Does this go for every carrier???

I wouldnt imagine any carrier doing that..Slamming the brakes happens alot while driving a truck.Companies would rather you slam on the brakes,then hit the car that cut you off,or run over the stupid pedestrian that starts walking across the road while you are comming towards them..Thats where paying attention comes into play..If you see kids that are 10 seconds up the road from you playing kickball in their front yard,are you gonna stop??No,but you will tell yourself there is a possibility the kids could chase the ball out into the street,and you will prepare yourself to stop if you have to..

 

First Fleet can check a drivers braking due to their trks ECM being tied into the satellite communications. Therefore, any company with the same ability can do this. Even if braking is not tracked by satellite, it can still be tracked via the trks stored data on the ECM, and viewed when downloaded at a terminal, or in the event of an accident.

Big Brother IS watching you!

 

I'm gonna have to disagree with you there Iraqvet. I can drive through rush hour traffic in Atlanta and hardly ever touch my brake pedal—even when it's stop and go. In fact, most of the time I'm lucky if I touch my brake pedal at all. Lack of proper following distance will cause you to have to apply the brakes more often than you need to.

As for getting wrote up for a hard braking application, I'd say the company has to take into consideration the mitigating circumstances, as well as the driver's history of excessively hard braking. If it's a daily occurrence, then yep, by all means... write him up. If it's every once in a blue moon, then I don't think a write up is called for (unless it's like locking the brakes and sliding the trailer sideways sort of thing).

 

Sorry bud,but I think you didnt read my post all the way through..Your right,follwing distance is crucial.Tailgaiting promotes accidents.I was reffering to kids running in fornt of the truck,or a pedestrian walking out infront of the truck,or another vehicle inches from comming over into the trucks lane to early for them to safetly pass without the driver of the truck havin to back down.

 

These situations would (should) be the exception and not the rule. Thereby, leading to the fact that hard braking would/should be rarely done if one is using proper driving techniques.
Therefore, I must agree with Barcodes assesment.

 

Thats what I said..Exceptions to hard breaking are the things that are out of your control.Exmaples would be pedestrians not payin attention,and bad drivers.No one should ever have to brake hard for traffic lights,stop signs,following to close,off ramps,etc etc..

 

Good question! Ive often wondered the same thing...

 

Probably his company should not have wrote him up for that but maybe they also know other things that we dont. Also, in my opinion you will rarely hit/slam on your brakes that hard where it will be tracked by what ever computer system is on board. You will have lots of instances where you have to stop or slow down quick but they shouldnt be that hard and quick, they should be soft and quick.

 

If I'm not mistaken the ECM records hard brakes by the loss of Y MPH (whatever the carrier decides to set it at) in X amount of seconds. This will vary from company to company, as will the reprimand a driver might receive for it. This is a standard on all ECM's to the best of my knowledge. What isn't standard is individual company policies.