Hi and welcome back,

I trust you enjoyed your first trip with me. It was good to have you along.  So, climb aboard, strap in and we’ll be off.

As we pull away I should perhaps point out that whilst your seat may be extremely comfortable, with pull down and adjustable arm rests, mine has air suspension, electric heating and more adjustment than you could shake a stick at; much of it electric. Bostrom originally developed the idea and it raised drivers (quite literally) from just being a machine operator, but not catered for, to someone who was regarded on a more professional level.  It recognised the long hours in the saddle and was the beginning of a new approach in design and layout applied to large goods vehicles, and so making them more driver, as well as Operator, friendly.

A driver, as you know well from your own experience, needs a comfortable, ergonomically friendly environment in which to operate efficiently.  Now we have one, but it wasn’t like that when I started trucking.  In those days you could see the road passing underneath you where the gear lever went down through the floor, doors were ill fitting and the noise in the cab was dreadful.  Radios were not fitted, and even if they were, you would never have heard them!  Power steering came in the form of a hearty breakfast and big arms.  Oh how things have changed.

The Scandinavians started the ball rolling with their Volvo’s and Scania’s, as these were at the forefront of truck evolution that came in over thirty years ago.  I couldn’t believe the difference when I climbed into my first Volvo F86. I can still remember the number plate,  JRT 12K, that’s the sort of impact it had on me.

Eight speed gearbox, four over four (four gear pattern then flick switch and back to first gear for the next four higher gears) with syncromesh and overdrive on all gears.  This was unheard of back then to have sixteen smooth changing gears.  Previously, all my trucks had crash boxes and that’s where you had to master double-declutching and rev match gear-changing, and had to be as good at it as  any race driver - and it had a radio, which you could hear,  and wait for it, power steering too!  It was an absolute joy to drive and to be in.

Anyway, I reminisce, but now we take all these things for granted. God bless evolution!

So, in this edition of View From the Cab I would like to talk to you about some key areas for consideration, of which there are five:

Everyone who comes trucking with me says this is an area that makes the biggest impact on them, so we’ll start here.

What regularly happens, 95% of the time, is that folk bimble, yes bimble, down the slip road, the so-called ‘acceleration’ lane, and arrive at the point of merging with the main carriageway going slower than the traffic using lane 1, or they arrive alongside us, matching our speed perfectly, but actually right alongside, as in parallel driving.  At this point the driver of that vehicle tends firstly to look in their offside mirror, before suddenly realising that there’s this great big thing immediately next to them.

I’ve given up braking here, and although the reasons are obvious, I will explain them to you anyway.  The usual driver behaviour at this point is to brake, but if I am braking also, we end up both slowing down together, and now we’ve got a worsening situation, which has an adverse effect upon drivers coming along behind.  Okay, what about pulling out to the middle lane and letting the car come in to lane-one?  Some, but not many truckers, still do, and misguidedly so. Why? Well, for one it may not be possible, because of traffic flow conditions, and mainly because at this time, and only this time, the car driver finds a hitherto underused pedal situated to the right of the foot brake.  They depress it with seeming ease, and fly off into the distance, leaving me effectively reducing the motorway to a single lane.  It’s like a moving roadblock. I have all the acceleration of a hyperactive slug and now I have a real job getting back in!  You’ve seen in part-1 of this series the view I have in my left hand mirror.

Few motorists join fast flows effectively.  It’s a joy, albeit infrequent, to see it done right.  Here’s how.

Onto the slip road and right-check asap.  That means move your head to the right and observe traffic flow well before you get toward the tapering end of the slip lane, this being your joining point.  Decide upon only one of two things now. Infront or behind?  That’s it, one out of two – easy, and it means you have to plan whether to slot in ahead or behind any vehicle currently on the main carriageway that is going to be arriving there at about the same time.

Right foot.  Push it down and accelerate to at least match the speed of traffic flow if going in behind.  Be going faster (more right foot) if heading to move in ahead.

