Increasing the speed limit of HGVs to 60mph has had no impact on safety, according to a government report.
In 2015, new national speed limits for lorries over 7.5-tonnes were introduced on single and dual carriageways, to 50mph and 60mph respectively.
Stakeholder interviews conducted in 2019 reported that awareness of the policy among drivers was good and a key benefit had been reduced driver stress and frustration, with both HGV drivers and general traffic considered to have benefited.
The report said there was no anecdotal evidence suggesting there had been an economic advantage from the change; stakeholders were more aware of the impact of fuel prices and congestion on the costs of operating an HGV fleet.
The report said: “Environmental analysis revealed no statistically significant effect on air quality and no perceptible change in noise level over a typical 18-hour day or during individual hours at night.
“This was true for both single and dual carriageways."
Government impact assessments prior to the introduction of the increased speed limits estimated a small increase in collisions, but the research showed there had been no impact.
It added: “The only significant finding [was] a reduction in collisions that are slight or serious across all study roads.”
In addition, journey time savings and vehicle operating costs were predicted prior to the policy change as translating into benefits of £224.6m between 2015 and 2031.
An updated economic assessment conducted in 2019 increased the calculated benefits to £225.8m.
