Driving with ear plugs

Oh man.....you got that right!

 

At first I thought this thread was about driving with ear buds/headphones on, listening to music or whatever. I see a lot of guys who drive our Fedex delivery trucks doing this, probably doing it because the radio is shot in their truck, probably doing it to get through the day, but I disagree with it so much. Their ability to judge their surroundings is very compromised. Their ability to hear sirens, railroad signals, horns, voices of pedestrians who might not be paying attention, sounds of the truck acting up, all compromised. If I stay with Fedex and ever become a manager of our company's trucks in this terminal, that will be the FIRST thing I will look to eradicate.

 

Let me guess. Ban the ability to hear music, because it would be cheaper than fixing the equipment.

 

I'm not following. When a radio breaks, it's not viewed as something necessary to fix, and it doesn't get fixed. I would strongly disagree with that because driving a route with no radio is probably a huge hit in driver morale. I'm lucky enough to have a nicer, newer truck with a working radio and I listen to sports radio all day, and if I didn't have that, it would reduce my quality of life as a driver. I would advocate the fixing of radios as a priority, and very much look to ban the use of ear buds from drivers who want to listen to their own ipods, because it is a danger.

 

I worked in management for many years. They always say one thing and then do the one that is the cheap way out. Good intentions aside, it is the way they operate.

 

Well I'm not in management, I'm just a route driver who drives a truck for a contractor. If you were a contractor who owned 15 trucks, wouldn't you just much rather just fix the radios in your trucks if it meant preventing even two preventable accidents a year because the drivers weren't as aware of their surroundings as they should have been while taking up other means?

 

I have answered it how I believe they will do it.

Stop and ask one sometime.

 

Well I have asked, and my conclusion is that they don't do enough risk assessment, and I don't know why. Not trying to be combative with you, don't know why you are with me.

 

I am not being combative.

I commend you for your thoughts.

I am just presenting a realistic picture. It comes down to their profit.

 

If you drive for a contractor , it would be Ground, and team - right?

Wife and I drive team and wear headphones, 1 ear on and one off - so the other can SLEEP.

Not a problem, safer than talking on a Bluetooth in my opinion - I can't focus in driving when I'm talking to the phone sex line girl.