Driver Responsibilities, Etiquette and Environmental Driving
The professional standard
A medium-vehicle licence is a social trust: the vehicle can kill, so obligations extend past legality into courtesy and predictability. Signal early, give cyclists and pedestrians room, avoid tailgating and cutting in, and keep the cab free of distractions.
Environmental driving
Eco-driving is examined as technique: smooth acceleration, early lift-off, engine braking, correct tyre pressure, no unnecessary idling, and route planning. A loaded truck's fuel use is dominated by speed and by stop-start driving, so anticipation saves more than a lower cruising speed.
Health and fitness
Fatigue, alcohol, drugs and illness impair judgement before they impair control. The legal alcohol threshold is 0.15 mg per litre of breath; the safe answer is zero. Take a break at least every two hours on long runs.
Worked example
Idling ten minutes a day for a year burns roughly 20–30 litres of diesel in a medium truck. Reason: idling consumes fuel at a fixed rate with zero distance covered, so the saving comes from switching off during loading and waiting, not from driving more slowly.
Traps
Believing eco-driving means crawling; ignoring tyre pressure's effect on fuel and grip; treating courtesy as optional; thinking coffee cures fatigue.