Should I expect more from a professional driver?

Come to ny i will be hanging behind you with my rig 5 feet from your bumper and you call me in i wish you knew better than that, we are not perfect, they have family to take care of please don't play with someone's job. if you are so worried about drivers behavior please be a state trooper or a dot cops you will have more power to enforce and i bet you will loose your job in a few days.

 

There are a lot of us here who have lots of business experience. I was the Executive Director of 189 banks from 1984 until 2004. I arranged the sell of those banks to the Hong Kong Shanghai Banks. I do not have to work another day. I enjoy driving trucks and it is the first thing I have ever done that I am not great at. I will be by the time I am done but not yet.

What you are missing still, is that you are wrong. The person driving the truck in that lane had every right to be there. You are entitle to have your opinion but you opinion is wrong. The man may lose his job over something that he did correctly. Change lanes in traffic is one of the most DANGEROUS parts of driving. Now, they have lanes which trucks are not suppose to be in. That is happening more and more. And it is making the world a much more dangerous place.

The cars that were backed up could have gone around the truck to the right. You can bet the driver of that truck would not have pulled into them. What you should have done is this. YOU should have gotten to the right hand lane that you wanted the truck to move into. YOU should have made sure the side of the truck was clear of automobiles. YOU should have then turned your headlights on and off to signal the driver that it was clear for him to move over. That is the correct way to SHARE the road. Share the responsibility.

What you did was assume that you knew more about driving a truck then the professional that was engaged in so doing.

As for those comparing you to a fresh out of OCS type in Vietnam, I would have been proud to have you in front of me there. Way out in front of me.

What you should do now is think about what we are trying to tell you and if you can CALL that number back and tell them you were WRONG. You should also be man enough to post on here that you understand what we are trying to tell you and post on here that you know you are WRONG.

Once you open your eyes, you will see. We are a very forgiving BROTHERHOOD (and a few sisters).

 

Well then, I give up. Come back to this thread sometime in the future and see if you still feel the same way. As for me my only regret is that I have but one pillow to lie down on.

 

Mr Bergy,

You saw a truck in the left lane and 25 cars stacked behind him and you want to call in on the driver. Why just the driver? What about the 25 cars that refused to go to the right lane? See the problem now? You will find that people in cars will have a tendency to match speeds with your trailer. If you need to switch lanes for some reason, you have to do this well in advance. So give the driver the benefit of the doubt.

Lots of drivers were trained by idiots who taught them to park on the fuel island. They don't know any better. It happens mostly at Loves. I don't use a Loves unless it's the ONLY place around for fuel, so I don't see it much.

I see you too want to put the PROFESSIONAL back into trucking. I applaud you. The best way to do this is to lead by your example. Someone else mentioned it, I won't call in on anyone, driver, or motorist alike UNLESS it's a safety issue and I will be calling the cops. Can't sweat the minor stuff and personality clashes.

If you really want to feel professional, do a trucking job that requires you to think. Hazmat, flatbed, tanker, car hauling, bedbuggers, put your name on the driver's door, and strive to be diligent at your job. People will notice. Customers will call in and praise you. The DOT will notice. Other drivers will notice. Be good at what YOU do. Wish everyone else the best.

Ive said it before and I will say it again, I have worlds of respect for the old hands. See, there was a time when truck drivers were professional. They wore uniforms, like the milkman, mailman and the policeman. The milkman is gone. The mailman is going out. The policeman now looks like a soldier. So, what do you do? I still wear a uniform. I wear the flatbedder uniform. Boots, jeans, shirt with sleeves, hi vis vest, and a sky piece.

Speaking of being professional, have you ever noticed how Chinatown carries himself on here? How about Saddletramp? Don't know what he's saying? That's alright...he made you think. Good dude. There are others, but these are the two that came to my mind first. Anyways, don't worry too much about the trucker image as a whole. It's in the toilet with everything else that's "American". Just make sure you stand out of the crowd.

Adios.

 

One man's motorist blocking the L lane is another man's motorist maintaining a reasonable and prudent following distance. The circumstances you (vaguely) describe most strongly suggest the latter, otherwise the "stacked up" traffic would have passed.

 

Yes he is ... but YOU aren't.

You da man Wooly!

 

For what it's worth berg I'm with you. If the lanes were empty around him there's no reason for him to be there. I really don't think one call for that in is going to get him fired. Maybe a little talk with his boss might smarten him up. Where I run passing on the right is technically illegal. If there's an accident while you are passing on the right you can be cited.

 

In the course of 125,000 miles or more every year, I do some things that I would consider unprofessional and that I'm not proud of. I'll admit it.

But I probably would have lost my job by now if somebody had called in on every single mistake, or bad judgement call that I made.

I'll have to side with the rest - If it's a safety issue, then call the state patrol before somebody gets killed, otherwise let it go - you'll get used to it.

Example. Albuquerque, NM. We usually drive in the hammer lane at the posted speed limit right the way through. It upsets a few people from time to time. Why do we do it?
The majority of traffic enters and exits through town, and they drive like maniacs. They'll cut 2-3 lanes at a time, speed up, slow down - lots of erratic behavior. The SAFEST place for us is the left lane, just until we've gotten out of town. There's 2-3 other lanes for them to play NASCAR with, and they will. We've got space in front, can't control behind, but have a wide enough hammer shoulder to avoid a collision from the right, and that's it. Don't like it? Drive your own truck accident free for 10 years and come and talk to me.

 

Pulled a load into a TA. parked next to a Swift truck, dropped the trailer and parked my bobtail beside the trailer. Had a driver get upset. "Why are you taking up two spots?"

I pointed at the trailer. Backed all the way to the curb, it stuck out almost 6 ft past the hood of the Swift truck. "If I stay hooked to it, I will be sticking 25 ft out in the middle of the parking lot."

"Oh...didn't realize the load was so long."

I have drivers call in on me all the time. "Oh, he was speeding with an oversized." Or "He wouldn't let me on the interstate." No accidents, no tickets, no claims, no service failures. And the travel agent will call me.

"Yeah, I had a police escort running behind me. They didn't see the one in front. Cop in front asked me how fast my truck ran."

Gotta laugh.