HGV drivers?

Question

Why do many artic drivers insist on tailgating to the point of stupidity?
I am a hgv driver and I am apauled at what I see for proffesional drivers, bear in mind they can have 20-30tons on the back pushing them, I see trucks travelling at maximum speed and you couldnt fit a mini in the gap they create...if the truck in front stops you can bet the guy who hits him is going to kill himself..
I think these idiots should be treated like criminals and be given an automatic 6 points...does anybody agree, and before somebody says they have to keep the revs up, what is a few revs compared to death.

Musonic, I can not agree, as I said I am a HGV driver , as for saving fuel it is not the driver who pays, as for killing yourself then the driver and his family pays, I disagree with a 56 mph speed limit, as I feel this is part of the problem, but if you were to drive at nights with no headlights this would be deemed as crazy, so tailgating no matter what excuse is equally as bad, as profesional drivers we are taught to drive ahead, you can not do this when you are stuck up somebodies rear......

Answer 1

yes i agree but you know that they will survive and some poor family will die in a car travelling close by!

Answer 2

Well I've heard some crap in my time, but some of these answers border on lunacy.

Deliberate tail-gating is stupid, but the reason for much of it has to do with the difference in weights and power.

It's quite difficult to explain, but a truck doing 56mph at the start of a hill, will often slow down to 40mph or less if it is fully loaded. A less heavy truck will then pull out and overtake, and what most people see are two trucks "tail-gating" when the overtaking vehicle pulls back in to the slow lane in front of the slower moving vehicle.

It's a bit of a catch 22 for the driver of the vehicle being overtaken, for the simple reason that backing off the throttle to make space, creates another problem for heavy vehicles following, as they suddenly catch up, and find themselves tailgating unintentionally.

Once momentum is lost, it can take a mile and an enormous amount of fuel to get back up to speed again.

Car drivers do not understand all this, because modern cars tend to accelerate quickly and do not slow much on hills; hence there isn't a problem.

Let's put it another way. If two trucks are travelling at the same speed, and the driver behind follows the 2 second rule, they are separated by a sfae distance. If the lead driver slows down for whatever reason, that safe distance is very quickly swallowed up, and the problem moves down the line of traffic.

It was to get around this problem that some European countries banned overtaking on hills, but in my experience, this makes the problem even worse!

The REALLY dangerous tail-gating is when trucks are going down-hill or travelling at top speed on a level road, but even then, there can be circumstances which cause it, such as a very slow-moving heavy crane which forces a driver to slow right down if he/she cannot overtake easily due to volume of traffic. Again, there is the same knock-on (or knock-back) percussion effect, as the change of speed moves back down the line of traffic.

Like all things, it isn't quite so simple as people imagine it to be.

Answer 3

Despite its dangers the big trucks use a technique that racers call drafting, the truck in the front of the group "plows" throught the air and the following trucks dont have to because the air has not filled in the space between the two vehicles, this essentially makes the two trucks aerodynamically one. This technique saves gas for the latter trucks. Many of them travel in some ad-hoc convoy where they leap-frog eachother to equalize the cost and speed evenly. I do agree that something should be done, but from their prospective it is a way of performing their job better, many of them pay for their own fuel and try to conserve as much as possible. Its dangerous but I think there is very little we can do other than stay out of their way. They dont make much so every penny counts for them.

Answer 4

I agree with you that H.G.V's travel too close to other vehicles in front. The standard and professionalism of heavy goods driving has gone downhill in this last decade. The East european drivers and the Irish drivers in particular seem to be the worst. I also think that the heavy truck accidents have increased enormously at the same time. Virtually everyday now you get an overturned lorry on our roads. A lot of the problems is that the truck owners are wanting too many deliveries to be done in too short a time. I was pleased to leave the industry a couple of years ago and certainly don't miss it.

Answer 5

But this does not take into account the cars that overtake then slow down, many years ago on the M1 I overtook a car nice and cleanly no cutting up I was doing 56mph, minutes later he overtook me and braked, this happened 5 -7 times and i ended up behind coming to some road works, I elected to stay behind as I thought he would speed up to keep me in the outside lane which was prohibited, he also slowed to below 40, speed limit 50 in which case I closed the distance between us because of this, there was nothing in front of him for over half a mile really no need to slow down accept for being bloody awkward, after the road works I got pulled by the law for tailgating and given a warning after I told my story, I was also told they would have a word with him but i guess they didn't

Answer 6

Many years ago, I drove artics. The lorry driver was considered the gentleman of the road. Always ready to assist, always polite and careful, a true professional. Now, I am sorry to say, they are the biggest a******les on the road, even beating taxi drivers. They drive down motorways either two feet apart, or trying to overtake one another with a speed difference of about ½ mph, with their foot flat to the floor. Leave the motorway and they forget where the accelerator is and crawl along at 35 to 40 mph. I think it is done just to annoy other road users. Sorry, I'll climb off my high horse and go back to my Astra.

Answer 7

IMHO the standard of professional driving has definitely plummeted in recent years. I think that too much pressure is being put on the drivers to meet unrealistic deadlines, but the speed at which most Commercial vehicles are driven at is as frightening as it is illegal. The drivers are doing themselves no favours. They're just stacking up health problems in years to come, and perhaps should learn that the trick is to maintain a decent average speed over the entire journey.
Better 5 minutes late in this world than 20 years to early in the next.

Answer 8

I see this all the time, and why is it that lorry drivers also seem to treat car drivers with complete disregard? The amount of times a lorry has just pulled out into my lane at the same time as indicating and either forced me to swerve or take other drastic action is just unbelievable. I think it would be a good idea on routes such as to ports etc that they had a dedicated road for HGV's

Answer 9

im a professional hgv driver (,on nights )and i totally aggree there"s too many tailgaters on the road car drivers included, ive reverted to dropping ur speed to around 83km theres always that gap for me to see whats happening ahead , and the time i lose getting to my destination is only 10-20 minutes depending the distance, my one pet hate especially on nights. is fog lights,all fog lights shud be banned from all vehiclesthey are there to let other people see u , so why dont ppl turn them off after overtaking u or when visibillity improves. also when ppl see a fog light in distance ahead they always speed up to follow it , no fog light ppl will drive slower

Answer 10

Trucks take a lot of fuel to push their way through the air. Companies have bonus schemes to encourage drivers to save fuel.
What better way to do this than travelling as close as possible to the truck in front and using his 'hole in the air'? They are encouraging dangerous driving.
As car driver I hate and as far as possible avoid getting between two trucks.
RoyS

Answer 11

They are so regular and evident on motorways - the police should surely be able to pick up on it. I might also mention the reguar use of mobile phones whilst driving - it is now seemingly worse than ever - and yes, articulaed vehicle drivers do it notwithstanding their size , momentum and ability to kill and maim.