Hello, I'm John Covington, and this is my view of the world from my cab, and you’re going to be my guest for the next few minutes, so just sit there and belt up!  Safety wise that is, of course.

Yes, I know they can be a seeming nuisance.  You want to get on and there you are stuck behind a 40-tonner doing less than 50 miles an hour.  We’ve all been there, but have you ever been with a driver up there in the cab?  Have you seen things from the truck driver’s perspective, which is a very different perspective than that of being in a car?

I’m fortunate.  I’ve had the very real pleasure of driving these things for the last 30-odd years, albeit mainly as a weekend hobby, so come and join me now for a view from the cab of my 44-tonne Renault 420 Horse 12-speed Auto.  You can find me in this most weekends, hauling out of Hull Docks carrying the large paper reels to feed the printing presses that produce our magazines and newspapers. Typically we’ll be weighing in at around 43 tonnes gross weight and measuring 54 feet long.




Anyway, welcome on board!  We’ll just set the A/C, select the required radio station and make sure the Traffic feature is set to the on position so we can keep up to date with the situation out on the road.  Now we fire up the beast and we’re away.

Both stacks blowing flame, smoke black as coal, and the hammer’s down… ah! ...the Americans and their truck folklore.  Pity it’s not like that over here in the UK, the folklore that is, not the smoke.  Even on the continent they view trucks and truckers, not just with benevolence, but with real respect.  After all, this isn’t a vehicle you can just chuck into a street parking space before popping into the shop, or zip up and down any street to avoid the traffic queues.  This is a gargantuan machine that requires precision and a lot of thought to be able to get anywhere effectively.  Even just turning left can be a major procedure, and we’re still going forwards!

In other countries people seem to appreciate the value of the truck in modern life and the job that the heavy goods vehicle driver’s do.  As a result they take trucks in their stride without getting up tight.  They’re just part of the road scene, and actually an important one.

Each year 370 million tonnes of imports/exports worth £350 billion are moved within the UK (6 tonnes/£6,000 worth per person).

For every member of the UK population, 100 kilograms of materials are moved 100 miles every day [Engineering Council, A Vision for Transport 2020 (1997)].

The road haulage industry carries some 92% of all domestic freight, whereas rail accounts for only about 6%!

So, whether we like them or not, they are doing a great job in maintaining our way of life.  Personally, I love them, and I think some of the heavies look really cool, particularly with the light sets and air horns. Ever since I was a boy, playing with my Dinky Foden 8-wheeler or artic car transporter, long before Dinky meant Double Income No Kids Yet, I wanted to drive one.  I even used to turn the garden wheelbarrow over on its side so I could sit on an old box and use the wheel as if it were the steering wheel on a large truck.  I drove many happy miles in my grandmothers back garden in that way!

Later in life, and much to my ex-wife’s consternation, I eventually achieved my ambition by doing a complete HGV 1 course during three weeks of my annual holiday, and at a time whilst working in the computer industry designing turnkey systems.  She mightn’t have been that happy about it, but I was ecstatic.  It was a wonderful experience, and to me, a great holiday!

The investment is still with me all this time later and still giving great pleasure whilst helping to pay the bills.  A double whammy, in effect.




The engine is running sweetly, and air gauges for the braking system are showing that we are up to pressure, quick check around the mirrors whilst engaging the gear, and we’re off.

The first thing you’d notice from within the cab is the quietness; better than many cars in fact.  We have a great sound system on board as well.  Very important!  As you look into the mirrors you’ll be struck by the rear- view. It is very limited.  From a car driver’s perspective, if you can’t see my mirrors, then I can’t see you.  It’s very simple.  There’s 45-feet of trailer behind my cab to shut down or severely restrict my rearward vision, depending upon the alignment of the whole vehicle.  There are real blind spots at different times as well, so be warned.  Please remember this for your safety - and mine!

However, with a height of eye around 9-feet from the road surface, the view in the forward direction is exceptional.  I don’t care how much money any individual out there may have, how expensive is their car, as truck driver’s, we don’t practice any discrimination.  We look down on all!  It really is the best view on the road, of the road.

Everyone who comes out with me for a trip always comments on this and tends to be surprised what a panoramic view you get of what’s going on down there, and around us on the road.  It’s almost like a bird’s eye view of proceedings.  I see mobilers’ meanderings, parked up philanderings, suicidal slaloms, near misses, late turn offs, undertaking, overtaking, tailgaters with their ‘invisible towropes’ and drivers facing their passengers, these being the lethal ‘leftcheck’ talkers!  By the way, they all say the same thing, my passengers that is – it’s a real eye opener, and it is!

