PLEASE, please, please, Mr Roper, from Kidlington, spare me more misery, and grant me two wishes before I do something drastic to myself: Firstly, get your car speedometer checked for accuracy; and secondly, write the next letter about something you know just a little bit about.

Let me advise you on one or two points that you seem a bit confused about regarding tailgating truck drivers.

Firstly, it is nearly impossible to get a modern heavy truck past 56mph, unless it is downhill, fully laden to 44 tonnes (not 48 tonnes as you mention), and with a following gale.

The speed limiter doesn’t switch off, disconnect or pull the fuse without major disruption to the engine management system, and the driver has to endure hours of driving at this speed during the day, counting the blades of grass on the verges as he goes along, even though, legally, on a motorway at least, they are allowed to go faster.

After hours of driving at this speed every day, the last thing that the truck driver wants is a car in front of him travelling at the same speed, so his natural reaction is to overtake, but as he hasn’t got the necessary few miles an hour to do so, he has to wait for a long right hand bend to take the shorter route and get by.

Mr Roper, have you never ever heard of ‘defensive driving’? I believe that this has kept me out of trouble for the past 45 years, driving both cars and heavy trucks in the UK and Europe.

The answer is simple, though. If you don’t like the heat, stay out of the kitchen. In other words, if trucks are travelling at 60-ish mph on the motorway, drive your car at 70mph and stay out of their way. After all, it’s perfectly legal, and safe to do so most of the time on the M40, and all other motorways.

The fact that you say “a succession of trucks overtook you” indicates to me that you were well down into their speed zone, and if you increase your speed to your legal maximum, you will stay out of their way, and subsequently out of trouble.

Finally, your comment about “tacho discs” show that your information is somewhat dated.

Most modern trucks have digital tachographs which are operated by a driver’s card, so your suggestion of driving on someone else’s chart is as outdated as I suspect your driving skills are.

I’ll hopefully look forward to your future informative letters about growing vegetables.

CLIVE HARRISON, Quarhill Close, Over Norton