Unfortunately i've spent a lot of years at the wheel, and over the last 10 to 15 years have had vehicles with OBC with instant readouts, seeing 3.9 mpg in top gear under power is sobering, more sobering still when you drop a couple of gears and its down to 2.5mpg, and when starting from rest you're down to anything from 0.5 to 1.5mpg.

With 10bhp per ton it can take you anything up to a mile to reach cruising speed, all the time has been under power, seeing those instant readouts has been very thought provoking, soon as you cut power and allow it to glide the reading goes off the scale cos thats all free, no fuel usage at all.

Bear in mind a modern 440hp lorry fully freighted at 44 ton will average about 9mpg if the vehicle is reasonably streamlined on good reasonably flat rmotorways, on two of our regular 1 hour from base deliveries where the many junctions lead to uphill climbs to regain speed, the vehicles will return anything from 4 to 6mpg including the empty return journey depending on driver and traffic...if you can keep the thing rolling it makes a massive difference.

I've done various experiment, again using the OBC which are accurate on lorries.

One of those local drops is a hilly A road route direct or a dual carriageway alternative some 70% longer by miles, i actually used almost 1 gallon less fuel on the outward loaded journey by going round.

I read somewhere it cost near enough £5 in fuel alone to accelerate a 44 ton artic to 55mph limiter cruising speed, on the level, i don't doubt it.

I'm no truck driver, but that sounds to me like a good leg-pull. I know a 44-tonner doesn't do many mpg, but £5-worth should get one a fair distance, especially at the price of red diesel ....

A top weight artic does about 7 or 8 mpg, less if it's accelerating hard. If it's down to 3 or 4 mpg when accelerating flat-out, fully loaded, and it takes a mile to reach 55 mph, then that looks more like something under £2.

For that there are underpasses and foot bridges

If people do not like HGVs they shouldn't buy houses on A roads.

Maybe there is a reason for the ban, but such bans are costing a fortune in extra costs and environmentally also.

I live on a busy road, not an rated road but still busy. It meets up with an A road but for years it has had a 7.5 ton weight limit. Tucks need to make a detour of 10 miles to get to the other end of town, yet apart for it being a residential street there is no reason for it. People must have been aware of where they were buying their houses.

Some residents in some roads do not like HGVs driving past their houses, nor do councils like the roads destroyed and drains broken (bearing in mind they are not repaired properly now) some drain pipes underground are in a terrible state and could easily collapse under the weight of an artic

Local council allows three rival companies to run (almost empty) buses on the same route of residential roads at a frequency of 10 minutes (each way),i.e. 18 per hour in each direction.

I am sick of reporting potholes on this road, not to mention the sunken manholes and utility trenches which crack up under this treatment. HGV's would at least be serving a useful purpose , which unnecessarily frequent buses aren't.