Lower the speed limit for trucks

Presuming you were in a 110km doing 97kph zone then you are the pest causing the problems.
Cheers

Id actually like to see the limit for them brought into line with LVs 110

the reason being contrary to popular belief in my experience truckies dont speed and do sit on 100kph or thereabouts

this means on popular truck routes you can find yourself continually overtaking trucks which can be hazardous especially for those of us driving normally aspirated diesels

on the flip side it would mean more trucks overtaking vehicles doing under the limit which as youve seen can also be hazardous......

I dunno moybe more rail?

And ban them from the outside lane in two or more lanes, unless passing.

Skull

Your post will get a lot of comments and discussion. Posts of this nature always do.

I do not think that lowering the speed limits for trucks is not the answer. Trucks are generally not the problem in the NT. They can be difficult to pass because of the length (road trains) but if you talk to them on the UHF they are generally very considerate and courteous and will help you pass.

The biggest problem we have is caravans sitting at unreasonably slow speeds. I have been stuck in the long line behind a caravan driver doing 50 km/h, who refused to have consideration for other road users. Often they are driven by people who spend all their time driving in the city and have limited experience in driving on highways. It is frustrating getting stuck behind someone like this but we do have to try and exercise patience.

If all traffic is travelling at approximately the same speed there is less overtaking and that is safer. There are new overtaking lanes being constructed on the Stuart Highway and they also help.

You also point out that you were overtaken when you were travelling at 97 km/h. Trucks are speed limited at just over 100 km/h. If you had upped your speed slightly there would not have been any reason for the truck to overtake you.

G'day Skull, I'm sure your post will elicit many & varied responses. I shall watch it with interest. I live close to & travel frequently on the 4 lane divided Hume in NSW,
& truck accidents are common. So too are deaths sadly. Many of the fatalaties are
single truck accidents at high speed..& my take on it is.."driver asleep on Cruise Control". I'm not sure a 20 kph drop in speed will make much difference to such cases. A couple of recent deaths have been rear end shunts at night, & I suggest the
same issues are involved. This, of course is a workload /technology issue & I don't wish to divert from your speed limit theory....cheers...oldbaz.

Just my two cents worth, just looked it up again to double check before I said anything but over in the land of the long white cloud the speed limit for trucks is 90 and the same goes for light vehicles towing trailers, how many follow this is another story I would say.
Pete

Firstly, you have publicly attacked the caravan driver for doing 70 (their choice for that speed), would 80kph be much different?? that's what speed you want trucks to do.
That truck was aiming for 100 ks since the moment he turned out in front of you, up hill is difficult without momentum, you said yourself with the help of gravity he got up to speed and sat behind you for ages, WOW that must've been some down hill!!, once he/she passed what happened then?
1500 ks in 3 weeks, at what ever speed you choose, the equivalent of a day and a half for a typical interstate driver, yet slap every truck with an 80kph speed limit for convenience for you when it come to overtake, YEAH RIGHT, good idea, many you said many wouldn't even overtake a van at 70, what are they gunna do with a B double or even a triple road train at 80?
I might come to your place of work, have no idea on how or what you even do, make some sort of long lasting idiotic suggestions, based on some loose statistics I might have read some where (with out any sort of reference),add some "how many lives lost" dialogue, then suggest you to do the same level of work but at 80% speed, then walk out feeling like I've made the world a better place, giving my self back slaps.
If you haven't worked it out yet, yes I am a truck driver, I'm no longer doing interstate, I'm definitely not going to be draw into, the truck verse cars/caravans/motorcycles/cyclist debate, complete waste of my time, I do however have a clear understanding of both the work environment and the holiday environment being in the exact same place and that is the highway, there will never be a happy medium.

Shane

I have travelled right around Australia on gravel and bitumen roads. Towing a 22ft caravan, generally at around 90kph on bitumen and anything from 10 to 60kph on gravel. However, I must speak up in favour of the truck drivers on both bitumen and gravel roads. I carry a UHF radio in the car and whenever I see a truck or road train catching up with me in the distance, I get him on UHF and ask him if he wants to pass me and if he wants me to slow down or pull over for him (after all he has some 35-50 tonnes behind him) I have never had a negative response from truckies and most appreciate the call. I also do the same when I start to get a line of traffic (cars) behind me, I just pull over, where I can, and let them all pass. This way I conserve my fuel consumption (90 kph) and keep the peace with other road users. I must admit that sometimes I do turn the UHF radio down or off, some of the chit chat language between truckies is a bit foul, mainly towards populated areas. Just my 2 bobs worth, Cheers

Bored hey? Doing a bit of fishing?

Skull,

Think your heart's in the right place, but don't think lowering truck's limit by 20 clicks will do much, except make for heaps of unhappy truckies, and lots more impatient car drivers.

