Is truck "elephant racing" against the law?

Is truck "elephant racing" against the law?

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Discussion

Nickyboy

6,700 posts

233 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
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a4cabrio said:
What a hero you are, I don't believe any of what you say apart from the bit about calling the company to complain about a driver who may have held you up for a minute or 2, I'd also stake a bet it's a regular thing for you to do, a fully paid up member of SARP smile
Thank god its not just me thinking its complete bullst.

29 miles, past 14 junctions, up 3 or more hills and no Tesco or Asda trucks that are limited to 50mph heading to or from their Depots in Didcot. Not a chance.

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Nickyboy said:
a4cabrio said:
What a hero you are, I don't believe any of what you say apart from the bit about calling the company to complain about a driver who may have held you up for a minute or 2, I'd also stake a bet it's a regular thing for you to do, a fully paid up member of SARP smile
Thank god its not just me thinking its complete bullst.

29 miles, past 14 junctions, up 3 or more hills and no Tesco or Asda trucks that are limited to 50mph heading to or from their Depots in Didcot. Not a chance.
Yes, all car drivers are liars....LIARS I TELL YOU.

cptsideways

13,535 posts

251 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Nickyboy said:
a4cabrio said:
What a hero you are, I don't believe any of what you say apart from the bit about calling the company to complain about a driver who may have held you up for a minute or 2, I'd also stake a bet it's a regular thing for you to do, a fully paid up member of SARP smile
Thank god its not just me thinking its complete bullst.

29 miles, past 14 junctions, up 3 or more hills and no Tesco or Asda trucks that are limited to 50mph heading to or from their Depots in Didcot. Not a chance.
At 8pm in the evening on a fairly deserted bit of dual carriageway? Actually we did meet a 50 limited truck at the M4 Juction thankfully.

I'm guessing Nickboy drives a flatbed & is an owner driver who frequents the A1 by his response.

Nickyboy

6,700 posts

233 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
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cptsideways said:
At 8pm in the evening on a fairly deserted bit of dual carriageway? Actually we did meet a 50 limited truck at the M4 Juction thankfully.

I'm guessing Nickboy drives a flatbed & is an owner driver who frequents the A1 by his response.
Except at 8pm its not deserted, its still busy and full of night trunkers heading to their respective hubs. I live 2 mins from that section and travel it every day at various times of the day so you could say i know it well.


anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
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Nickyboy said:
you could say i know it well.
You know it well.

a4cabrio

899 posts

158 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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mp3manager said:
None of the big supermarkets are daft enough to run their own fleets. It's all contracted out.
Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons do use contractors for part of their distribution needs, but they still do the vast majority of it themselves with their own fleets

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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Crossflow Kid said:
NorfolkInClue1 said:
I do wonder though, how is the truck causing bunching and tailgating?........
Read the example higher up the page...about the A34.
Only two lanes, usually blocked by vest-wearing egg banjo scoffing retards.
Same can be said for the last bit of the M3 before it splits at the coast.
Oh dear, plenty of shouty shouty, no intelligence.
Again, how does the truck cause the bunching and tailgating? Do try to think Crossflow, are you telling me that the "egg banjo scoffing retard" is also driving all the vehicles behind them...........nope.
The bunching and tailgating is caused by the deluded self important poverty spec driving paper clip sellers who have no idea how to leave a safe gap, have any patience or display any road sense whatsoever because somebody dares to get between them and the next appointment that may just secure enough commision to make the boss notice them.
I suggest you spend a little less time getting angry about something you clearly have no idea about and more time learning how to drive to the conditions presented to you, trust me when I say that the guys driving the trucks really do understand how pointless you and all the other tailgating idiots are, that's why they do it.
Hope the penny drops soon fella, like I said in my post before your selective quoting, I cannot stand these types of Truck drivers, I always lift of and let them past. Leave them to it, life is too short to stress about that extra 2 mph, I know I will get there in my own time, no stress, no pressure but the same money so no point rushing around. You should try it........

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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NorfolkInClue1 said:
The bunching and tailgating is caused by the deluded self important poverty spec driving paper clip sellers who have no idea how to leave a safe gap, have any patience or display any road sense whatsoever because somebody dares to get between them and the next appointment that may just secure enough commision to make the boss notice them.
Yer see....there it is again.
So every car driver is just deluded for wanting to actually get somewhere. OK, got it, thanks.
So we can all just bloody well slow down a bit and work round other traffic....
Trucks can't though, apparently?
Same ol' bks.

Bored now.


Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 21st August 22:14

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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Crossflow Kid said:
Yer see....there it is again.
So every car driver is just deluded for wanting to actually get somewhere. OK, got it, thanks.
So we can all just bloody well slow down a bit and work round other traffic....
Trucks can't though, apparently?


Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 21st August 22:00
Now try quoting my last paragraph against what you have just written...............
Your journey is no more important than others, you will, god willing, "actually get somewhere" even if the odd selfish idiot in a truck gets in the way, its your reaction that says to me that you think cars tailgating is the truck drivers fault, that's insane!!
You are fully responsible for your own driving, not others. I did actually say that I do slow down, some do and some don't. Oh, and yes, you should work round other traffic, it's a pretty basic part of driving common sense, if you can't then maybe you should take public transport.
Feel free to selectively quote me again, however I will have to wait to respond as I have to retire to sleep due to an early start, good luck getting stressed out tomorrow behind the wheel, remember, your journey is soooooooo much more important than every one else so rage away fella...........

mp3manager

4,254 posts

195 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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a4cabrio said:
mp3manager said:
None of the big supermarkets are daft enough to run their own fleets. It's all contracted out.
Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons do use contractors for part of their distribution needs, but they still do the vast majority of it themselves with their own fleets
That's a crock o' crap.

