A recent study carried out by researchers in Warwick, UK and Georgia, USA (reported here in the Telegraph) has found that in areas where men are perceived to have a natural advantage, such as in carrying out spatial tasks like parking and map-reading, lack of confidence will make women worse at those tasks. Basically, if you tell women they are rubbish at parking, they will be.
I would actually take this one stage further. I think that if you tell women that they are rubbish at parking, not only are you making it a self-fulfilling prophecy, but you are also inextricably linking incompetence in spatial tasks with femininity. This means that not only are you making it more likely that they won't be very good at parking their cars, but also you are saying that if they are good at parking their cars they are not proper women!
On several occasions when out driving lorries, women have said to me, "Oh, I couldn't drive that thing, I've got no spatial awareness". What they are really saying to me is, "I couldn't drive that thing, I'm a proper woman." The fact is, if I asked those women if they could organise their cupboards so that they can see and reach all the things they want to see they would say yes. If I observed them in a supermarket manoeuvring their shopping trolley round several stationary trolleys so that they could get to the deli counter in front of the woman with the 3 screaming children in tow without it looking like they were racing, I'm sure I would be impressed with those same spatial skills that they claim not to have. These examples may sound horribly stereotypical but it is in stereotypes that we are dealing when talking about women drivers. The fact is, women carry out complex spatial tasks all day every day. There is just something about driving that we are told is man's work.
Having said that, it is precisely because of the association of driving with men that makes it such a good area to work in when trying to challenge these stereotypes. Every time somebody of either sex sees me or any other woman successfully manoeuvre an articulated lorry into position it's just another little nail in the coffin of these outmoded ideas.
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
A post about post
Have you ever wondered how post moves around? How a letter that is posted first class down here in Dorset can arrive at my grandparent's on the West coast of North Wales the following day? It isn't magic. And it isn't one person getting in a van and taking it the whole way there. It involves an impressive network of vehicles and buildings of different sizes from a bloke on a bicycle (although I think health and safety considerations have done away with those, the bicycles, not the blokes) at a village post office to an articulated lorry coming out of a distribution centre the size of that same village.
That one letter goes from post box to van to delivery office to small lorry to mail centre to big lorry to distribution centre and then back down the sizes in another big lorry to another mail centre and then back out to another delivery office and a delivery person in a van to my grandparent's front door. It is a curve of increasing and then decreasing vehicle and warehouse size. The curve reaches its zenith at the National Distribution Centre (NDC) at junction 18 of the M1 in the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT). Here thousands of articulated lorries every day dock at 100 loading bays, each unloading up to 90 trolleys full of post.
And it works surprisingly well. NDC is an easy place to go to, it is a really big site and it generally moves freely, even at busy times. There is plenty of space to manoeuvre your lorry onto the bay and as a result it is a fairly relaxed place to go as no one feels under pressure. The same cannot be said for the smaller distribution centres. SWDC - South West - is at Avonmouth just North of Bristol. The people are friendly and it is not that busy so, although the manoeuvring space is a bit tight, it is still generally ok to visit. PRDC - Princess Royal - just off the North Circular near the junction with the A40 in NW London is not. It is cramped into its location both inside and outside and for some bizarre reason, the unloading bays are after the loading bays which means that as you wait in a queue for a free bay to unload, you block access to the bays for loading. Loading happens on a tight schedule - you have a time slot so if you are stuck in a queue waiting to get to your bay and are late onto the bay, you throw the schedule out for the rest of the night. This means you have to push in which winds people up (although they all know the problem, but there is etiquette regarding how you go about pushing in and transgressing this etiquette is what winds people up) and then you have to manoeuvre your truck onto the bay in a much restricted space. But somehow, it still works.
You will very rarely see a Royal Mail truck parked up in a layby and even more rarely in a service station because breaks are taken on Royal Mail property. Post is always on the move so there is no point in it sitting in a truck for 10 hours while the driver sleeps. The trucks are generally in use for two shifts in any 24 hour period and drivers never sleep out in their trucks unless snow or breakdowns cause them to have to. All the duties, while some are well over 12 hours, return to base at the end.
