What gives?!?!

I think the need for navigation the biggest. Lots couldn’t read maps. At all, or well. (So, of course, it was always most fun to give those verbal directions as North-South versus Right-Left; some really shouldn’t be piloting more than a tricycle. “Wadda mean ya ain’t got a compass? Which ways the sun?”).

Seemed to be plenty of cities with guys who were housebound, and great at helping. I can’t remember names (unfortunately). Was a black guy in Dallas in mornings kept the brothers turned the right way. It’s always the last two miles. JJD?

You add the lessened need for help (company directions and early satellite stuff in late 90s) AND bad trucks for radios, that alone killed some desire. Then it snowballed.

Still can’t beat it for great stories. Just two guys off in the distance comparing notes on similar gigs. That’s where the good ones start.

 

I had radios way before Smokey and the Bandit and I can tell you its a lot different now but CB is not dead. Just wait until you get in a traffic jam. The radio will come alive.

I use Waze app for road hazards and the CB for everything else. I will still broadcast road hazards when I see them with my own eyes

 

I report road and other hazards too.

I also often report police units. My main reason for this is to give a little "reward" for those who are using their radios on the road even if they aren't speeding, and as a confirmation that their radio's working, and when I get a response, a confirmation that mine is working too.

 

Yep I still broadcast problems to my colleagues on both sides of the road but i cant trust other drivers to do the same, so i also have Waze running. Hard to beat Waze for bear reports

 

Hmmmmm, I'm thinking you must be in your RV now. If you were trucking way before Smokey and the Bandit, you ought to be retired by now!

 

If they aren't speaking English then they aren't speaking to you. Dont worry about it.

 

As a teenager in the early and mid-70's, we didn't have cell phones, pagers and all that stuff, so a lot of us guys would have a little CB in our cars. We'd holler across the valleys and find out where everybody was hanging out, etc. Of course when the Smokey movie came out CB sales skyrocketed. As for driving I just run around in my little 4-wheeler now. I still do emergency weekend runs for an outfit I am still friendly with. Maybe 1 run every month or two when a driver gets sick or a truck gets abandoned, etc etc. Couple of months ago they flew me from Atlanta to Chicago on a Saturday AM. I hopped in a loaded truck and drove back to Atlanta and spent the night at home. Woke up Sunday AM and drove to Miami and dropped the truck. Hopped a plane from Miami to Atlanta. In other words I spent every night in my own bed...

 

I could handle a deal like that! I've been offered some emergency runs like that, but would have had to jump in a truck behind a disgruntled employee, not knowing who or what he/she had been hauling around and how nasty they'd lived, with no opportunity for some house cleaning prior to. Since I'd only be doing it for the adventure, I've declined all the offers. Thinking about a Class A diesel pusher and a leisurely trip
across the country......................

 

Yes but if they don’t speak English they shouldn’t be on the road with us......2 guys running together and speaking foreign i couldn’t care less but trucking full time and not speaking the language that shouldn’t exist....

 

Oh, you can get a drivers license using a test in Spanish. A CDL is a little harder (or you pay mordida down in the Rio Grande Valley), so its not a barrier.

Plus, anything but English is illegal on the CB. As that’s consistent with their behavior otherwise — an illegal alien is an unconvicted felon, as I next like to remind them on-air — their willingness to assimilate, to become Americans, is evident by their actions. Their speech.