HGV Manners

Waffler
Waffler Forum Participant Posts: 149
edited May 2016 in Caravan & Motorhome Chat #1

I've been towing for years and have always been very happy mixing with HGV on service areas. We use truck stops for bacon butties also. This year I have noticed more aggressive behaviour from HGV drivers on service areas than before. We have used the M6
from Stoke northwards and M62 this year and found it impossible to stop at most services. We have found HGV drivers sounding their horns and abusing us. Have others noticed this?  Just returned from the southwest and had two nasty experiences on M5. One being
blocked in, along with 5 other units, and one where a female driver abused a minibus driver. In both these cases ther were plenty of spaces. With the two I mentioned I have reported both to their companies.

Comments

  • Toro
    Toro Forum Participant Posts: 48
    edited May 2016 #2
    I regularly use 2 motorway services on the M74. Johnstone Bridge has dedicated areas for (a) trucks, (b) coaches, (c) caravans and motorhomes (d) cars. Some car drivers abuse the designated caravan parking area but I prefer the food menu at Abington where
    caravans have to share the lorry park, but I have not experienced any animosity fron the truck drivers even when such bays are busy. I think abuse should also be reported to the sevices management so that they can sort their problem, such as at Johnstone Bridge
    Services where there is dedicated areas with appropiate signage to direct drivers accordingly.
  • lesbunny
    lesbunny Forum Participant Posts: 133
    edited May 2016 #3

    Stopped lots of times at services from Scotland to Cornwall & never had a problem with any driver. The only issue we have is being herded in with the trucks for an overnight stop when a refrigerated truck pulls alongside & runs his fridge unit all night
    !

  • Randomcamper
    Randomcamper Club Member Posts: 1,062 ✭✭
    500 Likes 1000 Comments
    edited May 2016 #4

    I tow a quite large trailer behing my van regularly and find truck drivers generally to be the more courteous and understanding of your needs driving a large/long/heavy/poor vision vehicle usually being willing to flash you in, make room for you to pull
    out, make wider turns etc.

    I've not had any bad experiences in service areas......

    My only gripe is logging lorries in the Highlands who corner at speeds totally beyond what they can stop at if they meet you coming....!

  • Waffler
    Waffler Forum Participant Posts: 149
    edited May 2016 #5

    Pleasing to hear that my experiences this year are not typical. I have had responses from the 2 companies I contacted. Both apologetic and dealt with.

  • Wildwood
    Wildwood Club Member Posts: 3,582
    1000 Comments 250 Likes Photogenic
    edited May 2016 #6

    We have never had any problem of that type but if you do report the driver as suggested. Like all drivers there are good and bad lorry drivers as there are caravan and motorhome ones.

  • johndailey
    johndailey Forum Participant Posts: 520
    100 Comments
    edited May 2016 #7

    Stopped lots of times at services from Scotland to Cornwall & never had a problem with any driver. The only issue we have is being herded in with the trucks for an overnight stop when a refrigerated truck pulls alongside & runs his fridge unit all night
    !

    You may already know this Les but refrigerated vehicles need to keep thier load at least minus 17 degrees otherwise the load can be rejected by the customer who often check the product temperature.

    Write your comments here...

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
    1000 Comments
    edited May 2016 #8

    I think we all know they need to keep the fridge units running all night but preferably not next door to me!!  No doubt it would be too much for them to have a separate area?  Thinking of other Lorry drivers deprived of sleep worries me, but perhaps the all have ear plugs?  One reason I haven't used motorway stops overnight for many years.

  • crannman
    crannman Forum Participant Posts: 101
    First Comment
    edited May 2016 #9

    I think we all know they need to keep the fridge units running all night but preferably not next door to me!!  No doubt it would be too much for them to have a separate area?  Thinking of other Lorry drivers deprived of sleep worries me, but perhaps the
    all have ear plugs?  One reason I haven't used motorway stops overnight for many years.

    Write your comments here...im a hgv driver and yes i do pull a fridge unit ours run at differant temps from +1 down to -30 depending on the load it would be nice if there was a fridge only area at services but as we all know there is not enough room