New L/P operator with questions about minimizing costs

He isnt argueing, he is speaking basic fundamental driving safety. 4 seconds at highway speeds is not safe at all.

 

I am not looking for anyone to argue with. I'm stating facts. 4 seconds following distance at highway speeds is a Darwin Award waiting to happen, no matter how good the road conditions are.

If a 4-second following distance was your habit, for any significant amount of time, then you are a lucky SOB that nobody ever laid into their brakes hard in front of you.

 

How long have you been driving . Practice the 4 second rule . There is atleast truck length and half. Your saying that isnt safe . Ive used that rule for 30yrs never been a problem cant remember anybody complaining either except on here. Nobody has ever tapped their brakes that im aware of. The law says 4 sec . Why is that a problem with you guys . Im not running 70mph im typically running 63.

 

CMV Driving Tips - Following Too Closely | FMCSA It says 4 seconds if under 40mph.
How to Calculate Proper Following Distance Part 1

 

I've been driving trucks for 4 years. I've been driving since I was 15, (34 years driving) and have never been at fault in any accident, though I've been at the receiving end of a couple careless drivers.

However, the amount of time I've been driving is meaningless, because physics doesn't care.

Physics says that if you are 4 seconds behind another vehicle, and they brake hard, you will either hit them, or go out of lane to avoid them. Period. End of discussion. You lose too much time to reaction speed and air brake activation to match their deceleration.

Here is a site that explains things reasonably well for cars and light trucks.

https://nacto.org/docs/usdg/vehicle_stopping_distance_and_time_upenn.pdf

Commercial vehicle numbers will be different, but even cars and light trucks are estimated to have a stopping time from 60 MPH of 4.4 seconds. NOT including recognition and reaction times.

It's pretty clear that you were taught bad information, and have never been in a situation that taught you differently in the school of hard knocks. That's understandable.

However, here and now Mr. Physics and I are telling you that a 4 second following distance is death waiting to happen. Yours or someone else's. I can't make you listen, but if you really want me to, I can prove it with explicit math.

 

A truck and a half length away highway speeds is ridiculously to close. Even in perfect conditions. That's just about a hundred and ten freaking feet. Can you come to a complete stop in 110 feet? If the answer is no, which it is, then it's to freaking close.

 

Not doing a pre trip in the morning with freezing rain and temp at 10 deg outside is ridicuously unsafe as well. But im sure your the first 1 in the morning outside doing yours. Do you do a pretrip at 2am in a snowstorm checking your slack adjusters checking your air lines under the truck . I doubt you do. But you will jump at the opportunity to prove you do. All while preaching safety.

 

last I checked 4 sec. at freeway speed is 360 PLUS feet...!!