So there it is. The logistics of post. Royal Mail is a lovely company to work for - the trucks are well maintained, the transport office is staffed by at least 2 people 24 hours a day, you are given time to do your vehicle checks and nobody expects you to exceed tacho hours. But all these things make a company less profitable. I just hope it continues.
That one letter goes from post box to van to delivery office to small lorry to mail centre to big lorry to distribution centre and then back down the sizes in another big lorry to another mail centre and then back out to another delivery office and a delivery person in a van to my grandparent's front door. It is a curve of increasing and then decreasing vehicle and warehouse size. The curve reaches its zenith at the National Distribution Centre (NDC) at junction 18 of the M1 in the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT). Here thousands of articulated lorries every day dock at 100 loading bays, each unloading up to 90 trolleys full of post.
And it works surprisingly well. NDC is an easy place to go to, it is a really big site and it generally moves freely, even at busy times. There is plenty of space to manoeuvre your lorry onto the bay and as a result it is a fairly relaxed place to go as no one feels under pressure. The same cannot be said for the smaller distribution centres. SWDC - South West - is at Avonmouth just North of Bristol. The people are friendly and it is not that busy so, although the manoeuvring space is a bit tight, it is still generally ok to visit. PRDC - Princess Royal - just off the North Circular near the junction with the A40 in NW London is not. It is cramped into its location both inside and outside and for some bizarre reason, the unloading bays are after the loading bays which means that as you wait in a queue for a free bay to unload, you block access to the bays for loading. Loading happens on a tight schedule - you have a time slot so if you are stuck in a queue waiting to get to your bay and are late onto the bay, you throw the schedule out for the rest of the night. This means you have to push in which winds people up (although they all know the problem, but there is etiquette regarding how you go about pushing in and transgressing this etiquette is what winds people up) and then you have to manoeuvre your truck onto the bay in a much restricted space. But somehow, it still works.
You will very rarely see a Royal Mail truck parked up in a layby and even more rarely in a service station because breaks are taken on Royal Mail property. Post is always on the move so there is no point in it sitting in a truck for 10 hours while the driver sleeps. The trucks are generally in use for two shifts in any 24 hour period and drivers never sleep out in their trucks unless snow or breakdowns cause them to have to. All the duties, while some are well over 12 hours, return to base at the end.
So there it is. The logistics of post. Royal Mail is a lovely company to work for - the trucks are well maintained, the transport office is staffed by at least 2 people 24 hours a day, you are given time to do your vehicle checks and nobody expects you to exceed tacho hours. But all these things make a company less profitable. I just hope it continues.
Monday, 17 October 2011
Breaking the drought - this time it's personal.
When you haven't written for ages you feel like the first one after the drought should be fantastic, something really worth the wait. Like when you've been single for a while the first lover should be absolutely mind-blowing. But this is reality.
So why has it been so long?
Because I don't know who I am.
I got into this whole social media thing at the beginning of last year, wrote a few posts, made some connections with other people, got a few Twitter followers. And then it all stopped. I had a confusion of online personas, connections that didn't feel comfortable and a muddled blog which did not know whether it was a feminist diatribe or a source of information about driving regulations or something that tried to combine the two and much else besides.
So who am I and what do I write?
There is definitely a feminist crusade element to my choice of career which I've written about before. But when I started to read feminist blogs and get involved in the discussions I found myself either feeling like a fraud or simply intimidated.
I do know a phenomenal amount about driving rules and regulations and have written about the rules of the road. But when I set up a separate blog to share all the stuff I know about driving, I bored myself stupid within a couple of weeks.
I know there's a book inside me somewhere and I've been reading lots of non-fiction this summer to try and work out which style would suit me. I wanted to explore how much of me I wanted to put into my writing, how strong and how present the authorial voice should be. I read Simon Garfield's 'Just my type' where the author as a thinking, feeling person is not really present at all. I read Edward Platt's 'Leadville' and liked the way he wove his own story into those of the people he was writing about. I then read Elizabeth Gilbert's 'Eat, Pray, Love' which is a book I had avoided for many years, primarily because I knew it would be one that would really chime with my own mind and I couldn't cope with the envy that she had written it and not me. It annoyed me for that very reason and because I hate to see a version of myself in literature, it makes me feel like a cliche, but equally I loved it and couldn't put it down.
