How much slower is an HGV than a car?

[V8mate]

loggo said:

Remember A to B will not be the same as B to A.

Thankfully, they usually go from B to C, then on to D, before arriving back at A!

[944 Man]

Whenever people use car orientated software it ends in arguments. My average speed is 31mph and that is in an industry with a reputation for racing everywhere. Mostly wide open throttle.

I have found a truck TomTom to offer reasonably accurate journey time predictions (within a couple of minutes subject to changing traffic) . If you have access to one, you can use it to test your route predictions. Failing that, look forward to abusive feedback...

[exelero]

I would also suggest using a Truck nav for references. Garmin-Tom Tom. They are usually accurate ( even have live traffic)

[exelero]

[quote]

I have found a truck TomTom to offer reasonably accurate journey time predictions (within a couple of minutes subject to changing traffic) . If you have access to one, you can use it to test your route predictions. Failing that, look forward to abusive feedback...
[/quote]
My garmin is usually within 5-8 minutes of the original ETA.

[944 Man]

To check properly you would have to make a note of the projected ETA and the actual time of arrival. The TomTom HGV devices constantly recalculate based on performance and traffic conditions. I checked mine a few times to start with, but it was sufficiently close that I stopped, as I was happy to rely on it.

I would imagine that any sat nav would update its prediction in real time, so you always get there in one minute when it says one minute to go, but the TomTom guesses right from the outset. My largest discrepancy using a car device was about two hours, in a horsebox. It was reasonably accurate until I left the M6 and then hopeless all the way to Workington.

[ymwoods]

I always work at roughly 50 motorway miles = 1 hour, 40miles = 1 hour for dual-carriagways and 1 London mile = 1 week.

[grumpy52]

My workings were 4hrs =200miles then add 45mins for a break . That was depending on route and time of day , especially M25 or M6 Birmingham to Manchester.
There are lots of Apps or software programs out there that are pretty good . I also used the Highways England app to check for Incidents,Accidents and Roadworks.
Having drivers with a good geographical brain can be a huge advantage over a Sat Nav Lemming .

[Its Just Adz]

Glenn63 said:

Our place has gone to gas trucks that are similar to that. No guts what so ever, slight gradient and down to 30mph, takes an age to get up to speed especially on an uphill slip road. Put your foot down or hold onto the revs manually and you get a bking off the Microlise and your score will hit rock bottom
Used to drive heavy haulage Scania 580 v8 and pulling a normal 44 tonne they wouldn’t slow for anything pulled like a train! Averaged 3mpg though...

As for the op it all depends on the roads, our yard to Abington is all motorway average about 50mph, our place to Harrogate over the a59 average is down to 32ish.

Edited by Glenn63 on Thursday 18th February 14:34

Leyland based trucker running on gas, I'm guessing Waitrose?

[Glenn63]

Its Just Adz said:

Glenn63 said:

Our place has gone to gas trucks that are similar to that. No guts what so ever, slight gradient and down to 30mph, takes an age to get up to speed especially on an uphill slip road. Put your foot down or hold onto the revs manually and you get a bking off the Microlise and your score will hit rock bottom
Used to drive heavy haulage Scania 580 v8 and pulling a normal 44 tonne they wouldn’t slow for anything pulled like a train! Averaged 3mpg though...

As for the op it all depends on the roads, our yard to Abington is all motorway average about 50mph, our place to Harrogate over the a59 average is down to 32ish.

Edited by Glenn63 on Thursday 18th February 14:34

Leyland based trucker running on gas, I'm guessing Waitrose?

Yep Waitrose, for now, looks like we’re being sold down the river probably to xpo.

[Its Just Adz]

Glenn63 said:

Yep Waitrose, for now, looks like we’re being sold down the river probably to xpo.

I'm only down the road from you, at BCA.

[Glenn63]

Its Just Adz said:

Glenn63 said:

Yep Waitrose, for now, looks like we’re being sold down the river probably to xpo.

I'm only down the road from you, at BCA.

On Walton summit? How’s that job?

[Its Just Adz]

Glenn63 said:

On Walton summit? How’s that job?

Yea that's right. I enjoy it, good hours, get left alone for the most part.

[V8mate]

Glenn63 said:

Mile a minute plus 50%, if that goes over 4 hours add another 45 mins for a break and you won’t be far off.

Trouble is, most of my routes are 15-40 miles, and that means that getting started and out onto a dual carriageway, and then the reverse at the other end, have a disproportionate impact on the overall time.

[s p a c e m a n]

Can you not get access to any of their tracking data or tachos? We can all take wild guesses or tell you what it's like around our way but if you're trying to time specific routes or areas that they're already doing then the data is probably already there, or just find their oldest most miserablist driver and take 20% off of what they say because they always exaggerate how bad it is

[48k]

V8mate said:

I'm creating some analytical tables for a haulage firm. They run 44t 6x4 trucks with three axle trailers at maximum weight.

Google Maps suggests typical journey times for routes, but these are, obviously, for cars. By what factor is a truck typically slower?
1.5x car journey time? 2x?

I've written some software for the transport department of a company who operate artic flatbeds and wagon and drags. The software has a configurable "lorry time multiplier" for estimating routes which takes data from Google maps. Currently its set to 1.4 (ie. whatever real time route calculation Google comes up with, the software adds 40% to the journey time). They haven't changed this value for a while so I assume its working out quite well for them as a rule of thumb.

[V8mate]

48k said:

I've written some software for the transport department of a company who operate artic flatbeds and wagon and drags. The software has a configurable "lorry time multiplier" for estimating routes which takes data from Google maps. Currently its set to 1.4 (ie. whatever real time route calculation Google comes up with, the software adds 40% to the journey time). They haven't changed this value for a while so I assume its working out quite well for them as a rule of thumb.

Cheers. That's a useful perspective.
My initial 1.5 was definitely too generous; checking some 'real life' references today on their vehicle trackers some were barely a few minutes slower than Google on 20-30 mile routes, while others were certainly closer to the 1.4 you suggest.

Cheers

[48k]

V8mate said:

48k said:

I've written some software for the transport department of a company who operate artic flatbeds and wagon and drags. The software has a configurable "lorry time multiplier" for estimating routes which takes data from Google maps. Currently its set to 1.4 (ie. whatever real time route calculation Google comes up with, the software adds 40% to the journey time). They haven't changed this value for a while so I assume its working out quite well for them as a rule of thumb.

Cheers. That's a useful perspective.
My initial 1.5 was definitely too generous; checking some 'real life' references today on their vehicle trackers some were barely a few minutes slower than Google on 20-30 mile routes, while others were certainly closer to the 1.4 you suggest.

Cheers

Yes as you're no doubt discovering, there are a million and one variables but if you're looking for a rule of thumb, my experience would say 1.4 is at the upper end. I think the lowest we've had it set to is 1.2. It's probably over-generous at the moment as the roads have been quieter (ish) in the last 12 months. It also depends where in the country your depot is and what direction most of your routes take - obviously an hour on the motorway gets you further than an hour on B roads. But when you start pulling on that thread and getting more sophisticated you start moving away from the rule of thumb.

[Kiribati268]

Yeah it is just an 'it depends'

1.2-1.4x what google says is about right but again it depends on what the roads are like.

All motorway and you'll lose time hand over fist.

Wide and flowing single carriageways and it's possible to even gain time on google if you keep it hustling along.

Too many times i've been held up by cars on single carriageways, even though our limit is 10mph less.

If my fully laden 26t can take this road at 45-50 then you can damn well do it at 60 in your Citi Go! but no, stuck behind them doing 43mph..