[poised2drive]

I might have to disagree with the OP- and with the added hindsight of driving about 40k km on highways in just last 10 to 12 months , I have to say :

1. The majority of the Truck/lorry drivers are patient and disciplined ( barring the handful of oddities amongst them)

The reason being that many truck drivers especially in India work as Drivers' Assistants ( Cleaners) for a couple of years before getting their hands on those beasts and they learn from their gurus about the importance of those 2 traits - discipline and patience and how complicated and hassle filled their life becomes if they dont practise it.

It is hard to understand why and how comparably lesser number of fatalities occur if one ever watches how bikers ( and even cars ) drive around those trucks in cities unless we take into consideration the fact those truckers bear all the shenanigans of 2/4 wheelers. ( the no. of people dying in motor accidents is high in India, but that number would have been much greater if the truckers/lorry drivers behaved like the car/bike drivers)

2. Majority of the drivers of 2/4 wheelers are undisciplined and lack common sense. They do not have the patience nor are they disciplined and everyone wants to get away first.

Its not just because their lives don't depend on it, but the ubiquitous utter lack of civic rules is just a norm.


And the only reason why we see the traffic building upon a highway due to 2 speeding trucks is that is the only time we see that trucks, amongst the other million trucks we overtook , is because other million trucks give way to us and don't bother us.

If someone wants a perspective, in between Point A and point B
take a note of all the trucks you overtake and all the trucks that obstruct you or drive carelessly.. ( and trust me, the ratio will be overwhelmingly biased towards one number)

3. We cannot expect the lorries to be on the left side of the road due to the fact ( as many bhpians stated) to avoid the insane 2 bikers who come on road with death wishes.

[sgm]

Originally Posted by Early_Adopter

Yesterday, I was driving on a 2 x 2 Lane National Highway between Hyderabad and Vijayawada and came up with this interesting observation.


I look forward to hearing diverse views from the others.

Cheers

I have a slightly different view. I feel for these truck drivers. I would say that, they are extra decent and very cooperative but their super heavy trucks make their life difficult. They are left with no other choice but occupy both the lanes. There will always be one truck which is slightly faster than another, so this truck is going to try to overtake the other guy and this is going to take a long time, so just be patient.

I do lot of early morning drives like starting at 3am, almost every other month when I travel from Bangalore to Kerala. I encounter a lot of trucks from Bangalore to Salem but by 5am it clears up a lot. I feel that the number of trucks are more at night than during day. Many a times, when two trucks are almost of the same speed, I have noticed that many drivers have given that little bit of space to squeeze through by slowing down a bit, even without flashing or honking.

[the.dogfather]

Thanks for bringing up this interesting topic. I drive on the highways often, and have cursed truckers innumerable times in my head, for hogging up the fast lane.
I understand the reason why they use the fast lane, to maintain their momentum, avoiding quick lane changes and keep their drive uneventful, while making overtaking more tedious for us.
That said, I am also glad that the major user of the Indian highways are the most predictable ones. I have rarely faced an issue that a truck changed a lane suddenly or was driving in between lanes. Most of the close calls I have had on the highways are usually due to busses or cars who are driving at high speeds, changing lanes without signalling, with little situational awareness.
If trucks follow the rules and use only the left lanes, they would have to change lanes everytime there is a slower autorickshaw, cycle, motor cycle or some randomly parked car on the road. Unlike the roads abroad, we don't have hard shoulders to park in case of breakdowns, and also a mix of very slow (slower than trucks) and fast moving traffic.
As the time taken by a truck to change lanes is much higher, they would either need to do the change earlier, while hogging the overtaking lane for a while or make faster lane change maneuvers which is risky for the trucks and other road users.
If a trucker tries to move to the overtaking lane in such a situation, most cars would try to do a quick overtake instead of waiting for the truck to change lanes, clear the obstacle and go back to the slow lane. I feel these would make the roads even more unsafe both for trucks and cars.
The exception would be in access controlled expressways. In these roads, where there isn't two or three wheeler traffic, where people aren't allowed to stop randomly, lane discipline should be strictly implemented. We already seen this happening in the Hyderabad ORR.