The fact is that the only two occasions where pieces of writing have really flowed in the way that I want writing to flow have been this deeply personal blog post and the eulogy I delivered for my Grandad's funeral. Both have been well received and both came straight from the heart out onto the page. I spent 8 years at university and thought at one time of being an academic but writing from a position of impersonal observation and fitting into the strictures of academic convention feels stultifying to me. I am no longer prepared to play with identities that don't fit or to hide behind factual knowledge. So it looks like this blog is going to get personal.
Oh bugger.
So why has it been so long?
Because I don't know who I am.
I got into this whole social media thing at the beginning of last year, wrote a few posts, made some connections with other people, got a few Twitter followers. And then it all stopped. I had a confusion of online personas, connections that didn't feel comfortable and a muddled blog which did not know whether it was a feminist diatribe or a source of information about driving regulations or something that tried to combine the two and much else besides.
So who am I and what do I write?
There is definitely a feminist crusade element to my choice of career which I've written about before. But when I started to read feminist blogs and get involved in the discussions I found myself either feeling like a fraud or simply intimidated.
I do know a phenomenal amount about driving rules and regulations and have written about the rules of the road. But when I set up a separate blog to share all the stuff I know about driving, I bored myself stupid within a couple of weeks.
I know there's a book inside me somewhere and I've been reading lots of non-fiction this summer to try and work out which style would suit me. I wanted to explore how much of me I wanted to put into my writing, how strong and how present the authorial voice should be. I read Simon Garfield's 'Just my type' where the author as a thinking, feeling person is not really present at all. I read Edward Platt's 'Leadville' and liked the way he wove his own story into those of the people he was writing about. I then read Elizabeth Gilbert's 'Eat, Pray, Love' which is a book I had avoided for many years, primarily because I knew it would be one that would really chime with my own mind and I couldn't cope with the envy that she had written it and not me. It annoyed me for that very reason and because I hate to see a version of myself in literature, it makes me feel like a cliche, but equally I loved it and couldn't put it down.
The fact is that the only two occasions where pieces of writing have really flowed in the way that I want writing to flow have been this deeply personal blog post and the eulogy I delivered for my Grandad's funeral. Both have been well received and both came straight from the heart out onto the page. I spent 8 years at university and thought at one time of being an academic but writing from a position of impersonal observation and fitting into the strictures of academic convention feels stultifying to me. I am no longer prepared to play with identities that don't fit or to hide behind factual knowledge. So it looks like this blog is going to get personal.
Oh bugger.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Vehicle Categories explained - C1
Once upon a time, back in the mists of time (well, 14 years ago) when you passed your driving test, not only were you then legally entitled to borrow your Mum's car and do handbrake turns in Asda's car park, but you were also legally entitled to drive anything up to 7.5 tonnes. The powers that be (the DSA) took a look at this situation and decided that it might not be very safe to allow people who had only ever driven Nissan Micras to drive a vehicle which, to all intents and purposes, is a lorry.
So on 1st January, 1997 all this changed and category C1 was born. No longer were new drivers allowed to drive trucks (or tow trailers or drive minibuses, but I shall write about those some other time). Those halcyon days were over, much to the annoyance of many a young lady who wanted to get a job working as a delivery driver, or a young lad who wanted to transport his horse.
And much to the delight of any driving instructor who had access to such vehicles to teach in.
Which is where I come in.
Category C1 covers any laden goods vehicle (LGV - van or truck) which is between 3.5 and 7.5 tonnes MAM (maximum authorised mass = the weight of the vehicle + the weight of everything in it). The above picture is of a 7.5 tonne truck, known in the trade as a seven-and-a-half-tonner, but a surprising number of vans come into this category too, which many people are driving without realising that they are breaking the law.
This has been my home for the day. It is a long wheel based Ford Transit van with an MAM of 4.5 tonnes. It looks like the normal van that you might hire to move house but if you got your licence after '97 you wouldn't be able to without taking a test. Or breaking the law, one of the two. This one is owned by the ambulance service because ambulances are category C1 and I have spent a very pleasant day teaching a trainee paramedic how to drive it. Or more specifically getting her out of over 10 years worth of bad habits (she was a quick learner, it was a nice day).
