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Legit question for truck drivers
Sig220_Ruger77
Member Posts: 12,754 ✭✭✭
Now I know that Allan and maybe a few others on here drive or have driven trucks over the road, so I have a question. I know that driving over-the-road leads to worrying about both time and fuel burnt, but here is the question.
I am driving my car home from work at 1:30am. I am in the right lane, in front of an 18 wheeler hauling a tanker or some sort of liquid. I come to a set of stop lights and have a red light. I am turning right(in Wisconsin). I sit there because there is a car coming and it appears to be in the right lane. The semi driver proceeds to lay on his horn because I am not going. The car passes by and I then proceed to pull out. Another car was coming and it again appeared to be in the right lane, but I judged that I had plenty of time to get up to speed and not hamper his at all....and I did. The semi behind me, drove right through the light with me, not stopping at all, and obviously forced the car coming to switch lanes.
As this is happening, I am quite a bit ahead of them, but watching mirror a bit. The other car then proceeded to cut in the right lane in front of the 18 wheeler and I could see his brake lights come on multiple times. The 18 wheeler proceeded to flash his brights on and off multiple times and then just left them on before turning off a mile or so down the road. Now I am not at all justifying the 2nd cars actions either, but why do some truck drivers just think that they own the road because they are bigger and think that they are on more of a time schedule then others? I would swear some of them act like they never ride in a passenger car.
Do you drivers think this to be okay as well? I can see if you are in a hugely populated area in rush hour traffic, the need to force your way in, but at this time with basically no traffic?
Jon
I am driving my car home from work at 1:30am. I am in the right lane, in front of an 18 wheeler hauling a tanker or some sort of liquid. I come to a set of stop lights and have a red light. I am turning right(in Wisconsin). I sit there because there is a car coming and it appears to be in the right lane. The semi driver proceeds to lay on his horn because I am not going. The car passes by and I then proceed to pull out. Another car was coming and it again appeared to be in the right lane, but I judged that I had plenty of time to get up to speed and not hamper his at all....and I did. The semi behind me, drove right through the light with me, not stopping at all, and obviously forced the car coming to switch lanes.
As this is happening, I am quite a bit ahead of them, but watching mirror a bit. The other car then proceeded to cut in the right lane in front of the 18 wheeler and I could see his brake lights come on multiple times. The 18 wheeler proceeded to flash his brights on and off multiple times and then just left them on before turning off a mile or so down the road. Now I am not at all justifying the 2nd cars actions either, but why do some truck drivers just think that they own the road because they are bigger and think that they are on more of a time schedule then others? I would swear some of them act like they never ride in a passenger car.
Do you drivers think this to be okay as well? I can see if you are in a hugely populated area in rush hour traffic, the need to force your way in, but at this time with basically no traffic?
Jon
Comments
Bad deal all around, truckers need to learn to control their temper but I know how they feel sometimes. With the new HOS rules that took affect this month truckers are under even more pressure to get the job done all the while the government takes away time from them forcing them to have to do the same job with less time. Add that with the other frustrations of driving a truckand you will see more truck accidents, more road rage and sadly more deaths.
I'm not condoning his actions and please don't think I am but I was in the saddle for a long time over the road and I understand real world vs what non truckers think is the real world. Best way to fight a trucker like him is the phone by dialing 911 and just stay out of his way. Trucks always win in a car vs truck fight. Let eh cops handle him.
It's not the owning the road deal a lot of ties, it's frustration. The average car driver does not know nor do most care what it takes to stop and start one of those things. The driver sounded like a butthead yes, but day in and day out of a constant battle with some of the idiots on the roads makes some truckers do some stupid stuff. When they do the car driver takes it personal that HE/SHE was attacked, trust me it's not the individual. You also mentioned he was pulling a tank, depending on how full the tank was and the baffles in the tank stopping one of those too fast can roll the truck, force it to skid out of control. People often times get it in their heads you can just stop a truck and will make moves in front of trucks without thinking how close they are to causing a wreck and getting someone killed. All too often car drivers want to fight back with the trucks. Now think about this, a trucker like this one, having a bad day, dealing with traffic, customers and dispatch may be at the spot that he is ready to snap. Along comes Mr. Car driver who is going to teach that trucker a lesson next thing you know trucker is in prison and car driver is dead.
Bad deal all around, truckers need to learn to control their temper but I know how they feel sometimes. With the new HOS rules that took affect this month truckers are under even more pressure to get the job done all the while the government takes away time from them forcing them to have to do the same job with less time. Add that with the other frustrations of driving a truckand you will see more truck accidents, more road rage and sadly more deaths.
I'm not condoning his actions and please don't think I am but I was in the saddle for a long time over the road and I understand real world vs what non truckers think is the real world. Best way to fight a trucker like him is the phone by dialing 911 and just stay out of his way. Trucks always win in a car vs truck fight. Let eh cops handle him.
I find that to be a pretty good and honest answer. I have seen way too many incidents the opposite way around. The ones where your coming to a red lot and the car switches lanes right in front of the fully-loaded 18 wheeler, etc.
