is it me..? or do Lorry / Truck Drivers drive like NUTTERS?

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.... on the way to work this morning and obviously it had been snowing all night - So the roads were still quite slushy at 06:45 in the morning.

...So there's me chugging along on the A30 (Dual Carriage Way) doing 40MPH - Where the speed limit is 50MPH... So I was driving safely due to the conditons... and there's this great BIG truck right up my back side.... I swear he had less than 2-3 metres gap from me...!! :eek:

How stupid is that??? If I braked he would have skidded right through me..! :mad:
 
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lorry / truck drivers are normally the best drivers, especially artic drivers. I was wondered as i see it as a similar job van drivers are so poor. Taxi's are bad but i would probalby be the same earning money in that fashion
 
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Unfortunately it seems a many "professional" drivers display some of the worst driving on the roads. I regularly see milk lorries driven through the lanes faster than I dare in my car, forcing any oncomming traffic to dive into the hedge etc. One of my pet hates is the so called "elephant racing", lorries overtaking each other on a dual carriageway and using about 5 miles of road to do it.
 
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Sone said:
lorry / truck drivers are normally the best drivers, especially artic drivers. I was wondered as i see it as a similar job van drivers are so poor. Taxi's are bad but i would probalby be the same earning money in that fashion

West said:
Yup, Truck drivers seem to be the worst in my book, especially when I go up the M6 to manchester...


Proportionally speaking, there are probably just as many bad truck drivers as car drivers. It's just that you notice truck drivers more.

I drive trucks occasionally and when I do, I notice more bad car drivers than when I'm driving my car.
 
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Dogbreath said:
I regularly see milk lorries driven through the lanes faster than I dare in my car.

I've always been told it's because they drive the same route everyday, don't know if that is true. :)
 
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Lorry drivers seem very variabl, bare in mind most people over 30 are entitled to drive 7.5 tonne lorries on their car licences so they've had no formal training in lorry driving.

I've been a passenger in one at 65mph (they shouldn't go above 40 on an NSL road) and it was a stange sort of scary. You do feel very safe because they're so big.
 
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car drivers, both numerically and proportionally, are worse than truck drivers.
as already stated there are far too many 7.5 tonner drivers that don't have a clue.
as a general rule it's the artic drivers that are the mot professional as they drive the vehicles that are the least forgiving.
 
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If Truck / Lorry drivers are so good... Why do they all ways drive right up close behind eachother on the motorways?

The only good thing I've ever seen truck/lorry drivers do is..... Once a lorry has overtaken another lorry in the slow lane..... the lorry in the slow lane often flashes.... the lorry that has just over taken in the middle lane.... to let him/her know that it's now safe for them to pull back into the slow lane...

Has anyone ever seen this?
 
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Proper trucks (not 7.5 tonnes) don't want to brake, ever, or to let off the gas, ever, because both will mean they take longer to get to their destination and they are on strict time limits. Fuel is also a consideration, but mostly it's time.

They overtake a lorry doing only a few mph less than them because it means they don't get held up - it's annoying for other users of the motorway but if they didn't they would get a rollocking when they get to their destination because they were late.

Regarding braking times, I'm not sure a bit of slush would affect a truck, it has great brakes anyway and the weight holds it to the road pretty well. The sheer amount of weight to stop though means it has a pretty long braking distance all the time - dry or wet.
 
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Truck / Artic drivers are pretty safe drivers, the test to drive an articulated truck is quite extensive. Personally I feel people doing 10mph below the speed limit on roads can be quite dangerous (you can fail a driving test for travelling too slow), there are normally plenty of place to pull in to let road users who are capable of driving at the speed limit pass. There are people from any demographic who drive like "nutters" although this doesn't always make them unsafe. Just because you don't feel safe driving a vehicle at a certain speed or in certain environments doesn't mean that somebody else can't drive it safely. Admittedly, riding your bumper is an unsafe practice, there's no denying that.
 

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taske said:
Truck / Artic drivers are pretty safe drivers, the test to drive an articulated truck is quite extensive. Personally I feel people doing 10mph below the speed limit on roads can be quite dangerous (you can fail a driving test for travelling too slow), there are normally plenty of place to pull in to let road users who are capable of driving at the speed limit pass. There are people from any demographic who drive like "nutters" although this doesn't always make them unsafe. Just because you don't feel safe driving a vehicle at a certain speed or in certain environments doesn't mean that somebody else can't drive it safely. Admittedly, riding your bumper is an unsafe practice, there's no denying that.

Are you referring to the OP when you talk about driving at 10mph slower than the speed limit and feeling that someone else could drive it safely at the speed limit?
 
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