Trucks need plenty of inertia to ascend hills and "slight rises". At 80 kms, every B double, and B triple(they're coming to a highway near you soon!), will be "towing" a line of traffic up every rise. As for old mate overtaking you @ 97 clicks, if you weren't going to do 100, then it would have been common courtesy, to back off as soon as he pulled out to pass. For him, the lower speed would make a big difference to his arrival time, over say 600-800 kms.

Not to sure where you picked your first 2 statements? Would have thought the pastoral and mining industries would have higher fatalities? And the second one, Skull, for the kilometres and trucks on road, would have thought truck fatalities would be well below national level. Trucks, as a group, are doing millions of clicks every year, whereas Joe Public might be lucky to average 20K kms/year.

In Qld, road trains are limited to 90 clicks, and other configurations, 100 km. In NT, limit is 100. Can tell you now, if one had to drive a road train @ 80 km/h from Dubbo to Darwin, then there'd be drivers dying of boredom, before they even got to Charleville.

As for the Hume, Newell and Bruce highways, it's a jungle out there. Recent 4Corners program highlighted some real problems. Often the overworked truckie is the one to get shafted, while the hierarchy seem to slip under the radar, and keep trading.

Some driver's attitudes, both heavy and light vehicles, will have to change before there's harmony on the highways,

Bob.

Skull
You list a number of claims under your Why line
Do you have the stats to back those claims up?
I hear lots of conflicting stories of accidents caused by heavy vehicles per distance travelled where trucks are over or under represented. I don't know who to believe unless I see the reference.

As stated 1500km in 3 weeks is hardly a great deal of driving, I've averaged 800km per week for 20+ years and driving "is not part of my job"

Over the Xmas period I agree it's horribly frustrating, the worst problem by far are people who don't regularly drive on highways being on highways, or people on holidays with their "brain on holidays when driving".
Limiting trucks to 80 or 90 might work well for you on multi lane highways or exceptionally quiet rural roads, but would only INCREASE the number of over taking manoeuvres required by motorists on most rural highways.
Could you imagine being stuck in a Congo line behind a single truck doing 80 with the half dozen caravans which would quickly accumulate behind it on the something like the Newell Highway? The caravans would never over take the truck

In the case of the truck tailgating you at 97, had you thought of just pulling off the road and letting him go, clearly he wanted to travel faster then you (albeit only by 3km/hr)?

I find professional truck drivers the least of my worries on the open road

Reducing the speed limit for trucks further than it already is will be pointess and unhelpfull.

Not so long ago, NSW had a blanket speed restriction on all pasenger vehicles towing trailers of any size of 80Kmh.

This was recognised as rediculous and unhelpfull and common sence prevailed....but it took national harmonisation of road rules to do it.

One of the biggest traffic hazards, and it applies to all types of traffic situations is having vehicles of significantly differeing speeds interacting.

It matters little if it is a suburban roundabout or an open highway....good road design and traffic planning relies on having as many vehicles as possible traveling that road moving at a range of similar speeds.

Introduce any vehicle to that road...any road ..... that travels at a significantly differing speed and you introduce a hazard.


There is also an issue with trucks and inerta, road design and hills.
most highway roads are designed within certain maximum gradients.

So if you have a resposible truckie running at or around the 100KMH speed limit, he/she will crest most highway hills in top gear with only modest speed reduction.

Once you reduce the speed that vehicle travels at, the truck will have insufficent inertia and be in the wrong rev range to carry over those hills in top gear.

Once the truckie starts down shifting and not carrying speed over the hill, the vehicle speed will drop further.
The result is the truckie dragging over the hill and even less speed going over that hill and requiring betwen 8 and 12 gear shifts to do it.

So the truck that may at a 100Kmh nominal speed crest a maximum spec highway hill at 90KMH.....if restricted to a cruise speed of 80KMh may crest that hill at 60Kmh.

So as well as introducing a basic speed diference of 20Kmh, there will be a hill crest difference of as much as 40Kmh.

So a car traveling light and fast over a road with some twists and crest may be closing on an unseen truck at 40Kmh over a crest.

Now another real situation.
Not long ago I was traveling south Brisbane- tweed....I encountered the 2 lane each way (minimum)section of highway backed up and crawling for mile after mile...I was stuck in this 20Kmh stop start highway traffic or around an hour.....the cause a crane traveling in the left had lane..AND pulling off into the hard sholder where he could..doing 70 to 80Kmh......I heard the reason on Chn 40 and I saw said crane pull of the exit myself

No we do not need to be reducing the speed limit for trucks.

Other issues are other issues and reducing the speed of the trucks will not solve them.

cheers

Skull,
You just don't seem to get it old fella!
Have a look at what people have posted here and learn from it.
I put a article on this forum last year about the road trains using the Arnhem Highway it the northern teritory and how cars were pulling out of the Adelaide River Jumping Crocodiles area in front of myself and others. You criticised that statement saying that we should do this and that and should be going slower and whatever. I really do think you should have a good hard look at what you are saying and to whom you are pointing the finger at!
Maybe you should try and stick to a field you know more about.
What sort of person would sit on 97kph with a truck up his arse and then have the indecency to record it on video.
I presume you know that most speedos show a speed lower than what they are actually doing.
200,000km per year a lot of truckies do, compare that with the average car at 20,00km.
Feel free to criticise me again but look in the mirror first.

