I had a similar experience with a white van driver. Not very bright driver - the company name and phone number were on the vehicle. I called and asked for the manager when I reached my destination. I was passed to the owner who told me he had just returned from a seminar about this sort of driving. He was very grateful for the call.
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It depends on the road speed longer zone on motorways than slower roads.
Iâm sure weâve chewed this over beforeâŚ
How does a Driver know the nationality of another Driver⌠???
This doesnât really wash. Those with âbusy schedulesâ need to allow for travelling at a legal speed & also allow for other vehicles which have to obey lower speed limits e.g. large/heavy goods vehicles which are limited to 90km/h on autoroutes & 80km/h, or even 60km/h on other routes . Thereâs a reason that they have to have their individual speed limits displayed on the back.
Whenever I witness stupid overtaking (most days!) I always recall the maxim that itâs better being late than never getting there.
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True enough in my little corner of 47. A French plate is no guarantee of a French driver, doubly so if itâs an RHD vehicle as local Brits have gradually been getting their old U.K. cars re-registered as they canât use the old âIâm here on holiday, officerâ dodge if they then present a CdS as ID.
Itâs due to our car being RHD (albeit âFrenchâ) that I (the passenger) was able to see the lorry driver so clearly⌠and (to his horror) he could clearly see me and what I was doing⌠
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That was a very exceptional lorry then, they are all in Europe supposed to be electronically limited to 90 km/hr, and any transgressions like fiddling with the limiter can be seen later by any inspector of it, or the tachograph.
The limiter is also the main culprit causing âelephant racesâ, where lorries on autoroutes seem to spend great distances alongside each other. I have long argued for temporary overrides so slower vehicles can be overtaken quicker and safer.
David⌠this lorry was by no means exceptional⌠they can be seen on all the main roads⌠dashing along at well over the 80â 90kh (often in convoy).
I suggest that what is âsupposedâ is somewhat different to the actualityâŚ
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They are âin convoyâ by force of the law, all limited to the same maximum speed,90. Until only a few months ago when I finally retired from the road, I was doing 80,000 kms a year and never saw speeds which you describe. It simply isnât worth it, tampering with a limiter, and risking your whole career.
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We obviously use different roads⌠if youâve been fortunate enough not to have encountered speeding lorries.
My original post - âMany years ago, I read a survey done of French drivers by a French psychologist â forget when/where - but two conclusions resultedâ.
âThe average French driver has his/her own personal highway code, nothing like the official highway code, and that they donât like âfollowingâ, they have to be in frontâ.
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I agree - very familiar story - have had them chasing me as wellâŚ
Same here, either lorry up exhaust pipe or sailing past not to be seen for dust. Like Stella we are travelling at 80 or 90 kph.
Perhaps you are driving like me in the 80 zones and do notice, as I do, the lorry drivers who try to continue at 90, their max. But as to more than that, I can only say that I feel you are mistaken. Even many years ago when speed limits for lorries, and certainly limiters, were long in the future, when I had an artic that would do 75 mph down the M1, I was the fastest on the road, so the 130 km/hr (almost 80 mph) that has been mentioned, is way beyond typical or even likely.
The fastest I drive in a car is 100 km/hr where permitted (110 zones off or on autoroutes) and the only times I have been troubled with tailgating or overtaking lorries is in the 80 limits and the reason they get so close is that when there is an oncoming gap, they are desperate to get past while still forced to do only 90. Otherwise all I can say is I agree with Stella, at an average of over 1,500 kms per week from Malaga to Inverness and Vigo to Budapest, I have been very lucky.
I often wonder why they bother at all unless they are empty as their performance is so poor they seldom get anywhere before the lorry they overtook
I can understand them approaching, ready to overtake⌠but when thereâs no hope of that for a few kilometres⌠itâs ridiculous.
I wonder if theyâre on piece work⌠how many loads collected/deliveredâŚ
I can tell you why they bother. On a journey from say Paris to Bordeaux rolling along slightly under speed behind a slow poke makes a hell of a difference to the time of arrival at destination. As the majority of journeys are time critical these days (blame the so-called efficient âjust in timeâ mania for that. The much vaunted method by which companies become âmore efficientâ in reducing warehousing space. In reality they have just transferred the warehouse to the road) the penalties for late arrival are severe for both drivers and transporters. To give one example, I once arrived 5 minutes late for my rdv at the giant Auchan store near Bordeaux. It was Friday morning and they told me to come back on Monday. If it wasnât for the fact that my boss decided to cut his losses and bring me back to base, I would have been a long weekend sightseer instead of comfortably back home in the bosom of my family. 
BTW, I am interested to know @Corona why on earth you were following several vehicles to their destinations in order to time their arrivals. 
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That seems ridiculously inflexible given that you canât control traffic conditions.
To companies like VW, BMW et al it doesnt matter, the gobshites on the ramps dont give a damn about the Truckers who in some cases have spent 2 or more days on the road to get there, they will be going home after their shift. These big âjust in timeâ companies are like that, the production line runs and that is that.
Thinking David of my journeys along the M20 to a well known port. Obviously if someone is driving a slow rig same as a slow car, I was referring to rigs of similar performance where it takes 3-4 minutes for the overtake, they then all meet up again at the port.