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A truckers view, life from 15 feet up

April 6, 2010 By
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Life from 15 feet in the air does offer you a quite different perspective on events going on around you as you drive. What you ‘lower’ dwellers can’t see, I have a perfect view of and can take appropriate action.

I often drive a vehicle up to 45’ long, 8’ wide, and even empty, over 13 tonnes in weight. Loaded, I am often up to 44 tons. I drive on anything up to 6 axels and 16 tyres. I have at least 4 rear facing mirrors and up to 3 more ‘blind-spot’ mirrors. My speed is governed to 90 km/h, but often only 85 km/h.

motor vehicles with permissible maximum weight...
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I occupy a huge amount of the road and I’m usually in the RH lane when making left turns and LH lanes when making right turns. I take an age to reach my ‘heady’ top speed and an age to change lanes and to do anything. I drive what is known as an LGV, a Class 1, an ‘Artic’.

Everything is big and slow in my world. I run on average a 6 litre, 300 bhp diesel engine, I take up to 450 litres of fuel in one go. I am 6’3” tall, and even I have to reach way up over my head to get the key into the ignition from the ground. I am always going to overtake another LGV I have just ‘caught’ on a long stretch of road, and I’m not going to ‘nip past’ then pull in again, it might, in fact, take a mile or so to overtake them. My speed will often reduce markedly on inclines or hills.

I am a professional driver. I have invested a lot of time, and considerable expense to this skill, and, given space, time and consideration from other road users, I can make almost regal progress from one destination to another. Mostly all other road users know and understand the limitations that LGVs face, but they do like to play. Almost everything I do is predictable, all manoeuvres signalled, the speed of the lorry gives a big fat clue as to what is about to happen next, on a motorway, my proximity to another lorry tells you I am about to pull out, but, in spite of all of this, ‘you’ you do like get close, don’t you!!

Nick Ingram

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  • http://www.ArrowLightHaulage.co.uk/ Sarah Arrow

    Well put Nick :)

  • dougjenner

    A really effective way to make the point, Nick. I like this a lot.

  • http://twitter.com/stevenhealey steven healey

    Not me , not close , I follow at a safe distance these days to save fuel

    To me you and your colleagues are Knights of the Road , perhaps not all of you , but most of you do set a good example to us all .

  • http://truckinginenglish.blogspot.com/ Carolyn

    A driving school over here (Ontario) takes all its pupils to a trucking school yard, parks in a blind spot and then sits the pupil in the cab…to see what they can't see. It really gets over the point, and is such a brilliantly simple idea. Pity more don't follow suit.

  • Morag

    Nick, I have a question to ask. When you're on a long shallow hill with two lanes, why do lorries pull out in front of each other, even though they know how long it is going to take to get past? It causes massive vehicle tailbacks and I can't see that it offers the lorry driver much advantage anyway.

  • nickingram

    Hello Morag. I know it's difficult to understand, but here is how it is. Drivers are usually on a long distance drive, under time pressure – not only to make a delivery, but also maximum driver hours. They are driving on cruise control so are not actually operating an accelerator pedal as such at the time. It will be the case that the lorry ahead has been in your vision for some considerable time as you approach it, so, as there is no reason not to, we pull out to overtake. In reality, even with a small speed differential of say 2km/ph, the overtake does not take too long, it just feels like it to much faster vehicles behind. Somebody cleverer than me can tell you if a speed differential is 2km/ph, how long it will take to overtake something 25 meters long – it's not that long, really!

  • BabsSaul

    My dad drove an “artic” for many, many years – he was one of the first to drive a “Scammell Crusader” or something like that – it was a big thing in the yard. And he'd drag us off to the “lorry driver of the year” shenanigans too. Then he had his own lorry – and we'd traipse over to help clean it every Saturday. What this all did was engender respect for lorry driving – it's hard work. So I keep out of your way and try to consider what you're going to do.

    Morag – I figure that lorry drivers who do that have had a bad day and are chuckling all the way up the hill!

  • nickingram

    Babs, not quite chuckling, but certainly indifferent! On the subject Morag raised, let's for a moment consider the environment here. To move 44 tons from still to 85km/ph takes considerable fuel (by comparison with a car). Having to slow down on a Mway or DC, drop a few gears, get back up to speed etc, probably means that somewhere another species has become extinct or another child contracts asthma!

  • BabsSaul

    Noted. But at least some, a few, are being pesky chaps and enjoying a small chortle, surely. You're not all soft and cuddly ;-)

  • Kevin Arrow

    Great post Nick and a good insight into what driving one of these large vehicles is like. p.s you didnt mention the open top cars in the summer though perhaps thats another blog
    rgds
    Kev

  • simon_presentation_skills_UK

    That's a fair point, Nick – I can't remember ever seeing even a big truck take more than four miles to pass another; at 65 MPH that's not really very long. It just feels like it! :)

    On the other hand, the knock on consequences can be huge (particularly for the truck that doesn't signal in time) as the contraction 'shock-wave' of cars hitting their brakes can leave a standing wave of stuttering traffic for a long, long time after the initial incident has passed and been forgotten about but the people involved.

