Why is a safe following distance seen as an opportunity?

You sure drive slow. At 11 miles per hour a 6 second following distance is about 100 feet.

I get those trucks that need to fill the gap all the time. You can't control what others do and if you prioritize space it's going to happen.

 

@Diantane you can do very little to control other people's actions, but you can control your own.

There will always be other drivers trying to fill in that gap -- nothing you can do about it but let it grow again. At times it'll feel like a sisyphean endeavor, but it'll help keep everyone around you safer.

You should have at least a 500' gap between trucks at freeway speeds. More if you're following a car.

 

1.) OnGuard (cattle prod)
2.) Company Policy (handholding)

Your job sucks.

 

Yup which is why I'm looking to go back to school and get out of the industry altogether. That onguard and the industry in general needs a revamp if it wants to retain drivers.

 

^^
Best post of the day

 

Look for this babysitting to only get worse. I foresee a day when a trucker will pull into a weigh station and the weighmaster will get a readout of your hours driving and your average speed. A day will come when you will get a message from safety to not follow that car so close or when you docked you came close to hitting that other truck so you need to come in for more training.

 

You new people and interested parties: the above is typical for the big mega carrier van fleets. The cattle prod trucks is usually only in the bottom feeder van jobs, where you don't make any money and everyone in an office treated you like a moron. That is NOT the entire industry...just the garbage end.

 

I work for a pretty good company, made 77k last year but even we got that bs in our trucks too. I think it's going to be inevitable similar to the e logs they mandated for large fleets. I think smaller fleets and oos will be safe but everyone else will be dealing with the backseat brake pedal.

 

Find a company that doesn't force you to use such a moronic system like OnGuard. Then just sit back, relax and just drive. Being a professional means having fun in last place.