News · 04/07/2019

Acrobat Removals – Sharing the Road

As the driver of a smaller vehicle, it can be easy to become frustrated with larger, slower vehicles. Acrobat Removals normally has a number of trucks on the road at any one time and we take very seriously the training of our drivers and the importance of polite and respectful driving. We all need to get where we’re going in as short a time as possible, so here are some simple tips on sharing the road with trucks that may help you see driving through a truck-drivers eyes.

  • When a truck is slowing down, it’s dangerous to cut into the gap in front of it, because, they require plenty of stopping space; approximately one truck length for every 5 km/h they are travelling. What this means is when a truck is travelling at 60, 80 or 100km/h a lot of space will be required for that truck to pull up in. As you can see, if a car were to cut in front of a truck during braking, it could lead to skidding and the load shifting causing it to roll over.
  • Due to their size, trucks often need to take up 2 lanes to make tight turns. This is the reason for the ‘Do not overtake turning vehicle’signs that you see on the back of trucks. You will often find that a truck turning left at a set of lights will be sitting in the right lane. When this is the case, never sneak up to the lights in the left lane, because if you do you could find your car being crushed by the back wheels of the truck when it turns. Always remember that whenever a truck is indicating to turn, you must stay out of the truck drivers blind spot, because if you can’t see their face in their mirror, they can’t see you.
  • Trucks are much longer than cars. It is for this reason that it will take considerably longer to overtake a truck than if you were just overtaking a car; what this means is when overtaking a truck, your care could be on the wrong side of the road longer than you originally planned, exposing you to the risk of a collision with oncoming traffic! So when overtaking a truck, make sure to leave enough room, signal, move out and pass sensibly. You may have noticed that after overtaking a truck, the truck driver flashed his lights at you. This was simply him letting you know that you now have enough room to return to the correct lane.
  • Remember that even if a truck is speed limited 100km/h, they can often go faster downhill. Truck drivers normally try to drive at the maximum legal speed because they are running to a schedule, and also to reduce traffic congestion. It is important to realise that they naturally slow as they go up a hill, but once they go downhill, they can speed up very quickly.
  • Whenever driving at night and you are approaching a truck travelling in the same direction, avoid temporarily blinding the driver by remembering to change from hi-beam to low-beam before you get too close.

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