    S

  • http://truckinginenglish.blogspot.com/ Carolyn

    There's also the issue of who is hauling the heavier load, as gravity affects your momentum. Going up even a shallow incline, the heavier guy will continue losing speed, so the lighter chap really needs to get by, or start changing gears, which isn't advisable on grades. Going downhill, the opposite applies, the heavier truck needs to get by or use the brakes too much.

  • neilfairbrother

    Nick

    What's your view of cyclists like? I mean your actual view from the cab as well as opinion?

    Cheers

    Neil

  • nickingram

    LOL @ the f(m)inge benefits of a birds-eye view into open top cars ;-)

  • nickingram

    Cyclists represent the biggest danger and are the biggest danger to LGV drivers. From up there, particularly at night, you simply can't see them. Firstly, they are usually in the same lane as you, and come (naturally) very close to the side of the vehicle, often a metre away I guess. Dark clothing, dark night, poor weather, no lights or reflective items on – simply impossible to see. Often, at traffic lights, they sit in front of the cab completely out of sight to you below the front of the vehicle. Slow off the line a lorry might be, but it can still out accelerate a bicycle! As I said above, LGVs are often in the RH lane to turn left and visa-versa, and few cyclists account for this, irrespective of how many indicator lights you have on. It's hard to say Neil who is at fault, but in a fight, the lorry wins, every time, no contest, so my personal opinion is that cyclists should take far more care in this particular scenario – keep as far away from lorries as you can. I am a keen cyclist myself, so have some appreciation of both view points.

  • philparkin

    Hi Nick – good post – I used to do an awful lot of driving around the UK (not in a truck) and always felt ok about truckers because they were professionals.

    Like anyone who drives a lot (I was a salesman for a computer systems company) I saw my fair share of “incidents” and apart from one or two spectacular tyre blowouts, I don’t remember any of them being caused by anything above the size of a Transit.

    As for getting too close, I don’t think I did. Apart from anything else, if the sun was out, I’d have the top down and didn’t want the sunshine blocked out :-)

    Cheers – Phil

  • Morag

    Thanks for your various contributions on my question, chaps. And Babs, I agree – at least some lorry drivers seem to be doing it just for the annoyance factor.

    Every time I get stuck in a massive line of traffic at the top of the M23 or the M26, I think to myself that some lorry pulling out probably started this chain reaction.

  • suzanstmaur

    I always have to smile at lorry drivers who take great care to slow down and even stop when they see a horse and rider approaching … they sit there quietly until they think the horse has just got past the end of the lorry so it's safe for them to move off, and then, “psssshhhhhhhhhhh!”

    They either let off or apply the airbrakes (don't understand the technicalities) but whatever it is, it makes that most horrendous noise and usually scares the cr*p out of the horse.

    Do us horse riders a favour and wait a bit longer, pleeeeeze….!!

  • nickingram

    LOL @ Suze. There is little or nothing that can be done about the release of air from the braking system, valves is valves and preasure is preasure, what can I say!!

  • nickingram

    LOL @ Suze. There is little or nothing that can be done about the release of air from the braking system, valves is valves and preasure is preasure, what can I say!!

  • http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Write-Winning-Non-Fiction-Publishing/dp/1907498060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267183488&sr=1-1 Suzan St Maur

    All you need to do is wait a bit longer until the horse is further away … the horse might still spook but at least won't airmail itself into the next county. FYI, I quote a poem of mine:

    Ode to Motorists in Country Lanes

    Some motorists are very kind
    To horses somewhat heated
    You slow and stop, with engines off,
    So we can remain seated.

    The trouble is once we have gone
    Beyond your line of vision
    You fire your engine, roaring loud
    With racing-start precision.

    Creating thus some equine fear
    Your clutch engages, wallop!
    Your tyres bite on verge and grit
    Then horse goes into gallop.

    And lorry drivers, you're the best
    At seeing us fast departed.
    If when we're feet from a lorry's rear
    Your airbrakes have just f*rted.

    So though we're grateful for the thought
    From all you careful drivers
    Please wait till we are truly past
    Or you'll need to revive us.

    ( from “The Horse Lover's Joke Book” written by “moi” – http://www.bit.ly/ag2jiH )

  • Nick Ingram

    Point taken Suze. If I ever find myself sharing a lane with a horse, I will, in future, switch off and wait a good time. I'd actually worry more if I found myself on a small road in the first place! You learn quite early on that if the SatNav ever says follow a 'B' road, ignore it – it only means that there is a height/width/weight restriction somwhere ahead!