[ike]

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

Limit their speed to 40kmph and restrict them to left-most lane.

Trucks in India need to cover very large distances and their average speeds are not that good. If we further restrict the speeds, it will take forever for them to reach their destinations. Restricting the speed to 40 may not be practical.

[SaiSW]

Originally Posted by tharian

Two trucks overtaking each other and taking time happens in other countries too, the difference being they are doing a 100 and not 30 kmh.
Most of the trucking companies have a speed lock at 100 or 105 and all of them travel at those speeds. So a truck doing 105 overtaking another at 100 takes few kms to do so.
This is a video of one such incident when visiting US. I enjoyed it though, not much the driver.

Off topic, but I am fascinated with how they're transporting trucks. One on top of another and their rear wheels on the ground. I always thought they used to load them on a really long trailer or something. I wonder if this is actually how trucks are transported in every country and I just had a wrong idea all these years.

[Jesse_Mach]

Trucks in our country follow lane directions from the US, meaning the slower ones will be on the right rather than left . Moreover many trucks still drive on patch repairs (Thook patti as we call it in hindi ) and have no power to do much. Profits matters for many apart from Law and Life.
One should see the dumpers driving on 2 lane Kerala roads and places near Bellary. It will change ones perspective and literally put fear in your mind next time one sees them in the rear view.
Not sure why NGT and government just ignore these aspects and concentrate more on whether people are wearing masks in their own car.
Guess the only solution is to just be alert as always and make your way through safely.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by SaiSW

Off topic, but I am fascinated with how they're transporting trucks. One on top of another and their rear wheels on the ground. I always thought they used to load them on a really long trailer or something. I wonder if this is actually how trucks are transported in every country and I just had a wrong idea all these years.

I guess it depends on what type of truck is being transported. There are ones that go on a trailer as well, most of them driven individually from the factory although I haven't seen the set up in the video in India, except for in the case of tractors in which they tie around 3-4 tractors back to front and only the front one does the pulling.

[MegaWhat]

I have a slightly different take in terms of safety issues due to trucks. I mean I understand all the reasons they try to stick to the fast lane and attempt overtakes even if the relative speed between the "overtaker" and the "overtaken" is barely 5 kmph. I understand it enough to anticipate it after 18 years of driving. The thing that is difficult to anticipate is speeding truckers.

I agree that most of the trucks on the road are the older ones with barely any power to carry their load. However, the new trucks - the tata's and benzes and new Mazdas - are surprisingly fast. Especially on level roads. Most of them are employed close to suburbs where construction activities are going on to transfer the associated loads. So it's close to city limits, loaded and fast! And this becomes particularly tough when they are running empty. I've seen many a new dumper going at 80-90kmph right outside the city. Most of them are driven as if they are cars, swerving between lanes, attempting risky overtakes and over-speeding.

Combine these fast trucks with slow trucks on a highway and you have a recipe for disaster.

[ShreyG]

Originally Posted by MegaWhat

I agree that most of the trucks on the road are the older ones with barely any power to carry their load. However, the new trucks - the tata's and benzes and new Mazdas - are surprisingly fast. Especially on level roads. Most of them are employed close to suburbs where construction activities are going on to transfer the associated loads. So it's close to city limits, loaded and fast! And this becomes particularly tough when they are running empty. I've seen many a new dumper going at 80-90kmph right outside the city. Most of them are driven as if they are cars, swerving between lanes, attempting risky overtakes and over-speeding.

Combine these fast trucks with slow trucks on a highway and you have a recipe for disaster.

This is absolutely spot on. These new acquisitions would most likely be expensive upfront and not really economically viable for the long haul truckers.
The way the new age, more powerful trucks are being driven near about city limits is absolutely insane. There seems to be an unsaid competition between them and private bus operators on who is more rowdy. I have observed some cool (to be read as dangerous) wheel to wheel action on the Hosur road in Bangalore.
Coming to the long haul truckers, they are quite disciplined for most part and willingly give way if they have the chance. I do feel a tad concerned when overloaded trucks are being pulled on gradient roads (Bangalore to Salem highway comes to mind). They move at single digit speeds are approached by 4 wheelers generally doing in excess of 80kmph which is a solid recipe for disaster. Best to let them be and try to weave your way around them rather the giving them and yourselves a headache by honking.