Most people who want to drive lorries and who are paying for the training themselves go straight for category C (big trucks) but companies or organisations who don't run large vehicles but need their staff to drive C1 will only pay for C1, not because it's any cheaper, but because they aren't going to pay to overqualify their staff for the job they want them to do. And quite a lot of my work comes from this category of training.
Here endeth today's lesson.
So on 1st January, 1997 all this changed and category C1 was born. No longer were new drivers allowed to drive trucks (or tow trailers or drive minibuses, but I shall write about those some other time). Those halcyon days were over, much to the annoyance of many a young lady who wanted to get a job working as a delivery driver, or a young lad who wanted to transport his horse.
And much to the delight of any driving instructor who had access to such vehicles to teach in.
Which is where I come in.
Category C1 covers any laden goods vehicle (LGV - van or truck) which is between 3.5 and 7.5 tonnes MAM (maximum authorised mass = the weight of the vehicle + the weight of everything in it). The above picture is of a 7.5 tonne truck, known in the trade as a seven-and-a-half-tonner, but a surprising number of vans come into this category too, which many people are driving without realising that they are breaking the law.
This has been my home for the day. It is a long wheel based Ford Transit van with an MAM of 4.5 tonnes. It looks like the normal van that you might hire to move house but if you got your licence after '97 you wouldn't be able to without taking a test. Or breaking the law, one of the two. This one is owned by the ambulance service because ambulances are category C1 and I have spent a very pleasant day teaching a trainee paramedic how to drive it. Or more specifically getting her out of over 10 years worth of bad habits (she was a quick learner, it was a nice day).
Most people who want to drive lorries and who are paying for the training themselves go straight for category C (big trucks) but companies or organisations who don't run large vehicles but need their staff to drive C1 will only pay for C1, not because it's any cheaper, but because they aren't going to pay to overqualify their staff for the job they want them to do. And quite a lot of my work comes from this category of training.
Here endeth today's lesson.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Middle lane hogger and the motorway drivers
Middle lane hogging seems to be a universally deplored driver fault, yet it is still extremely widespread. So what is it?
Middle lane hogging occurs on motorways where there are at least 3 lanes. It is the practice of driving in the middle lane when the left hand lane is not occupied. That's the basic definition, here's a bit more detail:
"Driving: the essentials skills", that fascination DSA publication that all learner drivers are supposed to read states that you should, "Keep to the left-hand lane unless there are a great many slower vehicles ahead - it's possible to stay in the centre or outer lanes while you are overtaking a number of slower moving vehicles, but don't stay in these lanes longer than you have to, or if you are delaying traffic behind you."(my italics) So, the middle lane is for overtaking, if there are no vehicles to your left to overtake, you shouldn't be in that lane.
There are some middle lane hoggers who persist in driving in the middle lane when the rest of the road is fairly empty. I have often wondered about the demographic of these drivers. It is sometimes men who, I think, don't want to travel in the left hand lane because they consider it to be the slow lane and while they don't want to actually break the speed limit and go into the fast lane with the big boys (they have a family to support and a position in society to uphold), driving in the left hand lane would damage their credibility with themselves to such an extent as to be the final nail in the coffin of their youthful rebellion. Having said that, middle lane hoggers are often just people of either sex who are too oblivious to the way that roads are supposed to function to notice that what they are doing is wrong.
While, such middle lane hoggers are irritating they are generally fairly harmless. There is a related issue though, which does lead to some pretty dangerous driving on multi-lane roads of all kinds - the practice of driving in the middle or right hand lanes even if they are too full to be used for overtaking and causing them to bunch up close together at high speeds.
If the left-hand lane is going more slowly than you want to go and the lane to the right is empty then obviously, you change lane and off you go. However, if the left-hand lane is going more slowly than you want to go but the lane(s) to the right is(are) also blocked what do you do? My response is that if you cannot use the lanes to the right of you for the purpose for which they are intended - overtaking - then you shouldn't go in them at all. You should wait until the lane to the right is clear (or at least going fast enough to be able to use it for overtaking) before going into it. This should mean that in a situation of heavy traffic, the left lane should be fullest and each subsequent lane to the right should be increasingly empty but the opposite is often true. The right hand lane is often full of cars travelling far too close together at 70mph or higher. The middle lane, or right hand lane on 2 carriageway roads, is often going more slowly than the left hand lane.
