[Closed] Tailgating trucks J16-19 M6

I hate this northbound section of this motorway, if its after 11am on a Friday I will use the A roads via Congleton (half decent bike shop on A34) and then up past Alderley edge to the M60.

As a driver of these lorries.. I also get tailgated by these morons who are desperate to never have to slow from 56mph for whatever reason. What I will say is... Its usually the older drivers that tend to do it and normally working for even older fashioned companies that push these drivers to go as fast as possible.

You won't normally see the larger companies ie stobarts/tesco/morrisons etc etc doing this as their drivers are treated better for the most part.

Maybe it's cos car odometers are a bit inaccurate so when fixed rigidly at 50 in the middle lane, the trucks are effectively being forced to drive a bit slower than they could and can't overtake? Are truck speedos more accurate due to the tacho?

Yes, the speedos may be more accurate, but surely there is no excuse for driving five feet behind another vehicle at 50ish (no exaggeration yesterday). I was at an indicated 53 the speedo, 51 on the GPS and was being (slowly) overtaken by most other vehicles in the middle and outer lane, so the cars "holding up" the trucks were probably at 52/53 true.

I think transporter 13 has it right.

Yes.. Truck tachos are calibrated every 2 years and are very accurate

Oh God that section is like living hell at the minute. I'll be on it again tomorrow. I just set the CC to 53 and chill.

It’s not as if the closed off sections are a hive of activity either. Frustrating.

Maybe it’s cos car odometers are a bit inaccurate so when fixed rigidly at 50 in the middle lane, the trucks are effectively being forced to drive a bit slower than they could and can’t overtake? Are truck speedos more accurate due to the tacho?

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<div id="singl-437527112" class="singl-forum-replies-1">Dunno about truck speedometers, (the odometer is the mileage counter, btw), whenever I drove those speed controlled sections of motorway I’d drive according to what my satnav showed, not the car speedo, which meant I was steadily overtaking trucks on the inside. What is annoying is when a truck is draughting another, then pulls out to overtake and takes the next two or three miles to crawl past with about a one or two mph speed difference. I’ve been stuck behind these sort of jackasses on a number of occasions and it didn’t enhance my day very much. It’s one part of the job I don’t actually miss.</div>
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It’s not as if the closed off sections are a hive of activity either. Frustrating.

I only ever see groups of three people. One driving some sort of plant machinery and two watching. It’s bizarre.

The result of me pondering this over the years is that:

1. they will be saving fuel by slip streaming which is good for the planet

2. if the one in front brakes hard then there will be a less of a speed difference at impact than if they were a bit further back and it will just be like train carriages shunting each other

3. car's wont fit in between them so can't get crushed when no. 2 happens

ever thought of reporting the offending trucks to the police and driving standards agency or what ever theyre called this year, or even phoning the companies direct, even send an email .

#everylitlehelps

2. if the one in front brakes hard then there will be a less of a speed difference at impact than if they were a bit further back and it will just be like train carriages shunting each other

All fine, I guess, as long as the lead trucker's concentrating and the whole train doesn't plough into/right through a queue of traffic

I posted about this before a while back but there's no excuse for tailgating whether you're a truck driver or any one of the excessively entitled driving gods on Britain's roads.

40 tonnes of hgv "tapping" the back of my car braking hard from 40mph with my children in the back would likely land a whole family in the morgue.

My youngest (6 years old) understands this and I've had him and his big brother in tears before on the motorway terrified of the way that an hgv is driving behind us while we're boxed in front, rear and to the side. If they can get it - then someone with a licence to drive a 40t truck bloody well ought to.

If you are that much of an ********* that you think this kind of thoughtless and dangerous twonkery  is acceptable then you need a life time ban from the roads.

Garage dweller. . Couldnt agree more

The basic misconception seems to be the idea that a speed limit is a minimum or compulsory speed rather than a maximum speed limit.

In this case, 50mph is the maximum speed you may drive at.  It is not the minimum speed you may drive at and nor is it the compulsory speed that you HAVE to drive at.

Until you can change that basic misconception there will always be a problem.

It is because of these sorts of muppets that restaurants advertise "Eat All You Like" deals and not "Eat All You Can" deals.

Garage dweller and spekkie both hit the nail on the head in my opinion.

Yep had this too a couple of months back driving up to Manchester, I was sat at 50 and had one right up my bumper flashing me. I also had one honk it’s horn at me when I was sat in lane two (moved over before junction to allow cars easy egress when joining motorway) he was in lane 1 wanting to move out to lane 2 but I was boxed in with solid traffic in lane 3 and no option to speed up in lane 2, he proceeded to follow me flashing his lights and honking horn. Moron.

CC @ 50, chill out and don't get involved FTW.

Just take your foot off the pedal and move into lane one when you get the chance

"CC @ 50, chill out and don’t get involved FTW."

