I50

I am retired after 6 years because I could no longer fake the physicals. You know, not eat and drink lots of water for 3 days so my blood pressure and blood sugar are low enough to pass. I drove for Dick Simon until his sons drove his business into the ground. Then I drove for Werner. There are no "good" trucking companies and the ones I drove for I considered better than average for different reasons. And while most truck drivers are better than your average driver I have seen too many that should not be behind any wheel. One of the first things I noticed while driving for Werner is that almost all their trailers had cupped tires and that most of their trailers desperately needed a brake adjustment. Since I figured that they must be leaking air I filled all the tires to their maximum limits with dry air from the trailer brakes so they rode on the uncupped portions of the tread. Then I would find a place to back up the trailer and separately apply the trailer brakes to adjust the trailer brakes. It wasted 30 to 45 minutes of my time to do this but I took safety seriously. Then I picked up a brand new trailer and found out they come from the factory that way with underinflated tires and unadjusted brakes. That was trailer 40000. Occasionally I would pick up a trailer that seemed to be OK but when I checked my paperwork I discovered that I hauled that trailer before. Every winter when heavy snows were coming down there was always one truck driver passing me quickly to be the first one at the scene of the accident that would have me and all the other drivers waiting for hours. On I-80 westbound in Montana I saw many truckers pass me in a strong headwind and get blown off the road in front of me. On I-80 eastbound I saw antelope crossing the highway so I blinked my lights to let oncoming traffic know there was a problem up ahead and an owner operator plowed through and killed 5 antelope. I remember one antelope with all his legs broken completely off still upright and looking around dazed. Owner operators are usually more professional because they must be responsible for their own rigs. But some owner operators are that way because no decent trucking company would ever hire them. You can usually tell who they are because they don't maintain their rig. Cupped tires on a tractor are a dead giveaway. There are still way too many truckers impatiently tailgating cars in front of them. That is why I believe that trucks should be compelled by law to go 3 mph slower than the speed limit for all other vehicles on the road. No slower because differences in speed increase the likelihood of accidents. No faster because it would increase the likelihood of tailgating with not enough reaction time to respond to unexpected trouble where the innocent are most likely to die. And you will see unexpected coincidences.