Thoughts on truck drivers

I'm beginning to think you aren't a big fan of Canadia.

 

Hey I like y'all!

 

I think its pronounced “Cañada”

 

That area in particular is a shit hole.

You're aight.

Canaderp.

 

CanaDa (with a slavic accent)

 

Chinada is the most accurate these days actually.

 

ChinaDa. You are welcome.

 

Is this a thing Canadians have to deal with everyday?

A fight to the death with a Canadian goose every morning?

 

Pretty much. The Woman used to have a video on her phone of me arguing with a goose in an Ikea parking lot. We parked way in the back, nobody around and some jerk of a goose waddles over and starts honking and hissing at me. I sent some insults his way and he started flapping his wings, so I started flapping my arms. We went back and forth exchanging insults and threatening gestures for about 5 minutes before I finally flipped him off and told him to suck it, I wasn't moving my car. We had an audience of at least 10 people too, damn near killing themselves laughing.


When we came out after shopping, there was goose shit right next to my driver's door. Still not sure who won the fight.

Also when I was 3 years old a goose stole my cookie, right out of my hand. I've hated them ever since....

 

Goose insults!


I can’t imagine what insults are thrown at a Canadian goose!

 

Where are all of you guys finding trucks driving too fast?

Sounds wonderful.

In my area of operations they are all universally driving too slow.

That leads me to believe many of you are the types of buttholes who drive under the speed limit in your POV. That makes me angry and sad.

As for the truckers and the trucks, I observe that many experienced drivers are retiring, and not as many qualified people want to replace them. Companies that can find them to train need them driving yesterday so training is probably a rush job too. So driver quality is probably going down.

These new drivers then get out in a fleet owned truck with a basic bitch engine, that’s governed to 65-68 MPH and can probably only do that on level ground or slightly downhill. They don’t have a choice to go any faster.

The only fast movers I see are cattle haulers and my guess is that those are owned privately, and due to wanting to not have to stop and let livestock out periodically they need to go A to B as fast as possible so they can do it under certain time constraints. So they buy the big stick engine, and may or may not turn it up from there, and of course don’t bother with a governor. They still don’t pass me, but at least if I get stuck behind one on a two lane highway I’m not as aggravated because they’re usually doing at least the speed limit.

I will also observe that on highways like I-80, I-90 and others traversing long distances in low population areas that 90% of those trucks shouldn’t be on the road. Long haul trucking is stupid, and exists only because my industry can’t seem to get their act together and provide good service under common carrier obligations. But the RR’s are obsessed with cost cutting and that means screwing customers as much as possible by moving trains slowly, and not staffing adequately. So until Congress steps in and starts kicking the RR’s dicks in with meaningful laws and fines that discourage bad performance; we will continue to see the idiotic and wasteful practice of long haul trucking instead of intermodal where the RR’s do the long distances to save cost, and reduce highway congestion, and trucks pick up for local delivery.

Too bad we can’t have nice things, the highways outside of large urban areas would be freed up and less beat up. Truck drivers wouldn’t need to drive long haul for the vast majority of them, they could be home almost everyday.

 

I had a coworker in a steel mill many years ago named Gary. Poor bastard said when he was a toddler on the farm playing naked outside a damn goose grabbed onto his worm and he was a bit permanently disfigured. Dacades later now, and I still get chills!

 

His mother was a sparrow and his father smelled of woodpecker.

 

Hilarious!

 

Holy f#%k when I drive through the West Virginia toll road with crazy turns and grades I see truck drivers flying through them idk how they do it I can barely do it with my sports car! Last time I went through there one rolled over I wasn’t surprised. Lot of truckers are on the right lane going super low following the laws but there is still a lot hauling a$$

 

People have come to believe that driving a vehicle is a right rather than the privilege it is.

Driving has become the secondary activity when people are behind the wheel.

Note how drivers behave around school buses (99% of which are commercial vehicles/drivers).

