Is it legal for trucks (tractor trailer) to run in a ‘convoy’?
Here in Ontario Canada it has been purposed to limit big truck traffic to 105 km’s. The idea was brought up that it may turn into a long convoy of trucks all travelling the same speed, seemingly unable to pass one another.
So I was wondering what constitutes a convoy and where, if it all, it was enforced in North America.
I think most states have laws against it, but I was on the road for twenty four years and I can’t ever remember a time when it was an issue. Sometimes road conditions/ terrain will tend to cause trucks to pile up, but they usually separate in a short time. There are annual convoys organized for charity, but they have prior permission and there are usually several police cars involved.
US 395 in California north of San Bernardino is a two lane road for the most part. There is a lot of truck traffic and the speed limit for trucks is 55 mph. Most of the trucks go 60 and they tend to pile up. The law required a certain separation between them but I know of no rule that they can’t agree to travel together.
How would you enforce such a thing?
Start writing tickets.
On what grounds? Lines of trucks whose drivers are total strangers are the rule on that stretch of US 395.
Back in the seventies (here in the States), weren’t convoys and their quazi-outlaw status a pop-culture thing? I remember a song Convoy to that end, but as a four-year-old, I had no real idea what it meant. Still don’t, actually, which is why I’m interested in this thread.
For a convoy to gain fuel efficiency the rigs must be fairly close together. If that violates the safety rules then they can be ticketed for that. If they are all tooling along with a fair distance between them I don’t see why anyone would complain, but they won’t be gaining the efficiency that convoys are for.
CVC 21704
CVC 21705
They don’t have to know each other to be considered a caravan.
Most commonly the caravans you will see are oversize loads-- the State requires special permits in order for them to legally travel.
Note that “sufficient space” will have a much different meaning at 60mph than it would at 35mph.
More often than not it will be motorcyclists who get hit with caravan tickets, but if the driving on 395 is anything like it is on I40 and I15 then the CHP could have a field day because the trucks simply do not maintain proper spacing.
The only time I’ve seen anything like a convoy is when the movies had one, or a protest over fuel prices in the 70’s occurred. Protesting is the only real world reason I’ve seen convoys used, and that was to bring the highway system to a standstill. Convoys like this also sometimes involved things like farm tractors or other equipment than semis. The protesters only got in trouble for bocking traffic, or other infractions of the sort.
Well, traditionally, I think you have to have a Kenworth pullin’ logs, a cabover Pete with a reefer on, and a Jimmy haulin’ hogs.
Oh, and eleven long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreusse microbus
Come on. SOMEONE had to do it.
i already said that the law requires a certain space between trucks. In which case the ticket if for improper spacing and nothing else. I see lots of trucks and I never see any of them pulled over.
As I said, I’ve never seen, or heard, of it being an issue, although I believe the states have statutes prohibiting convoys, other than military. This convoy is staged each year, w/ prior permission and police escorts: http://www.specialolympics.org/Special+Olympics+Public+Website/English/Support/Truck_Convoy/default.htm
In Australia, most large rigs are speed-limited to 100kmh and have been for years.
Supposedly.
Remind me of this next time I’m pushing 120 on a country highway and all I can see in my rear vision mirror is a big, backwards word, MACK.
I’ve not known it to lead to convoys. You might get two or three trucks slipstreaming, but that is a conscious choice on the part of the trucker.