FiF

43,964 posts

250 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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As I often say on these elephant racing threads the time it actually costs me in RL journeys is basically square root of bugger all.

Just work out how much time each mile of being "held up" actually costs you in the difference between 70 and 56mph and it is seconds.

Since reading these threads have kept a watch on the distance covered between the point I have to lift off and the point at which regain my cruise speed. It's typically between a mile to a mile and a half. Very occasionally two miles or over.

Funnily enough the longest "delay" I experienced was on the same stretch of the A34. Not elephant racing per se but a convoy of two oversized loads which were doing 50 and occupying a lane and a half and the escorts was properly blocking overtakes.

Once they had taken a different route leaving the pumped up tailgating weaving line of photo copier salesmen free rein, resuming my previous legal speed still allowed me to reach my destination in Southampton on time.

Which supported my impression that the majority of car drivers who get so exercised by this issue are either a) idiots who don't plan their journeying properly with sufficient contingency allowance, or b) feel they have to complete each journey at illegal pace and thus are more affected by this, which leads to see a) above.

The few seconds a mile this costs in reality is also insignificant related to the stop mid journey for a wazz and a skinny mocco wocha floppacino and bacon bap.

Just my 2p. Other opinions are available but not ones with which one might agree.

pingu393

7,719 posts

204 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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FiF said:
As I often say on these elephant racing threads the time it actually costs me in RL journeys is basically square root of bugger all....
I have to give my ETA at the start of each journey and get questioned if I am late, so I use a max speed of 56mph in the sat nav. I am very rarely delayed and often arrive early, gaining a few brownie points smile. I've found that it is better to manage expectations that to promise the undeliverable.

Elephant racing annoys me, but I'm chilled enough to know that I can't control it.

I can control the speed of the elephants when I'm infront of them, though wink.

jmorgan

36,010 posts

283 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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People just need a chill pill. Relax, the world is not about to end, well, unless that Icelandic volcano kicks off.

mikeveal

4,559 posts

249 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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FiF said:
Just work out how much time each mile of being "held up" actually costs you in the difference between 70 and 56mph and it is seconds.
16.9 seconds per mile, to give a total of 28 minutes 11.73 seconds extra on my daily commute up the A34 behind a pair of speed limited retards.
Personally, I don't ever let 'em out, I've been stuck behind too many.

dxg

8,123 posts

259 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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mikeveal said:
FiF said:
Just work out how much time each mile of being "held up" actually costs you in the difference between 70 and 56mph and it is seconds.
16.9 seconds per mile, to give a total of 28 minutes 11.73 seconds extra on my daily commute up the A34 behind a pair of speed limited retards.
Personally, I don't ever let 'em out, I've been stuck behind too many.
You forgot to multiply that delay by the number of cars in the queue...

25 cars in the queue = half a day lost. Roughly.

FiF

43,964 posts

250 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
mikeveal said:
FiF said:
Just work out how much time each mile of being "held up" actually costs you in the difference between 70 and 56mph and it is seconds.
16.9 seconds per mile, to give a total of 28 minutes 11.73 seconds extra on my daily commute up the A34 behind a pair of speed limited retards.
Personally, I don't ever let 'em out, I've been stuck behind too many.
For a start it's not 16.9 seconds per mile, 12.9 according my calculations.

To be delayed by 28 minutes and 11 seconds you have to be delayed for 131 miles by my reckoning. 100 miles using your incorrect figure.

Maybe the A34 is like that, but then not one of the roads I drive on are.

100/131 miles delayed only due to trucks overtaking each other.

Right, carry on.

Ignores.

mikeveal

4,559 posts

249 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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1 mile at 56mph takes 1.071428 minutes.
1 mile at 70mph takes 0.857143 minutes.
The difference is 0.214285 minutes, 12.857 seconds. My mistake.
That's 21 minutes 25.7 seconds daily (assuming I'm held up the whole way, which, if you drive the A34 regularly, you'll know isn't exactly impossible.)

So my error. 21 minutes per day, not 28.

Oddly, this doesn't change my opinion.

No ta.
Don't let the buggers pull out and there is no hold up.

FiF

43,964 posts

250 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
No that's your opinion and that's fine.

Equally I am sure you can appreciate that my experience does not accord with delays over that length of road on a journey solely due to overtaking trucks.

Obviously it's not a behaviour to be ignored evidenced by the regulations on short stretches of the M42 etc. Not least in Germany also.

mikeveal

4,559 posts

249 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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Understood and your opinion equally respected. If you can deal with these morons without annoyance then you're a better man than I.

I suspect my perception of the time spent delayed is worse than the actual figure, because being held up sticks in your mind as annoying, where as travelling freely doesn't.

That said, it is not uncommon to have bunched up traffic queues over a mile long on the A34. Multiple snail races will occur to create a rolling 56mph road block than can easily rumble along for 10 miles. It's painful, but to be fair, it probably save me a fair deal in fuel.

andysgriff

913 posts

259 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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I'm working back in the UK after a long spell overseas and in my humble opinion the roads are completely screwed now.
Roadworks, speed cameras, congestion, holes in the road, fuel costs, lorries and more lorries, aggressive and inconsiderate drivers, idiots with no insurance, etc etc.

Can anyone tell me anything positive about driving in the UK these days?