down, there would be more obvious and more frequent signage. I agree with the principle that speeds to need to be kept down. I’m not perfect and right now I have 3 points. This one I think I might get speed awareness. I try to keep to the speedlimits and I also keep my satnav on louds so it starts beeping at me but if there is a lot going on it’s hard. Fortunately I have something to fall back on so I’m going to wait a couple of years and reset because I don’t want to be on 6 points. My insurance will go up and it’s too close to 9 for my liking.
Think afai remember, I have had 6 points.
3 points rushing to Manchester airport in the 80s…car obvs.
3 points on the old road coming out of Swindon …Blunsdon?
Anyhow I went through a red light, entirely my own fault, should have judged it better, it was a wet slippery road, and I was pulling an old Dutch tilt with no ABS, so it was either go through red (I still say it was amber 
) or do a dancing on ice stunt in the truck, so I went for it.
Thing is mate you have just described why you should never get any points if you do all that.
And I suppose that is Stalin reaching out from beyond the grave?
as professionals we should be expected to drive to a higher standard.[quote=“franglais, post:6, topic:239813”]
as professionals we should be expected to drive to a higher standard.
[/quote]
The first one was 25 in a 20. I was distracted because I was new and looking for a shop. Full load. Speed crept.
This one was on a wide open two lane road. Had a full load and the speed crept up. Camera was on a downhill. I didn’t catch it in time. Yeah I should have put the aux brake on earlier and been covering the brake.
Yeah I can try harder but I’m not perfect, I know myself and I know I’ll make another mistake in the next 3 years so I I don’t want to risk driving all day every day.
Ha !
So you fell for that story about Stalin being dead?
Yeah, I’ll go and stand in the corner with my KKK hat that has the letter “D” printed on it
Mea culpa…