Does driving a straight truck make you a better driver?

I don't think it makes any real difference. You will learn how to handle the size and weights as you drive the truck, regardless! As to translating this going from a straight truck to an articulating vehicle, you are almost starting over. Most anybody can get into any kind of a truck and make it go forward with little problems. The primary difference is when you are backing. Driving a straight truck does NOT prepare you for these new driving challenges. A seasoned driver can make operating a tractor-trailer seem easy. Just take note, appearances can be VERY deceiving!

 

Maybe im wrong but i took the question differently than the way you guys took it. I dont think he is comparing straight truck to tractors. I think he meant as a 4 wheeler driver. If a 4 wheeler driver was to have a job driving a big straight truck all day, would it make him a better car driver over all. If thats the question, i would say yes

 

After re-reading the question I think you are right about what the question was. However, I am going to be stubborn and stick to my no answer. In general, I don't think it does. It should, there is no question about that one. Oh, there are exceptions to everything I guess. I have seen people that drive trucks act stupid around trucks on the highway while in small vehicles. To be a better driver would require thought and reasoning. Take a look at the threads on these boards over the past 10 years or so. Honestly, rational thought is not something you can see from all that many drivers of CMVs.

Take a long look at this photo. I have no idea if it is not photoshopped (I actually hope it is). If real do you think it shows a driver deploying rational thought to solve a problem? This is why I say no to that question. Agreed it should but in practice? It does not in far too many cases!

 

Ha never saw that one

 

I drive a 30 foot 26,000 G.V.W. Freightliner Rollback.
Been driving straight trucks since 1983.
Don't know, but it sure makes you aware of curbs, using your mirrors, load securement, and tail swing.
Maybe my answer is - makes you overall a more cautious and aware driver.
I have one of those big 3 foot, 5 paneled rear view 270 degree view mirrors. Love it.
Makes me strongly dislike cars riding in the left lane slower than traffic.
Not too keen on people cutting right in front of me after they pass me, my second, or # 2, pet peeve.
As a first responder, not to happy with blowing off the "Move over" law, when my amber strobe is on.
I think time doing anything is a factor, but in my case it's a no complacency zone; it's deadly to be lax.

 

I’ve noticed a funny phenomenon over the last 30 years that I call car rage syndrome. (Someone I’m sure can come up with a better name). It involves off duty truck drivers as well. The latest example is the Industrial Park that the tire inspection center I work at has a mixture of truck company terminals like SouthEastern, Fed Ex freight( the old Watkins terminal), Keebler, Core Mark, a couple other food service and liquor distributors, steel suppliers, pre-fab concrete and bridge beams, and a major crate engine rebuilder. So we have trucks of all kinds, shapes, and sizes running around here daily. Lots of cars too. We built this warehouse in ‘09 so we've been here almost 11 years so you get to know uniforms,faces, and vehicles without actually meeting the people in them.
What I see daily is trucks creeping in slowly, giving courtesy to other drivers, pedestrians, and businesses. ( some guys with straight pipes like me keeping it cool and quiet as to not rattle any office windows) generally being decent cool good people.
THEN!
Some but not all of these same people get in their pov’s to go home and become raging racing a-holes. Driving like it is their first day. The same guys with straight pipe trucks may now be in their Dodge Cummins Pickup rolling coal thru the complex.
The major road we have to pull out onto to leave the complex becomes a warzone from all the people leaving at the end of their shifts.
Its a very interesting phenomenon for sure.