I drive a car. What can I do, and avoid doing, to better share the road with trucks.

It's story time all the kids gather 'round

 

One eye boss man can kiss my ### if he's telling me to go when there's ice on the road. My ship, my call whether it moves. The load can be rescheduled; someone's life can't be un-taken if #### (literally) goes sideways

 

Is it raining? Headlights on.
Is it dawn, dusk or dark? Headlights on.
Is it snowing? Headlights on.

TL;DR when in doubt, headlights on. Especially in poor weather conditions, it makes it MUCH easier to see you, because where the mist coming off our trailers might obscure you, your headlights cut through that crap and we can see you in the mirror.

Beyond that, like everyone else has been saying. Maintain speed, don't hang out next to my drives, tandems, steers, or anywhere in between, pass with authority, and drive predictably. We have a general idea of what you're likely to do that way, and we're usually pretty well obliged to facilitate you doing it. That said, we also know most of the warning signs of the various brands of stupid, and depending on what we're pulling, the weather/road conditions, and a couple other factors, we might not be able to avoid deleting folks who pull those stunts. The best way you can be conscientious around us is to be another average, law-abiding driver with a bit of common sense, as uncommon as that seems to be these days

 

Come now, OH is like CA. We've all done better than double nickel through there... god knows I have, anyway. I don't believe in being an obstruction, to the best of my ability.

As for X1... take his stories for what they are. Entertaining as hell to read, but probably not quite as true as they could be. Us truckers are as bad as fishermen when it comes to embellishing on our tales

 

Ha,. You said a mouthful there!!

 

And deleting the idiots.

And yes ONCE in a blue moon I'll veer towards the make up story telling. But not too often. Half the stuff I don't believe it myself anyway ha...

Maybe I should write a book, fiction titled "Uncle Earl Learns to drive a Big rig" or something such.

 

Four pet peeves I have with four wheelers are:
1. Passing me and then making an immediate exit to the right.
Look down the road a few seconds and know your exit. The world will NOT come to an end if you pull behind a truck, exercise a few seconds of patience, then exit in a calm, safe manner.

2. Don't tailgate a truck and don't match a truck's speed while alongside a truck.

3. When merging, use your car's speed to your advantage and pull ahead of a truck quickly if safe to do so. Don't cower on the shoulder with your car half way over the line for 500 feet. Punch it and go like the wind.

If you feel like you cannot overtake the truck on the acceleration lane, then adjust your speed and quickly position your car behind the truck. Don't the bonehead who hesitates then has to punch it just to pass on the shoulder all the while flinging rocks, dirt, and debris.

Yes, many acceleration lanes are short, even too short, and are actually dangerous in situations where even moderate traffic conditions exist.

When you encounter a yield sign, don't expect another car or truck to move over for you. Yield means giving way to vehicles already present on that road.

4. Two parts here: when you pass a truck, please don't slow down or vary your speed. Set cruise control and be on your way.
If you pass a truck going downhill, you should leave more space between your car and the truck, and anticipate the truck gaining speed quickly behind you. This is simply a matter of physics.

Thank you for seeking advice on this forum.

 

It's true, though. With more and more experience, I've gotten better and better at reading people's behavior and successfully predicting which ones have a terminal case of stupid and will try to brake check me... I used to ##### and moan about how this job had the impossible requisite of being clairvoyant, but man do I feel stupid for that now. It just takes a little practice to acquire the skill set, and a lot of patience for the many variations of idiot there are on the road.

As for the deleting idiots bit... it was more intended to be a warning in general, especially geared towards open decks with steel coils, but also referring to the boxes that you quite literally never know what's in there. Like, I treated those peanuts I hauled as a suicide load, because of how prone I'd been told they were to shifting, and good god did I get that lesson reinforced the hard way. Had I not been paying attention, I would've deleted that ####### who decided it would be funny to brake check the big truck... and as it were, all the weight had shifted so far forward that I had to slide my tandems and my fifth wheel to make myself legal again, and if I'd tried swerving or if I'd been on a curve of any kind, my truck would've been on its side

 

Thats the thing MGE Dawn touched upon that is really important for cars to understand.

There is a commandment in trucking taught way back when. Sometimes its way better to take the hit. The people in the car are going to die really badly if not maimed for life. But take the hit. Especially if loaded a certain way that precludes evasion action.

I used to sweat cold worried about my big suicide coils. If I did not have the courage to put up with those kinds of loads I would have left flatbedding a long time ago.