Now, before you start yelling at me, I know there are some pretty awful, inconsiderate and dysfunctional truckers out there, as indeed there are car drivers.  Every classification of vehicle driver has them in their midst, as that is just a fact of life.  However, we’ll leave them for a later edition in this series.




There’s a lot of power under the bonnet of this vehicle (well actually, and to be more precise, it’s more under your bum), but more particularly, it’s the enormous amount of torque.  Nearly 2000nm from the 12-litre turbo diesel, but it purrs like a pussycat, and the 12-speed double clutch gearbox, with automatic main clutch, is a real beauty.

This is called a Direct Shift Gearbox, and it’s like an automatic gearbox, but in reality it’s a manual without a clutch pedal.  If you are into this sort of technical stuff, here’s some anorak information for you.

The Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG), also known as the double-clutch gearbox, is a transmission system that was originally developed by Audi and Volkswagen.

What makes it special is that it can change gears faster than any other geared transmission. The DSG can be shifted either manually or used in automatic mode.

It delivers more power and better control than a traditional automatic transmission, and with faster performance than a manual transmission.

It can perform matched-rev (or double-de-clutch) downshifts.  When the driver downshifts, the DSG disengages the clutch, shifts to neutral, and re-engages the clutch. It calculates what the engine RPM will be in the next-lowest gear, based on the current road speed, and so revs the engine (and since the clutch is engaged) it spins up the transmission to that speed, disengages the clutch, shifts into the lower gear, and re-engages the clutch, all to make for a seamless gear change.  Wonderful.  Gone are the days of transmission delay and lag.

Basically, this partially automated system is able to do what we old truckers were brought up to do years ago on the old 6, 8 and 16-speed crash boxes (For you younger driver, that means no synchromesh), and by the way, it does it faultlessly.




Whilst the legal top speed for this vehicle on a motorway is 60mph, most of us have limiters on the engine, which restricts the top speed of the vehicle to 56, and that’s if we’re lucky!  This vehicle I am driving is limited to 85 kph, which is about 52-ish.  This can be a real pain at times, but the big boss at the firm has a thing about fuel saving!  Mind you, with a bill exceeding £3.5 million a year, perhaps he has a right to be concerned.

On dual carriageways we’re down to 50, and seemingly not known to many car drivers, our maximum legal speed on single carriageway roads is a mind numbing, and other road-user frustrating, 40mph.  Yes, 40mph, regardless of what the limit above 30mph applies to a car driver.  That is about the same as the top speed of a modern farm tractor!

This is an old out-of-date, needs-to-be-reviewed and upgraded, leftover from a bygone age.  I can remember 8-wheelers being restricted to 20mph when I was a kid, and no, before you say it, I don’t remember steam trucks!  With all-round vented disc brakes, on both tractor and trailer, plus powerful exhaust brakes and engine retarders, 40mph is a nonsense.  Do us a favour, raise it with your MP, as it will need parliament to change things.

Most of us truckers try to keep the traffic flowing by pushing along at just under 50.  Traffic cops will usually ignore us, or give a warning, until we pass the magic half-ton barrier.  However, we are risking points on our licences and for no other reason.  Please bear this in mind next time you’re behind one of us.  If we just bimbled along at the legal speed we could earn more, because we are paid by the hour, but your frustration levels would be bubbling over.

As I said in the beginning, I am fortunate enough, infact I feel priviliged, to be able to drive these big rigs, more or less as a hobby, and that's what it is to me really. I do it for the love of the job, working weekends just to be in this awesome beast. It’s like having a big toy to play with. Lovely. But, as a well-trained high performance car driver and coach, as well as being an experienced trucker, I can see clearly see the issues that each has with the other. There are two sides to this story. I have always maintained that it would do every car driver, and motorcyclist, the world of good to have the experience a ride in the cab of an big truck. It would broaden driver awareness and develop an understanding of the needs of those handling these big vehicles. If that were to happen, I know there would be far fewer conflict situations between us, and dare I say, fewer accidents as well.

I am going to leave you a while now, but I will be back in the next edition to take you even further down my roads. I'll be sharing a few insights that you may find really quite amazing.

So, until then, stay safe out there.