Check to the right again.  It’s that blind spot we should all check before pulling off from a standstill, but few do.  It’s a lifesaver and should be used all the time, then the mirrors.  Everything Okay?  Right, think Zipper.

Zipper?  Yes, think zipper. The Germans do it and it’s the most effective way to think about it.  Slot in like the interlocking teeth of a zip fastener coming together, and you’re in!  No sweat.

Now give yourself time to look around, adjust to the speed of travel and check relative closing speeds of vehicles behind and in front of you.  Yes, in front as well.  No point in moving out only to be surprised by the vehicle ahead doing the same.  It’s obvious when you get used to checking for relative speeds and marks the difference between effective and non-effective drivers.  Evolved or non-evolved.

So to recap – Right-check, Right-foot, Right-check and Zipper.  That’s all there is to making an effective join, time after time.  The only caveat: Don’t bunch.  Most do.  If you bunch, how are you gonna zip.  Also, if there’s a problem, you’re in the pooh if you are driving too close at speed.  It happens all the time, especially at junctions.  Listen to the traffic news on your radio.  It’s going on everyday.

If you are coming down a slip road to join a motorway or dual carriageway, and I am cruising by at the bottom, I am neither going to slow, nor am I going to change lanes, so you are going to have to sort yourself out, because actually, you getting into lane-one isn’t my problem.

That covers joining motorways, but now for something else, and this is actually more serious.




Please, please, please don’t drop into my lane close in front of me before you move off the motorway onto the outgoing slip road?  It could be suicidal.

A pal of mine is having to live with the knowledge that he was involved in the deaths of three unthinking motorists who jumped in front of his truck, one after the other, just as someone else decided to have a prang slightly further on ahead of another truck, which moments before was safely ahead of him.  The result was they all got squashed by 42-tonnes between the two.

This is a scenario that is really very much of concern to many of us drivers, and it happens all the time, not the collision, but the closing down of our safe following distance. If we back off suddenly to open the gap it has the effect of setting off a stampede from behind, other vehicles swinging out to get past – trucks, cars, the lot, because they can not see what I am dealing with ahead of me.  I had a mini overtake me the other day, as I was passing the bottom of an outgoing slip road, only to have the driver suddenly swerve into my path and slam on the brakes to an almost stop!  42-tonnes against a Mini?  Luckily I had enough wits about me to avoid a catastrophe, and one that would have been caused by someone not thinking at the time they had just about missed their exit.  Now that is suicide, and if there’s one thing I would beg you not to do, it’s that.  Work to reduce bunching the traffic and try to keep your spatial integrity intact. You should aim to leave at least an extra 100-feet, or 30-metres, behind as you move to the left to allow a loaded truck greater braking distance and to avoid joining the bugs on his bumper!

In other words, make sure you’ve got room in front and behind when joining or leaving fast flow road systems.  Also, if you come down the slip road in a bunch, how you gonna fit in, to Zipper effectively?  Also, if you leave in a bunch, what happens to the minimum 2-second spacing.  Give yourself space to see and to react effectively.

Relative speeds are minimal, actual speeds at these times are fifteen to twenty times our evolutionary walking pace, the speed we are designed to think at.

We all need room to think and react.  As Jean-Luc would say, “make it so!”

Thanks for bearing with me.  If it sounded like a rant it’s not meant to be.  Motorway driving is an area in which few drivers have ever been trained to deal with.  Now that is criminal.  It’s not the driver’s fault, sadly it’s a lacking in the system, but you can do much for yourselves individually and personally, so as to be more effective out there, and to be more effective a session with Ride Drive could be one of your best investments, that I promise you.

That’s all we have time for this month, but before the next edition I’ll be looking for you zippering effectively.  I’ll know whether you’re on the ball when I see you looking at me as you start to come down the slip road, as I will be looking over in the same manner to see who’s there and who’s going where.

See you next time.