[sukhbirST]

You have correctly brought out this serious safety hazard on highways apart from being a irritating nuisance. Apart from trucks, its also the tractor trolleys, tempos and even buses with speed governors which create the same wrong lane driving and blocking others. Guess cameras should be used to penalize these and other slow moving vehicles using wrong lane.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

I do not want to overtake from the left side. But 7/10 times that's what I end up doing because the truck is squatting the fast lane.

I won't blame the truck drivers entirely. Though what they do is not correct, they are forced to take the right lane to limit the variables for an accident.

For an example, if they keep left, they will have to keep minding the erratic two wheeler riders who always take up space in the left lane. Every town and village intersection will have vehicles merging into the left lane too.

When they are in the right lane, they have a fixed median partition to the right and hence they just have to focus on what traffic comes up in their left lane. If they drive on the left lane as per rule, they will have to worry about both the sides.

Not correct, but convenient.

What irks me about them is that many of them don't have operational tail lamps and under run bars.

PS: I drive thousands of km every month on the highway. I don't mind them taking the right lane. I just hate when they switch lanes without indicating / looking and when 2 heavy vehicles occupy both lanes and drive at almost the same speed.

[chinkara]

Originally Posted by ShreyG

This is absolutely spot on. These new acquisitions would most likely be expensive upfront and not really economically viable for the long haul truckers.
The way the new age, more powerful trucks are being driven near about city limits is absolutely insane. There seems to be an unsaid competition between them and private bus operators on who is more rowdy. I have observed some cool (to be read as dangerous) wheel to wheel action on the Hosur road in Bangalore.

That is also because most long haul drivers belong to logistics companies and undergo training in safe driving (formal or informal).
Tippers are often owned by sand mafia / stonechips mafia and behave accordingly. LCVs are a problem w.r.t speed and erratic driving too.

I have had one major accident due to a truck banging me but I would agree that mostly trucks are law abiding and predictable.

[Ice]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

Our cars have decent power, good brakes and steering - just be patient and drive around them - Simple!

Trucks have none of those things but they still have to get somewhere to make a living, though barely.

Couldn’t agree more! And we lose very little time when we are patient. I discovered this when I drove from bangalore to Salem late one evening. I didn’t cross 80, and allowed other cars who were accelerating and braking heavily ahead. The two lane highway and it’s dense truck traffic ensured I was never more than a kilometre behind vehicles that we’re doing short spurts of 130-150 kmph.

[maddy42]

Truckers hog the right lane at 40 and two wheelers hog the left lane doing 40 (as you know mileage). The cars and the rest of us have to play road rash or need for speed around them.

Major reasons are
Lack of policing - Babus(Cops+rto) have their Maamool. Each gate its a fixed rate.
Over loading - Grossly overloaded is an understatement. Atleast 5 tonnes is the norm.
Music and phone usage - Nothing to stop this unless telcos charge by the minute.

Unless there is a strict fines other then just for speeding, our roads will continue to be a Wild wild west or a free for all.

Maddy

[theabstractmind]

For sure I agree with many here. The trucks are surely an inconvenience but a lesser danger compared to the cars which are driven dangerously, overtaking from all sides and bullying, especially by the SUVs or MUVs. Many a times they bully other cars, squeeze into crazy non-existent gaps, try to out-brake especially when approaching speed breakers, overtake from left, right, and center, etc.; they are much more dangerous.

Unlike the trucks who are largely minding their own business (I do get irritated by them but rarely threatened), the cars driven with a sense of entitlement are a bigger problem. With trucks I tell myself that the drivers are uneducated, their job is difficult, they contribute to our economy, and live with it. I can't live with the cars behaving like idiots, though.