wide load on motorway - third lane overtake

[rayc]

Towing down the M3 I came across a wide load with a Police escort doing about 40mph. It was taking up the two inner lanes so the only way to overtake was in the outside lane.

I have read in another forum of an instance where a towed vehicle used the outside lane to overtake the wide load in similar circumstances and the Police escort gave them three points and £60 fine.

The highway code says "You MUST NOT drive in the right hand lane (except in prescribed circumstances)". It does not explain in the code what these circumstances are.

Should I have overtaken or continued behind for another 40 miles or so? what would you have done?

 

[mcghee]

I think in circumstances such as those common sense surely must come in to play. Sadly there are a number of police officers for whom common sense is a foreign principal.

I remember many years ago, late at night, waiting at a red traffic light with a police car behind me for 7 minutes while it became obvious that they were stuck at red. As soon as I took the decision to edge forward and have a look the blue lights were on. I asked what I should do in that situation, should I set up my sleeping bag and camp out until the lights changed? He accused me of trying to be smart, I accused him of splitting hairs rather that fighting crime.

He never yet gave me a plausable course of action in the circumstances.

 

[Steve L]

I tend to agre with Mc ghee.

So long as the overtaking manouver is purely to go past a "convoy exceptionale'" (wide load under escort) then the use of the 3rd lane would be common sense.

I can also empathise on the low level of common sense law application too.

I was stopped quite lagitimately for towing a trailer with my 3500kg truck with no tachograph fitted. While the truck was loaded to the max weight and the trailer was loaded to a total weight of near to 2 tons, I was in breach of the tachograph regulations. An immediate "prohibition notice" was issued and the only way to overcome that was to arrange for another vehicle to tow the trailer. So I rang my dad who came out to me in my car.

Now here's the stupid bit. The poilce were quite happy to let a Renault 18 estate (1647cc) tow a 16ft single axle trailer loaded 10ft high and weighing 2 tons, so long as we kept below 40mph. They also lifted the prohibition notice to allow our fully laden 3500kg truck to proceed on it's way. Now as I was more experienced at towing, I took the car and let my dad drive the truck. Believe me, the trailer was a right pain to tow and in my oppinion far too much for the car to handle, but that's the law for you.

Finally because we immediately got a tocho fitted, we were excused from prosecution.

Then the fun started.

We did not need an operators license for the truck but did need a tachograph fitted as the trailer being towed weighed less than 1000Kgs unladen. But did the police know that? Did they hell!!

On average once a fortnight I was pulled over to be nicked for no operators license, until finally in desperation I got the dept of transport to send me a letter clarifying the law.

Now each time I got stopped all I had to do was to produce the said letter and put up with verbal abuse (smart arse etc) just because I took the trouble to know my legal position.

No small wonder the "law is an ass" !!

Steve L.

 

[RogerL]

Although the Highway Code is a guide to rules and regulations, it's not a definitive statement - the Road Traffic Acts and many amemdmends would need to be consulted.

I would have followed any examples of HGVs and not used lane 3 if they weren't. With no HGVs around I'd have used lane 3 in these particular circumstances but without knowing it's legality.

Steve - an OUTFIT over 3500kg needs a tacho IF it's being used for any trade purpose. 3500kg vans/trucks don't need a tacho solo, only when towing, so they're targeted because the majority are breaking the law.

 

[Lol1]

I always thought that if lane one and two are obstructed, either by slow moving traffic (escorted) or the dreaded cones, you could use lane three to overtake. The only other alternative is having a slow moving truck holding up all other trucks and towed vehicles for the entire length of it's journey on the motorway. Not going to happen, is it?

 

[RogerL]

Lol - I agree, if HGVs and trailers can't overtake in these circumstances that'll be one hell of a tailback!

 

[Steve L]

Roger, you are quite right about the tacho regs.

As I said we got matters put right PDQ.

However that opened a whole new can of worms.

While I was fully conversant with drivers hours regulations, a part time driver we employed neither new or wanted to understand the regs. We thought that he came with a good level of experience being an ex landrover off road demonstration driver who also towed their mobile office all over the country demonstrating the upper extreme's of towing and off road capability. What we didn't bargain for was that even at the age of 60 he would drive from Hereford to Aberdeen and back without showing a break of more than 10 mins at a time on his tacho charts. Despite attending a training session and several accompanied drives with me he still reverted to his habit saying that he hated waiting for an alarm clock!!

So as he was a good driver we decided to go "agricultural". We bought a Diahatsu F70 4X4 and a 3500Kg Ifor Williams trailer. This legally does not require a tachograph so long as it is not being used directly for "hire & reward". As we did not charge our customers a "delivery/haulage" charge, there was no cash benifit from the vehicle. Now gentleman Jim as we called him could drive to his style and do it legally.

One minor problem still ensued however. It now became apparent the the gent was skimming off diesel. You see, our VW LT35 truck when towing only returned 14mpg but the Diahatsu did 30+.

I found out this because one day he returned the Diahatsu saying she needed fuel. I skoffed at this saying that the drive was not long enough to run her out, but next morning I did run out of fuel on the way to work. So I started a discreet milage check and found that he'd been taking upto 4 gallons a day from us.

Not long after us confronting him with this he left us, to go to a marquee errecting firm to drive their truck.

Oh the joys of towing and people.

Steve L.

 

[Oldfogey]

To return to the original subject, if the authorities have "coned off" one lane, then there are officially only 2 lanes, so you are OK to overtake.

I couldn't find anything about the "specified circumstances" from the Highway Code, or anything in what of the Road Traffic Acts I could get at online, so I asked the local Police.

They had no idea either, though their patch does not include any motorway.

Personally, I suspect there is NO legal permission to use lane 3 in such circs, so you would be gambling on the common sense of the police escort.

 

[Icemaker]

Well all i can say is the law is an ass, simply becouse if any of you live or drive around the m60 in manchester you will know that the junction at bredbury joins the main motorway IN lane 3.

I use this junction every day and often have to drive up to half a mile in lane 3 before some one who is all ready on the motorway decides to give way and let me pull in to lane 2 then one.

With the van on tow its even worse as i can legally only do 60 mph so all the cars just pass me in lane 2, 9 times out of 10 i will need to tow up to 70 just to get in to lane 2 then 1.

I wonder what police would say to that am i being dangerous or am i using my common sense, i suppose it depends on what type of day the officer has had.

 

[Val & Frank]

Steve - an OUTFIT over 3500kg needs a tacho IF it's being used for any trade purpose. On this point on the door pillar of my Toyota it says under certain circumstances you may need to have a tacho fitted to drive this vehicle. I presume this is the same with any large 4x4.

Val & frank

 

[Icemaker]

I am not that well up on tacho regs but i do know that when my friend bought his latest van a ford transit high cube rated at 3500 kgs he specified a tow bar.

The dealer had no problem with this and ordered the van with the bar to be fitted at the factory, a few days later he received a call from the dealer who said ford had adviced that the van could not be fitted with a tow bar without allso being fitted with a tachograph, as it was just

 

[Stephen_5122599]

I am not that well up on tacho regs but i do know that when my friend bought his latest van a ford transit high cube rated at 3500 kgs he specified a tow bar.

The dealer had no problem with this and ordered the van with the bar to be fitted at the factory, a few days later he received a call from the dealer who said ford had adviced that the van could not be fitted with a tow bar without allso being fitted with a tachograph, as it was just