Tips and helpful information for new truck drivers.

If you're pulling a dry van, put your ####ing phone down, and turn off your high beams. Jesus, it's noon for ####'s sake.

And take off that stupid safety vest.

Sigh...I feel better now.

 

And the highway is NOT the parking lot. If you need to stop, get OFF the highway AND its shoulder, and park somewhere safe.

 

TY. Hopefully they don’t learn the hard way when a 14` Wide load wipes out their mirrors because the truck passing can’t see why you need over.

 

Definitely. If you can drive, get to an on ramp if you have to. If not possible, get as far away from the white line as you can.

Saw a driver checking his reefer 1/2 mile before the Henryetta off ramp i40 Oklahoma two years ago. UPS (IIRC) pulling doubles got a bit wiggly on the back pup and killed the dude. UPS ended up rolled in the median.

 

Another tidbit. If you do have to stop on the shoulder, when trying to get back on the interstate don't go straight into the lane.

Use the dāmn shoulder to pick up speed before attempting to merge

 

Don't act like everything is only about you. All of us drivers have loads to pick up, deliver and fuel to get. That said:
1. Waiting behind a truck in the fuel island getting fuel. STAY IN YOUR DARN TRUCK. Don't run into the store, order your McDonald's and all that other crap. WAIT IN YOUR TRUCK. When the truck in front of you is finished, pull up and do whatever you're gonna do at the fuel island. Really annoying when an empty truck is sitting behind an open fuel island because the driver is in the store. DO YOUR STORE BUSINESS AFTER YOU FUEL and have pulled up.
2. PAY ATTENTION TO THE OTHER TRUCKS ON THE ROAD. If a truck has been creeping up on you, when they finally go to pass you, help them get around you. Slowing down by just 2mph can really help another driver get around you, not clog up traffic and get on his way. You know he's gonna pass you, don't sit there and make him take 10 miles to pass you and create a traffic log jam in the process. Many of us drive governed trucks and are doing our best. Be courteous. Act like you would want them to act if you were trying to pass them. Work together with the trucks around you. It helps everybody that way.
3. GET YOUR DARN PHONE OUT OF YOUR HAND!!! DRIVE!!!
4. Don't browse through 18,000 pages of Facebook and talk to everybody in your contact list when you are in a bathroom stall. Get in, do your business and get out. Bathroom stalls are not private conference rooms. Other truckers need to use those stalls too. I'm still in complete bewilderment why truckers take so long in a bathroom stall!! Exception: Some of us older guys do need more time 'to work things out'. It happens some need more time. It's the guys who seem to be oblivious that others are waiting that tend to annoy me.

 

Put on your big boy pants and suck it up buttercup.. because this ain't Burger King.. You don't get it your way !!!
Real drivers DON'T wear flip flops either

 

I was going to say this, and it bears repeating. The closest I’ve ever come to dying in a truck was one day on westbound I-40 coming out of Nashville, a truck stopped on the shoulder pulled out in front of me. He was going 10 mph, I was doing 70, and there were cars in the next lane so I couldn’t move over. I still can’t believe that I didn’t hit him and I can’t believe that no one behind me hit me. If I wasn’t a believer in ABS braking, I sure am now!

 

Rain is Not an Emergency...Do Not Use Emergency Flashers just because its raining...it makes it tuff to see Nrake Lights and Signal Lights...

 

If you're pulling into a rest area at night and you see a lot of trucks parked on the off ramp that means there are open spots in the rest area so don't panic, keep going and park.