Are They Teaching This In School Now?

Many, maybe most, fleet trucks are doingbtheir max speed and there is no more speed to get from mashing the pedal. I've ridden behind drivers that are 1 mph slower than me for an hour plus or 60 or more miles hoping one of us will find some speed, exit, slow, go into a scale etc. I also havevregular trips that require 10:45-10:55 of driving in 11 hours so eventually I will initiate a pass that isn't as quick as I want. Of course I time the pass as best as I'm able to minimize delay of others and at a climb or descent that maximizes our speed difference. But if a slower driver is being a jerk I might not notice he has merging traffic coming down a ramp or that his lane is ending/turning.

I always help out a slow passer beside me. He wouldn't have got beside me if he was slower, so why prolong the pass? If I notice avtruck stayingvwith me over minutes/miles, I'll knock the cruise speed down 2 so he can pass. I don't understand the drivers working to keep from being passed. It's not a defeat to be passed.

 

The freightliner cruise control is usually set by the company in economy mode (to save the company fuel) and can't be changed by the driver. This is one of the reasons that I almost never use the cruise control in my truck.

It will keep you going 65 only about 1/2 or less of the time. Usually only on flat or slightly up hill can you maintain 65. If you start going up hill it will try to maintain 65. Once you get close to the top and there is a downhill on the other side it will coast down to 59 or even 57 mph to try to hit 65 by the time the truck gets to the bottom of the other side (and yes the truck is programmed to the actual map to know how steep the road is) and this annoys me so much that I just mash the pedal 99% of the time. Then once the truck is at the bottom of the hill the cruise control will try to power up the next hill at 65 again but if there isn't a hill to climb and there is a slight down grade the dumb truck with be happy to just keep going 62-63 for a while.

I notice this right away with other drivers now and use it for my plan to pass them asap.

 

Why dont u reach over there and press the little button that says cruise control OFF

 

U know sometimes it is just easier to pull of an exit for rest area for 2 minutes and let the idiots get away from u. No reason to get bent out of shape for a guy going to 2 mph slower.. If u really is running that tight on time ya really need to plan ya day better

 

I like the guys who say they drop the cruise 1or 2 mph to help the other guy pass. Lol! Thanks for the help good buddies.

 

I would LOVE to see all you Supertrucks and Hotdogs drive a governed company truck for about a week. Perhaps then you could maybe understand that the 'simple' solutions you so 'commonsensly' think we should do, are not really very workable and that we are usually doing about the best we can do. We are still responsible to get our loads delivered, ON TIME, the same as you, but we have many limitations you do not have and have to simply do the best we can with what we have to work with.
Additionally, many of us are still rather new and learning. Usually takes about 2 years experience until most other driver options are readily open to us.
So, while I truely understand and emphasized with your gripes, please understand we are doing what we can. Many of us do our best not to hinder traffic, but we've got to get down the road same as you, and we have pick up and delivery appointments we must get to also.

 

Well when you can't actually control the accelerator or brakes on your truck when traveling at your maximum speed it would seem wise that you wouldn't even attempt to pass other 80klbs trucks who are going 1/2-2 mph faster than the speed in which you can control the accelerator or brakes.

Don't you think?

 

I drive a governed truck and it is always much easier to back down 2 mph and follow behind the guy . Even if u maintain the same 2 mph difference over that truck for the course of a 10 hr driving day u are only 20 miles in front of him. And the reality is, that is nearly impossible to do that because on of u is gonna be heavier and lighter as u hit the hill. One of u is gonna hit an offramp for a 30 break. U are not gonna follow a guy for 10 hrs straight unless it is planned out... u are gaining nothing in the end but creating a rolling roadblock.. If u are really tapped so hard on time that a litteral extra minute is going to make a difference u really need to grow a spine and tell ya dispatcher to shove it. The linehaul guys are the worse with turtle racing . And they try to justify it with because their routes are all planned around 10.5 hrs of driving time. There is so many variables of what makes up ur average speed. And if ur truck is governed at 65mph u will never average that speed . It is going to be more like 60 or 58. Therefore if ya drop that speed from 65 to 63 , over the course of say 2 hours to run behind a guy . Ur average speed over the course of 11 hrs of driving has changed by a fraction of a mph...

 

I had some dingbat in a car pass me and do just that. I soon as my headlights were in his mirror again he bolted like a spooked deer.

Said dingbat pushed it to over a hundred mph in a huff. Never saw that car again. And life was good.

 

I wouldn't make it 2 days driving some pos governed like that.