Question to the forum?

I lived in FL for 7 years and southern FL is little more than a bad combination of the Caribbean (the bad part of town surrounded by water) and NYC with heat 9 months of the year. In fact, FL is often called the southern most borough of NYC. I was standing in line at a fast food place one day and two guys from the same block in some part of NYC got into a near-violent argument about some restaurant in their neighborhood up north. It's crawling with people from everywhere but Cuba and they are usually illiterate in numerous languages. The Cubans, in my experience, are more like the landed gentry compared to all the Haitians, islanders, and whatever the Bloods and Crips call themselves these days.

 

Dieselbear, some of us go into trucking because of the solitude and travel and some people go into trucking because being an anti-social, ignoramus will get you fired from many other jobs. Other truck drivers' qualities was the number one reason I bought a series of MP3 players over the years, so I could never again be stuck in an argument with a high school drop-out telling me about "the truth" of some past job of mine or some such nonsense.

I've never had similar experiences outside of trucking as I routinely have with various truck drivers. The last event was a driver arguing about the benefits of always exceeding the posted advisory speed on exit ramps in a discussion he started about a dump truck going over the guardrail due to excessive speed. In most other fields everyone at least pretends to recognize the benefits of acting safely. Only in trucking do I routinely hear actors advocating and defending actions which they admit are deadly. In no other field have I had the experience of explaining to another driver how some action is safer, faster, saves or makes money, get their agreement on those points and then watch or hear them decide not to do that action, usually because in 1978 some now defunct company trainer said to do X. I understand laziness or holding on to a habit, just because it's a habit. In trucking, it's like bizarro world many times.

"They need to oil this gravel lot I can't see a darn thing through this dust" while doing 45 mph in the drop yard to "save" the 10 seconds it would take to drive so as to leave some of the dust on the ground.

 

DB: Don't worry! I hope you loaded enough on him that when CSA2010 comes into effect he'll have so many points he'll be applying at Mickey D's! He's #1 Just a walking mouth with no brains in control and #2 A rolling hazard to the rest of us! Wanna bet if you see him again you'll get him for some of the same things and more! I have 3 donuts and a pot of coffee I'll wager! ROFL!

 

I guess you need a "Mancard" to see it......

 

I took over a truck from a know it all disrespectful guy(funny thing is if you met this guy away from trucks and traffic in general he is a very nice guy) like that for a friend of mine . It's a seasonal haul and I got stopped the second trip coming home the officers remembered the truck and though I was the previous Driver. I could see the tension in the guys face when he came up to the window and asked for my log and the bueaurocratic bullcrap (interprovincial insurance number) by the time he read the log etc he realized I was a different driver and relaxed. By this time his partner had finised his walk around and came up braced for an arguement looks at the otherguy who was allmost laughing by then and realized also. They showed me a couple of things to change for next trip. That truck hasn't been stopped there since.
If it wasn't for the guys inforcing the rules, half the trucks wouldn't have decent brakes or tires and all kinds of dangerous stuff. I have more problem with authority than just about anybody. I'd like to ram the National saftey council up the clowns that implimented it's.... Same with the governor plans, if we wanted to live in cuba we would . But the rules are the rules and if we don't treat each other with respect who is gonna??

 

Hell.........I remember when TPIR was chiseled onto a stone tablet.........

 

I've only got pulled over once. The other time I stopped because I had a phone call. He just asked if everything was ok, told him I got off the road to take a call, thought I looked really young to be driving but handed him my CDL, he checked it out and said have a nice night. Very polite, just making sure everything was ok. The case of getting pulled over was by a mexican texas dot that could barely speak english. Had a hard time understanding him. He fed me this #### that I was driving on the improved shoulder just north of Laredo on the exit ramp to the toll road down to the port/border when I saw him passing me then he looked up at my mirror then slowed down and jumped back in behind me almost causing a wreck with the truck behind him in the hammer lane. He was discriminating because I looked to young and was trying to find a reason to get me. Asked for my log book and he could have shut me down but didn't know what he was looking at right there in his face but asked why a day was missing and showed him I marked two days off on the same sheet for my truck being in the shop a week earlier so he kept looking and couldn't find anything to get me on so he wrote me a BS warning. Come through the port of entry down there and every time they ask if I am a U.S. citizen, I smart off saying "more so than you pal!" They hate that.

I'm basically respectful until given reason not to be. If they pull me over for something I did or something wrong with my truck then I'll just take it with a grain of salt. No need in getting pissed off about it because my truck and the thing's I do are my responsability.

 

I've found that typically in Nebraksa it doesn't matter how nice you are, your most likely getting a ticket or written warning. Hell, I've gotten written warnings in Nebraska when everything was perfect, but I forgot to dot the i in my first name. Colorado, NM, and Wyo. are not as strict, I once was stopped for 73 in a 65 in Wyo., I was a pleasent as I could be to the trooper and he let me off with a verbal warning, but I've also tried the same trick in Ne. and gotten a ticket for 3 over.

 

I have been pulled over and pulled in several times....
Treat the officers with respect....only one time did I get sheyat...
And that was from a NHP trooper who didn't understand my HOS graph....
I had to remove that day's page (Loose-leaf copy...can't beat them for ease of use) and explain it to him.....

I wasn't a smart ### but I thought it ironic that a member of NV's finest had to have HOS explained to him.....


I digress....I also have had occasions where nobody was in a hurry and the topic of fishing came up......making for a pleasant time for all....

 

Hmmm....I think with a truck not in compliance as he was pull around back and put out of service with everything else. No respect is what I would call it....welcome to my world.