Safety Vest, do you wear one?

Must be nice toting that reefer or dry van around from dock to dock, ain't it?

Pulling a lowboy locally, I leave the yard with steel toes on every day (oh no, no sandals?!?)

As well as a safety vest, and hard-hat.

Not all parts of trucking have the convenience of being able to park in spots where you can be sure no one will hit you. Case-in-point, highway paving jobs at night, single-lane closure. People are already pissed off that the traffic slowed down because of the lane closure, so, they're speeding through the single open lane, a few feet away from you as you're un-chaining a machine that you then have to run-off the trailer.

Another case-in-point, school construction jobs. School's are rarely designed with anything larger than a school-bus in mind and can have some absolutely horrendous set-ups for getting in and out, some are so bad, or so tight, and because the school doesn't want side-walks chewed up, or grass driven over, that you can't get in and out, and you're "roading" machines in. In other words, park in-between the double-yellows separating the opposite lanes of traffic, and again, sometimes with less than a foot between you and the lane, you're un-chaining a machine. And the sites aren't always going to be providing you traffic-control to do stuff like this. It's real fun in well-to-do neighborhoods where most people are never around stuff like this and aren't aware of the danger. Nothing like having a 7,000lb. SUV fly by you at 40mph a couple feet away from you.

We all try to be safe, vigilant, watchful, etc., but, not every side of this industry has the convenience of slamming a couple doors and setting the cruise control out on the highway.

Part of why you make more doing something like pulling a lowboy is because it is more dangerous.

 

I apologize for the remark about looking dorky, I just have an aversion to being told what to do for my own good.

 

Don't we all.But like it or not its here to stay.

 

I have done curb side, center lane (turning lane) driver unloads.. with a dry van.. some pllaces are just not ment for todays rigs.. i wear steel toes all the time.. i do know what its like to have trafic not give hoooott bout what yourè doing wearing a safety vest. or not.. the color does stand out tho..

 

As an auto transport,lowboy hand,logger or construction site driver your PPE is a common thing. A hard hat prolly won't save you if a log falls on top of you but hey he had his hard hat on. It got so bad, boy ppl are (insert your favorite term) that I would park a unit/car about 20 feet behind the trailer so they would rearend it before running into me. It is good to be off road again. Just you, the truck and dirt.

 

if I get out of the truck on the side of the road in the dark, I generally have my flashlight in one hand, shining towards traffic and will sometimes wear my vest. In the winter, when chaining whether day or night I always have my safety vest on over my jacket.

 

I have to do a lot of this at car dealerships, they'll spend millions on a dealership to make it look fancy, yet you get to unload on the road, center turn lane or shoulder. I almost threw a 2X4 through a SUVs windshield when he almost hit me and he could of moved to the outside lane, instead he was too busy texting to see a big semi sitting in the turn lane.


I also take the same ethic I do in truck stops and race tracks, NEVER turn your back on a moving vehicle!!!!!!

 

I've seen some of the spots the car-haulers unload. There's one in particular I can think of where I live, on an extremely busy street, where the only place to unload is in the center of the road between the yellows.

Ever so often, you wonder at some places if they finish building it and someone asks, "So, where's the truck going to unload at?"

And everyone goes, "Hmmm...???"

And then they break for lunch.

 

First. Why put yourself out of your truck near traffic? I do load checks in safer places than on the side of the road. Vest or no vest. That's asking to be hit.

I wear a hard hat and reflective vest on job sites, around operating cranes, and some customer yards that mandate it. I don't wear it while driving or walking into the truckstop, etc. I don't want to look like a refuse hauler.