graeme01 wrote:NHB_EP3_Chris wrote:Understood, but if there is so little difference between the speed that you want to travel and that of the other truck, what's the point in attempting it? It will shave such a small amount off your journey it's not worth holding everybody else up, is it?
When driving a car, you wouldn't overtake someone only to then pull in front of them and continue 2mph quicker than you were doing before, so why do it in a lorry?
I understand where your coming from but look at this way if your going through the average speed limits on the motorway say at 50 and you get 1 person doing 50 and the person behind him doing 49 and the person behind him doing 48 and so on you wouldn't get anywhere ! So if you catch a slower lorry up because yours is faster or unladen you overtake when possible just the same as you would in a car ( but slower )
You are talking about such small differences though! Something I've noticed over the last 10yrs is that overtaking on British roads doesn't tend to gain you much, unless it's a clear road and you keep the extra speed up for a substantial amount of time. In most cases, on most roads you will have to slow down again before much of an advantage can be gained. For example, I see no end of car drivers overtake in dangerous places, only to reach a set of lights 500yrds down the road and the car they were following pulls up a metre behind them. What's the point in taking the chance of a head-on collision, just to gain a few feet?
The same applies on the motorway to a certain extent, which is why it annoys so many people when they get caught in a huge tailback behind an articulated lorry which is trying to overtake another lorry (esp. uphill!), when there's basically nothing between them in terms of speed. Regardless of some unwritten etiquette between truck drivers, it's just a bit pointless anyway.
Back on the original topic the video the OP posted, all it would have taken to avoid that accident is for the lorry driver to show a tiny bit of consideration and let the car in. Instead, either to prove a point or because he was so hellbent on keeping up with the lorry ahead, he decides to hang the driver out to dry, potentially causing a serious accident. The car driver doesn't cross the solid white line to the left which is actually in compliance with the highway code. Yes they screwed up their position trying to merge in but in most circumstances you'd expect the lorry driver would show the decency to just let them in.