Truck Driving Etiquette

I doubt all of us will agree on this passing issue and this is great because it reflects diversity of opinions and experiences. However there is one thing drivers need to consider when they are in this situation. The longer that other truck is out in the left lane more and more traffic builds. This bunching increases the likelihood of a crash. I remember a day on I-70 in Ohio a 4 wheeler got fed up and passed a truck in the breakdown lane. The car just as it passed the truck picked up a large rock and the rock hit the windshield in such an angle that a small chunk of glass landed in the drivers eye. I know your chances of getting struck by lightning is better then this, but it happened. Trust me on this, you DO NOT want to be on the head end of a bunch of cars who's drivers are angry at you. Road rage incidents are happening every single day now. I remember an incident where a truck driver was killed by gunshots. A car pulled along side the truck and started shooting.
Another time drivers need to back off is in very heavy city traffic and an idiot gets inside your safety cushion. If per chance your truck makes contact with that car you most likely are going to have a bad day. Oh by the way that driver in Ohio spent 8 hours in an emergency room. Was late for a pickup and lost the load. Trust me it was painful and a tad expensive I know because I was that driver.

 

Ok you flash your lights as soon as I clear your front bumper and then when I am 20 feet off your front bumper and then again another 20 feet in front of that. I know where my F$%#ING trailer is and I am not about to take a chance of you running into it. Not that you are gonna hurt a lowboy with 70k or more on the deck, I just don't have the time to waste.

I am gonna be wide and heavy and if you can not or will not get up to the speed limit so that I can get a run at the hill coming up, I will go around you. I don't have the time or patience to spend a week crawling up a hill when grossing 150-200k. Yep you are going to pass me going up hill but by the time I get to the top you will be far enough ahead that it usually does not matter any more. I am not talking about mountain passed but those hills that are from 1/4 to 1 mile long but will slow me from 65 to 25 before I am half way up.

 

He has no business passing if he is only going 1/2 to 1 mile per hour faster than the other guy. I don't know what is going on with people thinking they are entitled to pass regardless of their slow trucks, that the guy they are passing owes them a 'slow down' so they can get by.

 

I've had people pass me on the shoulder more than once, both on freeway and 2 lane roads. I never run less than the speed limit, so anybody that passes me is going too fast

 

While sitting in a truck stop, key up the mic twice but don't say anything. Repeat every 30 seconds, and after a couple of minutes name a random channel. Good way to get local information for a delivery. If you're not sure how to get to a place, some helpful driver will guide you in the back way.

 

I thought the object of cutting back in "quick" was to scrape the bugs off of the bumper but leave the chrome?

I just wish the governed trucks had the power to maintain the governed speed.

 

Mansfield bars. Some bleeding heart tried to argue that if trucks had those bars on it, Jane Mansfield wouldn't have gotten herself killed.

 

I've got to weigh in on the passing debate. I'm a freshly hatched driver, but I've also been a 4-wheeler for almost 30 years - so I know a thing or two about being on the road (just like everybody else).

I'm in a 63mph governed truck, I don't go using the snooze control to pass anybody inside major municipalities during rush hour or if my pass is going to create a bunch up in the middle of nowherediana.. That's what the mirrors are for. Anybody who jumps out in the left lane to pass does have an obligation to do it as promptly as safely as the equipment will allow. However, the argument that the slower truck doesn't owe me a slow-down is selfish. What is this, NASCAR? You have a slower machine and you are being over-taken are you going to lose driver points, or just some pride by getting off the gas for 3 seconds to let me continue on down the highway? By the same token, when I am being overtaken - it doesn't bum me out to let the other truck past me. Why leave him out to dry, or deal with the aerodynamics, or any other things that could go wrong when you get two big bodies together and top with the nuts in the mini-mobiles?

Saying that you drive a slower truck and don't "owe" a slow-down to a guy passing you makes as much sense to me as two geezers racing towards the tapioca at the old folks home. It's going to be there when we both get there. I'd half expect some of the pedal mashers to have a riding crop out and smacking their door like it was the final furlong at the Belmont. It's not like letting me pass is going to roll up the pavement behind me and keep you from getting to your next stop. I've got somewhere to go just like you do, why hold me up if I am hammering by with my turtle? Heck, maybe I'll be at the T/S there to hold the door when we go in.

 

No offense intended, but if I didn't have the "time" or "patience" to be courteous, I think I'd find a new gig. Not referring to the light flashing thing, just the getting a run at the hill thing. You're telling us that you'd blow by another driver at the bottom of a hill, only to get in front of him when climbing it? Thus creating another potential hazard by jamming up traffic and other drivers, just so you could gain 5 seconds to be out in front for however long it takes the lighter trucks to pass you? Super trucking at its finest.

 

One more point and I'm retiring from this debate. People are going to drive how they please. I guarantee you that a majority of Truckers will get out in that left lane and parallel someone in the right for miles and miles. Further they don't give a dang who or how many they bunch up. I've seen 20 or 30 trucks one behind the other bunched up in BOTH lanes. I've seen things tossed out of auto's in retaliation for doing this. Road rage is not something that happens every once in a while. Its now par for the course. You might not agree, you might be right now thinking up a snappy and witty reply calling me an idiot that don't know what I am talking about. You might even just ignore my words and keep on doing as you please. But know this. Keep this activity up and its not a matter of if your a road rage victim, its a matter of how long before it happens and how severe it is. That bit of glass I spoke of in a previous post landed in my right eye and penetrated my eye and cut the inside of my lash in two places. My carriers safety department would not let me drive till I was released to drive by a doctor. I set in a hotel for two days recovering so I could get that release. My right eye hurt me for over a week. All because of road rage!

If you ever get into a situation resulting from road rage I hope it don't cause you legal problems later. Problems that can end your career or cost your freedom. Some ambulance chasing attorneys love to file suits just to see what falls out. Their sneaky and crooked. The drive a way company I worked for in the 90s got sued by one of these lowlifes. Our safety man told me setting in his office that guy actually contacted a witness asking them to change their story. As a trucker your CDL means criminals drivers license to them. And with everything else going on truckers can never expect a level playing field. So why drive in this way? Why toss a lighted match into a puddle of gasoline that might very well burn you very badly?

Anyway I'm out of it, keep on Trucking.