The most important item your not taught in training

If you are to thick headed to help without being a Dick about it then you should stay in the cab. I don't talk to most other drivers because of this attitude. There is a stigma to being a rookie. And it is the fault of the salty vets, who now wonder why the fresh meat doesn't wave to them on the roads, or help each other.

I've been driving for a bit over 4 years now, no accidents, no major hangups, no major mistakes. I don't have a CB, last time I turned one on the absolute most racist and disgusting commentary I have ever heard assaulted my person. Isolated incident? No, not even marginally so. The chatter on the CB is disgusting and mostly useless. You can't discern the difference between someone trying to help you or someone who would get a kick out of sending you the wrong way into an area you've never been before. I've never been turned away from a shipper or receiver for not having one. I've never wished to myself that I had packed my trusty radio cause it sure would have been nice to know if a weight station was open. And I sure don't need a lecture from someone who's been doing this job for "Fiddy years" trying to tell me why what I am doing, whatever it may be; is wrong.

There is no real advantage to running a CB. Just like there is no real advantage to talking to the veteran drivers. The ones that are out there that are both professional and courteous I will talk to. The ones that think showers are a luxury, truck stops are the devil, and the government is persecuting them; best avoided. The guys that brag about not using GPS units, or Smartphones are the same sort of people that would go into a library and mock someone using a Kindle. It's base ignorance.

Up to the second advice on wrecks and icy roads might be nice but the vast majority of CB radios are mostly turned off in my experience cause some base station or billy bigrigger is out there blasting an amplified echoed tirade of illiteracy. Cautionary driving techniques will save you from piling front end into those things, and nothing is going to save you from getting hit from behind if someone is playing facebook games on their phone while driving.

If there was a most important thing my trainer didn't tell me when I signed on, it would be the importance of baby wipes. The CB is antiquated trash, and a useless distraction at best (for me) and at worst a complete waste of money. No point in having one if you never turn it on.

That's my take on it.

 

Good grief, I've never see a bigger cry baby in my life!