rules

Thanks for the info. Sounds reasonable.

I also know that radar/lidar units have to be calibrated.

Is it true that radar doesnt work in the rain? It seems true since they use radar to measure rain....

but how much rain does it take to block radar?

Anyhow, next time it happens, i WILL take it to court, i WILL represent myself, and i WILL win... Even if it costs thousands. That was my first ticket, and i did not realize what it would do to my insurance. Good lord...

 

The culture of trucking is very, very different that the culture of widely acknowledged professions. Anyone that has had extended contact with engineering, professional trades, etc will acknowledge this simple truth.

Very few people, truck drivers or car drivers, really respect the skill of driving. It's easy to nderstand why since almost everyone starts driving at a very early age and there is almost nothing to learn to pass the lame road test and drive for years and years, except don't speed in front of cops and try to drive in the same direction as the traffic on your side of the median. You can get your car license at 16 and never ever be tested again. If you get a CDL you will likely never ever need to demonstrate more than the most basic skill to anyone ever again as the "road test" for more trucking companies is seldom more than go around the block without killing anyone or take another driver to one customer without turning the truck over.

In trucking it seems the common view is that the rules are arbitrary, no matter what you do you will still get punished as if you violeted them so why not vioalte them routinely and then furnish the regular excuse when you are caught. Trucking doesn't necessarily attract people that are highly driven by rule-following or a culture of professionalism. By professionalism I mean the internal drive to behave at the peak of skill and judgment even if there are not blue lights in your mirror. Trucking is largely a solitary activity in a real sense and if you don't have that internal drive to be professional even if nobody notices it's easy to "get away with it" for years.

It's so much easier to change your mind than change your company or change the industry, or change the enforcers. Once the rules are set view them as a safe haven. Don't immediately start planning how to pretend to comply as the rules are being explained the first time. Recognize that the rules give you a safe haven from hassles if you use them properly. This is a strategy that is best used at the start of work for a company. If you've just assumed your job will be to get away with as much as possible or as much as the boss asks every day, you will not change a trucking company and you will eventually need to move on or wait until you are blamed for the consequences of breaking the rules. You will be blamed no matter what any boss or dispatcher says to the contrary. You are the most expendable piece of the operation and they can replace you with a phone call. The company will not set themselves on fire just to be fair to you.

I'd suggest it's easier to present yourself as a respectable driver and work as one if you don't impersonate some homeless panhandler each day at work, but I know all of the long haired, dirty sweat pants wearing drivers will deny this no matter how badly they are treated. If you think a company that doesn't know you from Adam looks at you and sees a cheap and tacky impression of Dog the Bounty Hunter and then will not expect you to "overcome obstacles" you are kidding yourself.

Speeding, like lottery only taxes the volunteers. Let's assume a certain non-zero incidence of cooked cops that will write a ticket even if you are following the rules. The law of large numbers will all but guaruntee you'll probably seldom see such a ticket writer. You will be missing out on the other enforcement people that write legitimate tickets.