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FIDDLING WHILE DETR SLEEPS
There now follows a message to the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions: "Is anybody awake in there?" This week's lead story finally exposes what Commercial Motor has been saying about speed limiters since 1 991 . It's easy to fiddle with one and without any regular mandatory physical check to ensure it's working no one's going to be deterred from trying to over-ride one. But why listen to a "Trade" magazine? What do we know about anything? Enough to publish a four-page "How to" supplement with instructions on ways to beat the limiter on top-selling trucks. Put that in CM and we'd have our biggest selling issue of the year! At least trade magazines live in the real world. But then all the DETR has to do is talk to operators and drivers, just like CM, to find out what goes on. What's staggering is that it's taken all this time for a Traffic Commissioner to say publicly what the industry's known all along. Drive along a motorway at 56mph and see what passes you. New R and 5-plate trucks all fully laden, that's what. So how do they do that? And given that drivers sit in a truck for 12 hours a day, they will start fiddling with things "just just to see what happens". So
if pumping a throttle pedal, twiddling an ignition switch, tinkering with an air-line or pulling fuses beats the limiter, it's only natural that you'd want to tell your mates. The concept of controlling HGV by speed limiters was flawed from the start not least as it was considered to be an end, rather than the means to an end. Take our word for it—it'll take a lot more than limiters to stop HGVs speeding.