Does this mean that those in the left hand lane should slow down to avoid committing the cardinal sin of overtaking on the inside? No, because the vehicles in that lane are doing exactly what they are supposed to. They are driving at an appropriate speed for the road in the left hand lane. I have often been in the situation (A31 going through the New Forest between Bournemouth and Southampton is a prime location for this) where I have been happily driving along in the left hand lane, in a car or a truck, and the vehicles to my right have been moving more slowly. I effectively overtake them on the inside, which winds them up so they speed up. This does not cause them to travel the overall distance any faster, it simply causes them to get dangerously close to the car in front and the whole lane bunches up.
It is a sad fact that the UK's roads are often too full for everyone to travel at the speed they want to and however much many drivers would want to overtake those in front of them, if the lane to the right is full of cars, they can't. The only safe thing to do is to take your foot off the accelerator and just accept it. It also makes the whole motorway driving experience much more pleasant if you take the competition out of it.
Middle lane hogging occurs on motorways where there are at least 3 lanes. It is the practice of driving in the middle lane when the left hand lane is not occupied. That's the basic definition, here's a bit more detail:
"Driving: the essentials skills", that fascination DSA publication that all learner drivers are supposed to read states that you should, "Keep to the left-hand lane unless there are a great many slower vehicles ahead - it's possible to stay in the centre or outer lanes while you are overtaking a number of slower moving vehicles, but don't stay in these lanes longer than you have to, or if you are delaying traffic behind you."(my italics) So, the middle lane is for overtaking, if there are no vehicles to your left to overtake, you shouldn't be in that lane.
There are some middle lane hoggers who persist in driving in the middle lane when the rest of the road is fairly empty. I have often wondered about the demographic of these drivers. It is sometimes men who, I think, don't want to travel in the left hand lane because they consider it to be the slow lane and while they don't want to actually break the speed limit and go into the fast lane with the big boys (they have a family to support and a position in society to uphold), driving in the left hand lane would damage their credibility with themselves to such an extent as to be the final nail in the coffin of their youthful rebellion. Having said that, middle lane hoggers are often just people of either sex who are too oblivious to the way that roads are supposed to function to notice that what they are doing is wrong.
While, such middle lane hoggers are irritating they are generally fairly harmless. There is a related issue though, which does lead to some pretty dangerous driving on multi-lane roads of all kinds - the practice of driving in the middle or right hand lanes even if they are too full to be used for overtaking and causing them to bunch up close together at high speeds.
If the left-hand lane is going more slowly than you want to go and the lane to the right is empty then obviously, you change lane and off you go. However, if the left-hand lane is going more slowly than you want to go but the lane(s) to the right is(are) also blocked what do you do? My response is that if you cannot use the lanes to the right of you for the purpose for which they are intended - overtaking - then you shouldn't go in them at all. You should wait until the lane to the right is clear (or at least going fast enough to be able to use it for overtaking) before going into it. This should mean that in a situation of heavy traffic, the left lane should be fullest and each subsequent lane to the right should be increasingly empty but the opposite is often true. The right hand lane is often full of cars travelling far too close together at 70mph or higher. The middle lane, or right hand lane on 2 carriageway roads, is often going more slowly than the left hand lane.
Does this mean that those in the left hand lane should slow down to avoid committing the cardinal sin of overtaking on the inside? No, because the vehicles in that lane are doing exactly what they are supposed to. They are driving at an appropriate speed for the road in the left hand lane. I have often been in the situation (A31 going through the New Forest between Bournemouth and Southampton is a prime location for this) where I have been happily driving along in the left hand lane, in a car or a truck, and the vehicles to my right have been moving more slowly. I effectively overtake them on the inside, which winds them up so they speed up. This does not cause them to travel the overall distance any faster, it simply causes them to get dangerously close to the car in front and the whole lane bunches up.
It is a sad fact that the UK's roads are often too full for everyone to travel at the speed they want to and however much many drivers would want to overtake those in front of them, if the lane to the right is full of cars, they can't. The only safe thing to do is to take your foot off the accelerator and just accept it. It also makes the whole motorway driving experience much more pleasant if you take the competition out of it.
Thursday, 23 September 2010
On why lorry drivers overtake each other on dual-carriageways.