 

A few thoughts.

I always drive defensively. I tell my kids, when I'm driving, my #1 priority is driving and the safety of everyone involved. Everything else comes second, and sometimes that's a very distant second.

As such, I always do my best to consider what said drivers in nearby vehicles are going to do, or not do.

That includes big truck drivers.

I've seen my share of insanity on the road, including:

- A driver going highway speed, "pulling" partly into an open spot in stop and go traffic in an exit lane during rush hour, with a big rig right behind him when he did it. Thank God Almighty the lane to the left was clear and the truck driver could swerve around him and lay on his air horn.

- Car drivers weaving in and out of lanes to go faster on I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson doing 80+. When it's raining. At dusk. When you have less than a car's length width between you and the cars in front of and behind you. On that same road I saw a vehicle on the side on fire.

- A big rig ahead of me smoking his brakes to slow down FAST. That put me on red alert and I started slowing down. Then the car in front of me with my Tundra and 7k load behind me coming a complete stop in the middle of the road for no reason. Again, thank God I could swerve around him.

- More than one long set of double tire rubber marks on the road leading right up to a 90-degree turnoff. I would surmise the truck driver was trying hard to not demolish (aka make into an oversized accordion) the tiny car on the road in front of him who decided last minute to turn, or at least signal his intent to turn.

- Me, sitting at an perpendicular exit (also an entrance to a ramp to the highway), waiting for an opening in traffic to clear from left and right so I can drive onto the main road. Four cars coming from my left. First one has his turn signal to turn in the entrance ramp right before me. I remember "don't assume turn signals mean they are going to do what the driver is signaling". He turns. Second car: signal on, he turns. Third car: signal on, he turns. Fourth car: signal on, he doesn't turn! If I had gone out, he would have T-boned me.

My uncle used to drive big rigs, and told me stories. Like a car beside him not moving when the truck's lane was ending, and plenty of advance notice the truck had to get over. That car eventually ended up being driven off the road.

I tell my wife to turn you signal on BEFORE you are turning, not WHEN you are turning. It's obvious to everyone you are turning when you are turning! And ... driving less than the speed limit is a road hazard. And many times, going less than traffic is a road hazard too.

I assume everyone driving on the road acts like they are the ONLY ONE on the road. Because most of them do!!! Just like they do when they aren't driving. <sigh>

I also assume big rig drivers are more courteous and mindful than car drivers. But not always. And they can't always see you!

All that said ... I get a mini thrill when I can tell a big rig driver wants to change lanes to be in front of me, passing lane or not, and I flash him saying "go ahead, you are clear and I got your back". He then changes lanes and flashes his entire rear truck lights multiple times saying, "thanks man, I wish everyone drove like you".

P.S. I drive an armored Tundra for a reason, and it's not for boulders during off-roading! I love driving a lifted pickup where I can see well ahead. Seeing brake lights down the road before the car in front you brakes can be a God send!!

 

Ok I'll play. I drive a truck for a living hauling hazmat.

1) trucks passing each other slow happens. We're hauling 80k lbs. We can't accelerate quickly . Alot of trucks are capped at certain speeds which makes it harder. My truck is capped at 70mph. So if I come up on a truck capped at 67 or 68 , and I'm loaded heavy and he's not it can take awhile. My advice , be patient. When you encounter us on a road we are at work. Most of the time the other drivers are not. Be patient and let us do our jobs.

