Waving at the drivers

I do it all the time and know other drivers that do it yes there is some thing behind it but can't remember what it is

 

I think it's called being polite or having good manners or something. Why wouldn't you acknowledge someone from the same company. Heck, I wave at most trucks.

 

It used to mean comradeship and company loyalty. On two-lane roads, drivers gave various hand signals about scales and speed traps. It was a professional courtesy.

Nobody knows anybody at the big companies today. CB has replaced hand signals. Company trucks all look alike.

 

Yep, it's just ya have something in common, we do it, but we only have 12 trucks. The other companies that haul forest products and us, all wave at each other, regardless of the company. I've had guys going the opposite way on the big road blow the horn at me when I'm at a rest area. Of course a lot of us drive the same route every day, so you usually recognize the truck, if not the driver.

 

When I worked for JB Hunt, it was more like a matter of keeping my friends close and my enemies closer. Their drivers are always calling in on each other for nitpicky, stupid stuff.

I remember a trainer that made a U-turn across I-10 east of Houston (in the old days when you could just drive across the median). I had a headlight out and drove like that for a few days until I could get to a terminal. He was screaming at me on the CB to pull over and stop. I ignored the fool, so he pulled up next to me and forced me onto the shoulder. He tried to force me to stop so he could replace the burned out headlight right there on the highway. At the terminal, he followed me in and reported me to safety like he had some secret authority or something.

JB's safety folks are extremely ANAL, but this stupid trainer was way over the top. When they realized he made a U-turn across I-10 to chase me down, they told him to clean out his truck.

So when I waved to another JB Hunt driver, it was to cover up my face so he wouldn't recognize me.

And if I waved like all the other drivers, I wouldn't stand out in a crowd.

 

If I'm sitting somewhere, and I see someone from the same company, I'll go over and talk to them. Sometimes, it's just a few minutes of ####-chat, and sometimes there's something they need help with which I can help them with (and sometimes there's something they need help with which I can't help them with). The lease-purchase trucks are pretty easy to recognize... mine, not so much. We have the "leased to.." sticker on the sidebox of the company we're leased to, and a much larger logo for the fleet. That's typically what they'd see first, and most wouldn't recognize it. So I don't really wave, unless it's someone I actually know.