What are the biggest difficulties and hurdles with trucking?

- Construction Walls that remove you from having any shoulder. In theory stay in your lane anyway but anxiety is a thing. My butt clenches every time.

- Truck stops before 11 or after 2 piss me off. I refuse to overnight at them. Rest areas feel like little quiet hotels.

- Rain so heavy I cant see 5 seconds ahead of me, only for another driver to come barreling past me and make it 1 second ahead, because of all of their splashing. All while praying for a truck parking stop sign.

- 4 wheelers behind, ahead, just all of them. (Ok not all but yall get me)

- Ignorant ppl at fueling islands taking 25 min for something that takes 5 with lines of trucks waiting and they could give 2 ####. Aka stay out of scanton PA, lol

- Indiana bumps can literally cause your pigtail to disconnect. Duct tape that ####!

- Appointments are usually laughable.

- People that stop to work on trip planning etc specifically in spots that say do NOT stop here because they're blocking the GD dock etc

- Pay, lol

- I actually love the sleep inconsistency

 

You're right, the trucks do it, too. And I think your reason why is spot on.

I do like the Iron Skillet, MOST of them are pretty good, IMO.

A lot of TAs where I used to run have converted to either fast food or IHOP.

I quit "East of the Rockies regional" to try some local work. Went back to dropping gas and diesel for "the Borg", quit recently, went back to my former employer, and now I preload foodgrade tankers.

I see maybe 6 four wheelers a night, nearly all of them either employees of our outfit, or the plant.

 

No sign of the OP.....we either just finished his homework for him, or he's like the young kid who would get in his dad's car, turn on the CB, and say "breaker breaker" into the microphone, only to get startled into silence by the avalanche of "Come back breaker/go head breaker/we gotchabreakercomeon".....

 

I wanted to provide an illustration because people do this to me all the time every day all day long.

They pull up in a passing Lane without passing me and just stay in a position near the rear of my trailer on the driver side. Often times I cannot accurately gauge exactly where they are in relation to my trailer unless I have a shadow, furthermore they tend to either speed up or slow down to the point where I don't know if they might be trying to pass me or might be letting me over if I turn on my turn signal.

I am having to make more frequent usage of my air horn to get their attention and sometimes I just start inching over towards the centerline and then they really do start paying more attention but I feel like that is very risky for me to be doing. With all the driver assistance features like adaptive cruise control or self-driving on these newer vehicles as well as the fact that people are constantly staring at their smartphones while driving I get very concerned the people are doing everything other than being attentive to actually driving the vehicle responsibly.

 

I can attest to that, I usually speed up or if I cant I slow down rather than baby swerve. For whatever reason them suddenly passing me much faster than not at all seems to wake people up too, and safer.

I dont need guido streaming to his bro gamers while next to my drives for 30 minutes lol. Reason why I try to start at 3am too, less idiots

 

Fatigue and stress have to be high on the list of difficulties and hurdles drivers face on a day to day basis, some great answers/ responses in this post. Putting up with the crazies on the road, at the truck stop / Gas station, and staff at the receiving and dispatch docks. Added to this stress is trying to find a spot to park up for the night and get some sleep, with drivers sometimes forced to continue driving if there is no safe place to stop, or alternatively to park on off ramps causing more hazards. Just to add to that stress when times are tough low pay checks with a lot of low miles.

 

That is the smartphone position. The person wants an open lane in front of them and they use the truck as a speed marker while they focus 99.99999999% of their attention to their smartphone. The smartphone user is using the truck driver as guide dog, who will bark or slow or stop, etc and the smartphone user can keep making their TikTok or watching their Instagram/YouTube video. If you accidentally weave in your lane (stay on your side of the painted lines) or slow down and speed up, they will often accelerate at 125 MPH to find the next truck and do their magic beside him, not you.

 

How does it feel driving a Tanker, any differences between it and the other type, Flatbed, Dry Van and Reefer?

 

If you slam the throttle to begin moving it will feel like getting rear-ended by a freight train, but that's not dangerous. The faster you go the less severe the slap-back or surge feels but that is when it IS DANGEROUS. With tanker you can only do one of these 1) slow quickly, or 2) change lanes. If you try to do both at the same time you will rollover. You slow to the yellow advisory sign showing the curve speed for off-ramps well before you get to the curve, or you will rollover in the curve. If you are careful you will have no problem pulling tanker. If you drive like everyone else you will rollover and spill product and be out of the industry. Parking a 48 ft tanker is a lot easier than a 53 ft dry van or reefer. No tailswing and better visibility to the rear.

 

Even hauling liquid containers in a dry van can produce similar results, I just dropped off a load of 18 pods of some liquid substance today that I brought from New Jersey to Wisconsin and it was pretty interesting, I could definitely feel those the whole way and had to be extra cautious.