100kph seems a reasonable compromise in most circumstances to me. Can't say I'd be happy to get stuck behind a semi travelling a country road or two lane highway at 80. I haven't read any reports into heavy vehicle crashes but ignoring the rare cowboy effect, anecdotally it seems fatigue and drugs (and possibly vehicle road worthiness) are bigger issues.

Having trucks limited to 90 KPH would solve a lot of problems; cars towing vans too. It is much easier, and safer, to overtake a vehicle doing 90 in a 100/110 zone. Better, divided, multilane roads would be the best solution to slow vehicles holding up those who want to travel faster. A 90k limit on trucks might also prompt trucking companies to rethink how they treat their drivers.

Iza

Bob, Mark,

The stats are out there but I took mine from the Australian Transport Council "National Road Safety Strategy 2011 - 2020."

To quote them, heavy vehicles make up 3 per cent of vehicles on the road but account for 8 percent of the km travelled. They are involved in 18 per cent of fatal accidents.

In regard to the heavy vehicle industry being the most dangerous, this is very widely reported. Berces A "improving road safety by improving truck visibility" is one.

The same paper says that 74 per cent of heavy vehicle collisions occur in the 90 km or higher speed zones. I didn't use this as it is overseas data but assuming it translates to Australia, lowering the limit looks very attractive.

Skull

Can anyone let me know where the switch is on many a Grey Nomad vehicle that suddenly switches the vehicle from a 90kmh (at best) towing speed on a single lane each way road to a 110kmh towing speed when said vehicle is driving on an overtaking lane?
And why isn't this switch left in the ON mode at all times?
Apologies to any GN's that don't have this switch........

Barry.

How many drivers know how accurate their speedo is?
I'd suggest 99% of truckies do. Maybe 5-10% of car drivers do.
My wife's Tiguan underreads by 8% (all VWs have this much error) - so when a truck is up your clacker at 97kph on the speedo, you might only be doing 90 kph!

I have never driven a truck, but I have huge respect for truckies and their skills. Most truckies signal to me when it's safe for me to overtake...its nice to do the same for them - they won't trust your signal but at least you've indicated that you're aware and not just daydreaming. And if they are pulling out to overtake, I slow down until they are clear and a quick flash of the headlights to let them know they are past.

It would be good if someone published a book of good highway etiquette.

Anyway, this thread makes a change from cars vs cyclists vs pedestrians......etc

Maybe all should have a look at this.

Skull,
I don't believe you would let that truck sit out there for so long before you slowed to let him pass.

Roadtrain incident out of Dalby

Well congrats Skull,at least you have liven up the forum. I don't agree as nothing worse then trying to pass a semi sitting on 80 if you are towing a boat or light /med trailer. Interesting when theirs and accident its the truckies are the first ones to stop.
Cheers Pete

Having recently driven the Dukes Hwy to Melbourne for the first time in many years, I was surprised how much safer it is now, with all the overtaking lanes almost all the way along the most notorious sections.

This is what we need on all our hwys, along with the ok to drive 10km faster than the posted limit when overtaking at these points.

I feel there are 3 main factors are the cause of most issues on our highways, fatigue, excessive speed, and impatience.
In a lot of cases inconsideration and road rage of some drivers on the roads plays a part in causing impatience and, . . . well rage ! This seems to result in risks being taken by some at times.
This will be an issue with both truck and general drivers on the roads.

Trucks should be driving the same speed as they are set now, most will do 105 if they can anyway.
I believe if they can do the limit, let them, and 105 is close enough to 110.

Needs to be more enforcement of current laws to combat the excessive speeders and impatient acts on the roads, not changes or new ones that won't be enforced enough too.

Of course if GOVCO lowered speed limits for trucks to 80, you can bet they'd be out there enforcing that !! Caa-chiinnngg !

Wow this is a long thread with a lot of different views.

The way I see it, everyone has a right to use the roads, we are all equal. Consideration and tolerance is the key in my opinion.

Be Considerate
Truckies and couriers etc are working and can be on very tight schedules and as such consideration should be given to them, most of us who travel these highways are on holidays and have plenty of time.
The guy driving truck in front of you may be going as fast as he can and he will no doubt let you pass when he feels there is enough room and it's safe to do so. The person towing the van in front of you may not be all that experienced so give them some room.

Be a bit more tolerant
If you are being held up by a truck or van just chill, it's not the end of the world. it will only be for a short time, you will either be able to pass at some stage further along the road. If you can't then pull over and have a cuppa or look at the scenery, Give them enough time to get ahead of you.

Graeme