Yes, but which 50mph? 50mph indicated on your speedo, 50mph indicated on your GPS (there is a 5mph difference in my car so naturally I try to drive to the GPS if possible), 50mph as indicated on a Citroen speedo, 50mph as indicated on an Audi speedo? 50mph as indicated on the speedo of a car where the driver has replaced the standard wheels with a non-standard size?

It won't solve the problem as everybody's 50mph is not the same.

Just maintain a sensible distance to the car in front and go at a speed consistent with the general flow of traffic, whether it be 49mph, 50mph or 53mph on your speedo, and don't try to do something different than everybody else. 99% of people on these average speed camera stretches are trying to maintain the limit within the error of everyones speedo's, so go along with those - you're going to be there or there about's. Keep the outside lane those who want to go quicker and risk getting done for speeding.

I ignore tailgaters or might even slow down a bit to encourage them to overtake. most of the time they'll overtake but then slow down further up the road and I end up overtaking again as I use CC as much as possible. The variability in peoples speed when they don't use CC is quite surprising, easily as much as +/- 5mph.

I was southbound in a 44 ton artic on that section of the M6 yesterday afternoon,it was the usual grind.

Not all truck drivers tailgate,you get poor truck driving just as you get poor car driving.

Car speedo's over read the speed,I think it's by up to but no more than 10%..Truck speedometers are calibrated,it's the law. The standard of driving is not very high,most motorists don't keep left unless overtaking,plenty of them sit in the middle lane because it suits them.

When I leave a safe braking distance I get some car driving arsehole dive into the gap.Yesterday it was some clown in a Honda Civic,the stereotype is usually behind the wheel of a Teutonic ****tmobile, talking about stereotypes keep clear of tipper drivers & most foreign plated trucks they appear to drive to a different set of rules.

I usually stay in the inside lane & endure the journey,it seems the least stressful lane to be in,apart from the sections before & after junctions when car drivers dive in front of the truck...

I was southbound and down in a 44 ton artic on that section of the M6 yesterday afternoon,it was the usual grind.

Burt Reynolds’d IFY. Tsk

Is this something that only effects Skoda drivers ? I can’t can’t say I have ever been trapped by this phenomenon as I waft past  in the outside lane in a BMW.

In all honesty though why would you stay in the inside lane doing < 50 mph. Just set your cruise at 54mph and go in the outside  lane ( moving over of course to let Audi’s and BMW’s through)

When I leave a safe braking distance I get some car driving arsehole dive into the gap.

Ah, I see. That makes it perfectly acceptable.

Won't tailgaiting trucks be the norm once we do away with drivers. May as well get used to it.

I drive a coach, limited by eu law to 100kmh, vs the 90kmh a truck can do, yet I semi regularly get tailgeted by trucks too, occasionally i pass a couple of trucks (which i should be able to do quite easily, with a 10kmh speed difference, i pull back into the left lane to have another truck sail past me, doing clearly more than 100kmh, uphill.

it happens so often nowadays that I actually wondered if the speed limiter had been changed for trucks.

But, as noted above, it is actually only a tiny minority of truckers, most of them do a superb job.

if someone tailgates me, I’d prefer to let them past if possible, that way i can control the gap to a safe level.

It’s a stupid thing to do.

Used to boil my piss when driving up to Manchester but now I set the cc to 53 and let them have their moment of glory. Don't use the sat nav speedometer as I don't want a fine just because someone has no patience.

This happened to me on the m1 on those long 50mph sections over the last few yrs. boils my pi&& especially hone I have my wife/ daughter in the car and all you can see in the mirror is the middle letters of a Scania grille badge. cars in front, cars to the side but an artic 5 ft behind me.

Was with a friend once on the M1 and he took a phot of the truck whilst I was driving and called the haulage co and  emailed the pic.

I'm pretty sure I can stop quicker in a model car than a fully loaded 44 tonne truck. See the footage of a car squashed between two trucks on the m27 in Hants a yr or so ago and both occupants dead.

The penalty for using a truck in a threatening way ought to be massive.

Same goes for national express coaches - tailgating me then when my passenger took a photo of the coach out of the window the coach came alongside and opened the door to tell me that he had us on camera! wtf?

I like to just gently slow down when this happens. Generally one of two things will happen:

1. They get the message and back off a bit

2. They get really angry and drive even closer, at which point I slow down some more. I've yet to find one that doesn't eventually get the message (granted when I do, I may not live to tell the tale)

Depending on what you're driving and the following vehicle's road positioning, you may be able to see the reaction from the angry drivers. This is invariably hilarious.

Yes, but which 50mph?

The one I said, CC. Since everyone else is generally doing 52 to 54 or so, I can sit in the inside lane and watch all the stressheads creep past inches apart from each other.