BEATING THE LIMITER
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• There's a nasty buzz in the air surrounding the industry — the imminent arrival of the road speed limiter.
If this does ever come to pass, it will be an unmitigated disaster. It will turn an already often frustrating job into something approaching complete lunacy. To say that it may cause bunching is an understatement; it will result in long lines of trucks all doing the same speed but still trying to pass each other. . . chaos.
An alternative has to be found. Can you imagine how things would be if cars were governed to 70mph? Much as we all claim to be the example setters on British roads, the line between the HGV driver and the car driver is not as thick as we think, and it's getting thinner.
Far be it from me to lay down the law, I implore my colleagues to exercise greater self discipline and transport managers to keep a tighter control on speeding drivers — 60mph is more than fast enough. In fact, British drivers should spare a thought for their Continental counterparts, eg Italy: 80Iun/h (50mph) rigidly enforced with enormous fines; Germany: also 80km/h, but with a 5-10krn/h "cherry green" area, but nonetheless rigidly enforced.
Perhaps the answer is to use the tachograph as admissible evidence as the rest of Europe does. I firmly believe this acts as a significant deterrent. Simon Bowdrey,
Farnham, Surrey.