The Department for Transport will hold a consultation on Examining the Speed Limit for Heavy Goods Vehicles over 7.5T on Single Carriageway Roads.
The FTA supports ending the 40mph speed limit for HGVs, and maintains that it causes unnecessary costs to vehicle operators, congestion, avoidable overtaking collisions and further still creates an uneven playing field for businesses.
The potential new policy would reduce the speed differential between HGVs and other vehicles on single carriageway roads. The objective would be to ease congestion whilst reducing the temptation for risky overtaking manoeuvres felt by motorists.
Malcolm Bingham, FTA head of road network management policy said: “We believe that firstly it will reduce the number of incidents where drivers overtake or attempt to overtake slower moving HGVs who are simply complying with the national speed limit. We know from observations by FTA members that drivers on these roads often become impatient and take unacceptable risk to get by goods vehicles.
“Another issue that has been raised is the acceptability of travelling at higher speed than set by the national speed limits. DfT figures indicate that many drivers may exceed that 40 mph limit on these single carriageway roads.
“Whilst our members would not want their drivers to disobey any speed limit and many feel that it is inappropriate behaviour to do so; it creates a stressful situation when driving a vehicle at a lower speed than others particularly when other road users try to encourage the HGV to move faster.”
