Road trippers warned against misreading truck overtake signals

A decades-old practice of truck drivers signalling to those travelling behind them when it is safe to overtake is being discouraged.

The Australian Trucking Association (ATA), the peak body for the Australian trucking industry, is campaigning to stop heavy vehicle drivers from using their right-turn indicators to signal that the road is clear for vehicles behind them to overtake.

The practice is believed to date back to the 1950s and has been used as an ‘unofficial’ signal that the road ahead is clear to overtake, especially on remote and regional roads.

Use of vehicle indicators for anything other than signalling a turn, an intention to overtake, or to move left or right, is unlawful. Drivers should not respond to right-turn signals on trucks and other heavy vehicles as being anything other than a signal of that vehicle’s movements.

If a right-turn indicator is misread as a signal to overtake, the vehicle following could risk colliding with the truck as it turns or moves to the right.

Those with a UHF radio in their vehicle should use this as the preferred and safer method of communicating with other road users around them on the appropriate channels.