One of the most common things I am asked when I tell people I am a lorry driver is 'why do lorry drivers insist on overtaking each other on dual-carriageways when they are doing roughly the same speed, thus blocking the road for car drivers for ages?' So here's the answer: Well, if you are only a car driver you probably won't accept any of this as a justifiable answer but at least you'll have a bit more of an idea why.
These are the factors:
The speed limiter - laden goods vehicles (LGVs) over 7.5 tonnes, and some under this weight, are limited to 56mph. There is a mechanism in the engine which means that when you try and accelerate past this speed, nothing happens, the acceleration just stops. So, what is the point of trying to overtake each other then? Good question, but the fact is they are not all set in exactly the same place. Some don't go much beyond 54 some you can get up to 56.5. The supermarkets are often limited to 53 as this is supposedly optimum fuel consumption speed. If you take the A34 connecting the major transport hub of Southampton to the Midlands, many lorries are travelling the full length of it. It is 110 miles from Southampton to Northampton, a distance that would be travelled almost exclusively on dual-carriageways. A difference of 2 miles an hour would make a difference of 4 minutes on the overall journey. This may not seem like much but it brings me onto the next point -
Time pressures - lorry drivers are under pressure for time both from their transport offices and from the tachograph regulations. Most long-distance lorries are satellite tracked so their transport office knows what speed they are doing and if they are not doing the speed they could be doing, the office will want to know why. Routes are worked out according to how long it ought to take and if you are not sticking to time, connecting routes will be thrown out of schedule (this is especially the case for things like Royal Mail, DHL etc.). Routes are also worked out to make sure that your tacho breaks fall at convenient times for the deliveries. You can drive for 4.5 hours before you have to take a 45 minute break. Last week 5 minutes was the difference between me making it home on time at and me being stuck in the Midlands for 45 minutes, thus making all the post I was carrying late.
The other factors that influence my choice of whether or not to overtake and block the road for ages are:
Load differences and hills - a vehicle that is heavily laden is not going to make it up the hills as fast as one that isn't. However, while some vehicles have a feature where the exhaust brake kicks in automatically to make sure you stay at the speed the limiter is set to, many do not. This means that a vehicle that is heavily laden will actually go faster down the hills that one that isn't. Frighteningly fast in fact! (69 is the fastest I have ever got a laden lorry to go, I tried to break the speed limit for cars but I didn't quite get there. It was fun but scary and I certainly won't be doing it again!). When deciding to overtake you have to make the decision about whether overall you are going faster than the one in front or not. The A34 is hilly, so if you are overtaking downhill (or uphill, depending on which one of you is laden) you also have to decide whether you are going to make it past the lorry in front before the gradient changes again. Personally if I'm being overtaken uphill and the lorry overtaking hasn't managed to get back in by the time we are going downhill again and going the same speed, I tend to brake to let them in to get the road moving smoothly, as long as I accept that overall they are going faster than me. If I don't think they are, and think they were just being aggressive, I won't slow down because I know that sooner or later I will probably have to overtake them again. This may well end up as a scrap that blocks the road for ages.
The final factor is cruise control. Let's take the A31 coming out of Bournemouth towards Southampton through the New Forest. It has some very long steep hills and at certain times, is very busy. If you are driving a lorry up a hill on cruise control and suddenly realise there is a slow-moving vehicle ahead and brake, thereby taking the cruise control off, your speed could drop by 20mph in an instant, which is dangerous, and it can take miles on the A31 to get that speed back. If you pull out straight away and get past it, it takes seconds and everyone is happy. This is a very thinly veiled way of saying 'Oy! Car drivers! Let us pull out!'.
So anyway, these are the reasons why. Having said all that, the speed limit on dual-carriageways for LGVs over 7.5 tonnes is actually only 50 mph but I have heard from a retired policeman that there is an unwritten agreement between the police and the LGV industry that truckers won't be prosecuted for driving at the limiter on dual-carriageways. I certainly know of truckers who have been stopped doing 56 and the police have not batted an eyelid about the speed and I have never known anyone be prosecuted for it but you never know.
