Department of Transport has decided to increase the speed limits for heavy goods vehicles or lorries from 40mph to 50mph starting April 2015.
A decision, which will be welcomed by heavy vehicle drivers as well as drivers of cars stuck behind such vehicles at 40mph, was announced by Roads Minister Claire Perry at an HGV depot in Milton Keynes.
Perry said, “We’re doing all we can to get Britain moving and boost growth. This change will do exactly that and save our haulage industry £11 million a year”.
The minister said that this increase in speed limits will help reduce congestion as well as reduce the dangerous manouevers on narrow roads.
Road Haulage Association has been campaigning for this increase for quite some time now because it felt that the current speed limit “is long out-of-date” and it generates a lot of frustration that “causes unnecessary road safety risk.”
“We consider this announcement to be a real win for the RHA. We have lobbied long and hard on this issue and this positive outcome is a result of members input and support”, said RHA.
The government has also launched a six-week consultation for its plans of increasing speed limits of high speed vehicles 50mph to 60mph on dual carriageways.
