CMV Fatalities at Highest Rate Since 1988

So a person with common sense could walk up to a CMV and know how to adjust a slack adjuster, know how much air pressure is needed for the brakes to work, and know the minimum legal tire tread depth? Wow that's impressive

 

I think you miss understood, what we are missing today is common sense. No I don’t think someone then never been in a cmv would know what you have mentioned. That being said, I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve been behind some company driver riding their brakes down a 6% 4 mile grade and I can smell their brakes not even half way down. Or being passed in a no passing zone on a 2 lane highway. I was taught by my cousin who has been trucking since ‘99 and never had a accident. He taught me how to make the road work in your favor, like speeding up a bit before a hill then letting up on the throttle before you crest. Saves fuel, and being in a lower gear before you start going down or not racing to a red light only to stop hard. Instead, letting off the throttle a distance back so by the time you roll to the light it’s already green and the cars already moved (saves brakes and fuel not stopping hard and continuing from a 20mph roll instead of a dead stop). My biggest issue is the drivers that want to go slow but speed up in the passing zone or when you go to overtake. What I was trying to say is a lot of today’s drivers are missing common sense, like they don’t realize the weight they have behind them and the fact that most company drivers are not mechanically inclined. In the past you were thought from someone who’s been on the road and could teach you the tricks of the trade. Mind you I’m only 26 and only got into this trade in 2017, but I’ve always liked driving and been wrenching on cars from 14 years old. I’m also not a jack ##*, if your trying to go faster then me, I’ll let you pass and will even flash my lights when it’s ok to merge back into my lane.

 

I'm wondering how you know what kind of training the guy in front of you has.

 

Easy, by the way he/she is operating the cmv. It’s not hard to tell if someone should or should not be behind the wheel of that machine. Speeding, riding someone’s ##*, not maintaining safe following distance, or like I’ve said before relying on there brakes going down a grade. Some drivers can’t even back into a spot at the truck stop. I’ve had to help a few, I’m not saying I’m better then all others. But I was lucky to receive training from someone who received training from his (our) uncle who also had 20 years of trucking under his belt without a accident. In the short time I have been trucking I’ve witness truckers do some real dumb s*** that made me question how they even got a CDL in the first place.

 

There’s still a lot of us out here on paper ,I just kind of wonder what the statistics are of drivers on paper crashing ?

 

Can’t be more then the years prior to the ELD mandate.

 

They should only count crashes involving other motorists.

 

Yep

 

I agree, seems the goal of many Drivers, is to drive like their in a 4 wheeler., things like letting another Truck out, from behind a slow Vehicle, seem to be lost. They drive as if they can’t see past their nose.

 

little OT but I-26 west yesterday I had a guy pulling a container out of Charleston pass me at about 80 mph+. I was going about 72 and he freakin' zoomed past me. I was thinking the whole time that he was going to hurt somebody. Sure enough, I saw him about 10 minutes later on the right shoulder with an SUV. He had hit 'em in the tail. Like I told somebody yesterday though, the vast majority of jack-donkey driving is done in passenger cars. that's a fact that cannot be disputed