These are the factors:
The speed limiter - laden goods vehicles (LGVs) over 7.5 tonnes, and some under this weight, are limited to 56mph. There is a mechanism in the engine which means that when you try and accelerate past this speed, nothing happens, the acceleration just stops. So, what is the point of trying to overtake each other then? Good question, but the fact is they are not all set in exactly the same place. Some don't go much beyond 54 some you can get up to 56.5. The supermarkets are often limited to 53 as this is supposedly optimum fuel consumption speed. If you take the A34 connecting the major transport hub of Southampton to the Midlands, many lorries are travelling the full length of it. It is 110 miles from Southampton to Northampton, a distance that would be travelled almost exclusively on dual-carriageways. A difference of 2 miles an hour would make a difference of 4 minutes on the overall journey. This may not seem like much but it brings me onto the next point -
Time pressures - lorry drivers are under pressure for time both from their transport offices and from the tachograph regulations. Most long-distance lorries are satellite tracked so their transport office knows what speed they are doing and if they are not doing the speed they could be doing, the office will want to know why. Routes are worked out according to how long it ought to take and if you are not sticking to time, connecting routes will be thrown out of schedule (this is especially the case for things like Royal Mail, DHL etc.). Routes are also worked out to make sure that your tacho breaks fall at convenient times for the deliveries. You can drive for 4.5 hours before you have to take a 45 minute break. Last week 5 minutes was the difference between me making it home on time at and me being stuck in the Midlands for 45 minutes, thus making all the post I was carrying late.
The other factors that influence my choice of whether or not to overtake and block the road for ages are:
Load differences and hills - a vehicle that is heavily laden is not going to make it up the hills as fast as one that isn't. However, while some vehicles have a feature where the exhaust brake kicks in automatically to make sure you stay at the speed the limiter is set to, many do not. This means that a vehicle that is heavily laden will actually go faster down the hills that one that isn't. Frighteningly fast in fact! (69 is the fastest I have ever got a laden lorry to go, I tried to break the speed limit for cars but I didn't quite get there. It was fun but scary and I certainly won't be doing it again!). When deciding to overtake you have to make the decision about whether overall you are going faster than the one in front or not. The A34 is hilly, so if you are overtaking downhill (or uphill, depending on which one of you is laden) you also have to decide whether you are going to make it past the lorry in front before the gradient changes again. Personally if I'm being overtaken uphill and the lorry overtaking hasn't managed to get back in by the time we are going downhill again and going the same speed, I tend to brake to let them in to get the road moving smoothly, as long as I accept that overall they are going faster than me. If I don't think they are, and think they were just being aggressive, I won't slow down because I know that sooner or later I will probably have to overtake them again. This may well end up as a scrap that blocks the road for ages.
The final factor is cruise control. Let's take the A31 coming out of Bournemouth towards Southampton through the New Forest. It has some very long steep hills and at certain times, is very busy. If you are driving a lorry up a hill on cruise control and suddenly realise there is a slow-moving vehicle ahead and brake, thereby taking the cruise control off, your speed could drop by 20mph in an instant, which is dangerous, and it can take miles on the A31 to get that speed back. If you pull out straight away and get past it, it takes seconds and everyone is happy. This is a very thinly veiled way of saying 'Oy! Car drivers! Let us pull out!'.
So anyway, these are the reasons why. Having said all that, the speed limit on dual-carriageways for LGVs over 7.5 tonnes is actually only 50 mph but I have heard from a retired policeman that there is an unwritten agreement between the police and the LGV industry that truckers won't be prosecuted for driving at the limiter on dual-carriageways. I certainly know of truckers who have been stopped doing 56 and the police have not batted an eyelid about the speed and I have never known anyone be prosecuted for it but you never know.
Friday, 17 September 2010
Driver Stereotypes - call for comments
I am starting a blog project looking at driver stereotypes, how accurate they are, why those people drive like that, that kind of thing. I am looking for suggestions on which groups to look at. White van man is probably the most obvious, maybe school run Mums, taxi drivers, truckers (don't be scared, I can take it!).
Basically who can be relied on on the road to piss you off? Equally who do you trust to, on the whole, drive safely and courteously or in a manner that you like?
Let me know.
Ta
Basically who can be relied on on the road to piss you off? Equally who do you trust to, on the whole, drive safely and courteously or in a manner that you like?
Let me know.
Ta
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