Spare a thought for truckers next time you are on the road - car drivers seldom appreciate the difficulties they face and could do with giving them a little more thought.
At roundabouts, for instance, lorries often need to take up more than one lane in order to make a turn, but car drivers are all too ready to nip into what they think is a gap, until it disappears as the turning truck cuts across the space.
Turning manoeuvres also cause problems when trucks swing out to the right before taking a lefthand corner so it's imperative that car drivers take notice of a truck's indicators to be sure what the driver intends to do.
Car drivers entering motorways often cause problems because they expect trucks to simply move over to allow them in - yet the car driver may be unaware of vehicles travelling alongside the truck which prevent its lane change.
Poor visibility often leads to another sticky situation, when car drivers tuck in so well behind a truck the driver is unaware of the car's presence. The basic rule is that if you can't see the truck's mirrors, the truck driver can't see you and many more trucks these days are displaying warning notices to that effect.
Don't forget, too, that there are speed restrictions placed on lorries. Maximum speeds for large goods vehicles are 60 mph on motorways, 50 mph on dual carriageways, and 40 mph on single carriageway roads.
Most large trucks have limiters to restrict their top speed to 56 mph, so have some sympathy with the trucker stuck in the slow lane or taking a long time to overtake another, even slower, truck.
Maurice Hardy