2) sometimes I "cut "cars off for their own good. Example I was loaded with 76k lbs of highly flammable liquids. Liquid surge means if I slam on the brakes , that liquid is going to try and continue on meaning I push the pedal but stopping will happen when physics wants it to. The lady in question was trying to pass me full throttle because the left lane was closed and only right lane was open due to construction. The only way she could pass me was full throttle , cut in front of me and hit the brakes to not rear end the car in front 9f me. She was assuming that if she did this I may not like it but I'll just stop and let her in and no one wrecks. Enter liquid surge. So instead I cheated the two lanes and blocked her. It was for everyone's safety. But the general public will look at that as "big mean trucker just being reckless"

3) all drivers need to be more patient. Also all 4 wheel drivers need to understand that giving a big rig as much space as you would give a honda civic will get you killed. Again I regularly haul 80k lbs. I can't stop quick . So I leave alot of room in front of me. And all the time 4 wheeler will change lanes one car length in front of me.
4) everyone needs to learn that those diamonds with pictures on trucks means you should stay the hell away. They are called hazardous matierials placards and none of them are safe if you wreck into them
5) to the guy that said we aren't nasa engineers and it's easy to drive one..... at the end of the day what I do now pays way better than anything I did before. Granted I haul hazmat for a great company, but for me it wasn't an I'm dumb so I'm going to drive a truck equation. It's simply my quality of life is 100 times better driving a truck than managing a fraud department at a bank. I make twice as much and take time whenever I want to go do meaningful things with my family. Sure I don't see them "in passing" on the way to my bedroom every night like before but right now I'm out for 14 days , go home to take my wife to lake tahoe for a week vacation, go back for 10 days and then come home to take another week vacation to bear lake with my kids . This life works way better for me , even if I'm not a nasa engineer. Also I went to Texas Tech University btw that was sooooo useful lmfao sarcasm.

All that said there's alot of shitty drivers too. Just like every other industry. The BIG difference is we get paid by the MILE . So if your paycheck depended on how far you get that day , you think you're going to give a damn about some car that has to wait while you pass a slower truck? Think about if you only were paid for how many words you typed in an hour vs hourly wage or salary for example. You would likely change how your day goes.

 

+1

I've seen this type of thing more than once. This also includes riding half off the road to block impatient drivers from cutting ahead to get to their destination 30 seconds earlier.

Big rig drivers save the day from insane car drivers more than most people would like to admit.

Kudos to you man.

I've considered big rig driving when I see what they get paid. Hell of a lot more than I do!!

 

@Cpl_Punishment Because the car behind you and the car behind them and the car behind them all have the same thought you just described. Unless you are driving in the middle of the night the mythical miles stretch of road with no one on it doesn't exist. Also traffic closes gaps much faster when you are doing 68 or 70 and the speed limit is 80 and most passenger cars are doing 85. When I can safely get over , I do and if someone stacks up behind me , they can wait as my job is to drive safely.

 

Tell me you don't live in Canada without telling me you don't live in Canada.

There's highways I drive where even on a long weekend in the middle of the day I can go up to a half hour without seeing another vehicle. 5 - 10min between vehicles is pretty typical.

 

I would love that ahaha. I drive i80 alot and even in Northern Nevada wyoming and Nebraska which are all extremely rural you don't get miles of time to pass without stacking traffic. It just doesn't happen like that. I think most people can't grasp this concept because they've never driven or even ridden in a big rig so they really don't understand what I'm talking about even when explained. When you drive 4 wheels you only think of everything in relation to 4 wheels.

 

Highway 40 in northeastern Alberta gets like that, as does the Alaska highway. Hwy 40 has limited passing opportunities though due to being a winding 2 lane.

 

Whoa, hold your horses. I apologize for my wording, but that's not even close to what I said. I'll rephrase:
You don't have to be a NASA engineer to be a truck driver and yes, some of them do bonehead shit, like car drivers,....but,.....on the whole, tractor/trailer drivers are orders of magnitude better drivers than 99% of drivers on the road. Most of the shit people get mad at trucks for on the road, is actually something they're doing wrong themselves.
And my comment about truck drivers not necessarily being the brightest folk was more from a comment/joke made to me by a guy who ran a trucking company a long time ago. But I didn't unpack all that in my post and probably should've, or just not made the comment.
But it was meant to be ball busting, from a place of love.