Your reasoning of the 18 wheeler always winning the crash is the way I try to always drive.
Jon
Lots of truck drivers are idiots plain and simple.
I agree, I for the most part can't stand truck drivers even though I was one, still am one and wish I wasn't. But I also understand why some of them are the way they are, they lack the ability to deal with stress.
Lots of truck drivers are idiots plain and simple.
Oh no-no -no ! they're really intelligent people [:D] the average driver knows more than anyone else around, I've worked many drivers that was smart enough to tell a brain surgeon what they were doing wrong and how to do it correctly [:0]. Hell , most can't/won't even take care of their teeth, what few they have left [;)] but they're experts on Dentistry too [:D] Hire some, you'll learn their ways fast.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
I was a Steel Hauler and most loads were about 80.000lbs.
It takes about the length of a Football Field for the Truck to come to a complete stop.
He may have been going too fast to stop and was going to run You over if You didn't get out of the way.
I was in a parking lot leaving a delivery and straight up cut somebody off the other day. I was looking for an opening to turn left and took it, forgot to look at the traffic coming my way. Ended up next to him in traffic beeped my city horn and when he rolled down his window I apologized for my mistake. The look of surprise on his face when I apologized was priceless.
I am not going to say that I am right all of the time or even try to defend the * driving because he was just flat out wrong. I will say this, I wish those that have nothing good to say about us could ride with us for a while and actually see what is going on, maybe then you would have a little empathy.
As BSR stated the HOS rules make our jobs just a little harder while taking a little more money out of our pockets so now we get to figure out what shortcut comes next to make it back up.
I used to love my job, not so much anymore. I get cussed at because some a-hole cut them off, it is my fault that gas is so expensive, why am I taking up parking spots, why can't I move my hose so they can drive through here etc. Sometimes, more often than not lately, I wish I had a skill to go find something else to do.
High fuel prices drove many of the owner operators with tons of experience into retirement or the sale of their business.
I've noticed a lot of the crazy things I've seen on the road lately are less experienced drivers.
Driving the 90 near Buffalo NY this week I encountered many trucks trying to pass each other several times over and over. I just don't understand why they just don't drive an even speed and stay in the driving lane, does two to five miles over speed limit really pay off in the long run?
But most car drivers are idiots and don't pay attention or know how to safely give enough space for safety for other vehicles, whether they are motor cycles, cars, or large trucks.
Maybe about 7 or 8 out of the 50 were American drivers. All the rest were immigrants from Russia, Albania, Poland, Turkey and a few Nigerians. I know, I asked everyone of them where they were from.
Most had a passing handle on English. It's obvious that the American driver could be becoming a minority.
Yes I am one that has ticketed azzholes for all of these things. But I see it every day, not stopping at all, not paying any attention to oncoming traffic, etc. When this was passed in NC I expected there would be a lot more crashes at traffic lights. I don't know if anyone every tried to calculate these numbers but it must be true.
I think there are some states that allow LEFT turns on red. Hope it never comes here. Too many dumbazzes on the road already.
Its all relative.
A dangerous trick, plus, a good way to get a ticket.
I try to be polite to all other vehicles on the road.
If a Truck runs a red there is no excuse for it. They are subject to all rules of the road.
In NC you can turn right on red too, AFTER stopping completely and giving right of way to traffic. BUT, you do not HAVE to turn right on red if you don't want to. And if you are in a lane that allows straight thru or right turn, and you are not turning right, and some duckhead pulls to the right on the shoulder and turns right, THAT is an illegal turn, passing on the right.
Yes I am one that has ticketed azzholes for all of these things. But I see it every day, not stopping at all, not paying any attention to oncoming traffic, etc. When this was passed in NC I expected there would be a lot more crashes at traffic lights. I don't know if anyone every tried to calculate these numbers but it must be true.
I think there are some states that allow LEFT turns on red. Hope it never comes here. Too many dumbazzes on the road already.
Oregon Left turn on red. But it only applies to one way roads and the left has to be the direction of traffic for that road.
I suspect the economy has something to do with it as well.
High fuel prices drove many of the owner operators with tons of experience into retirement or the sale of their business.
I've noticed a lot of the crazy things I've seen on the road lately are less experienced drivers.
I'll probably piss a few people off with this one.
Since the economy took a dive and people got put out of work state employment agencies starting placing out of work people in CDL mills, they have flooded the trucking industry with people who simply put have no business being in a truck.
You have a couple different types of pe3ople out there, truck drivers and steering wheel holders. Sadly the majority of people driving trucks are steering wheel holders.
It takes a strange breed to be a truck driver, a real truck driver, not some candy assed Billy Big Rigger or JB Hunt cloned steering wheel holder.
Steering wheel holders, you see them in the truck stops all the time supporting the HOS rules wishing they was tougher, they want 9-5 jobs, not what a truck driving job requires. They love the big fancy condo trucks with all the electronics that take car of everything for you and auto transmissions.
Driving a truck is far different than driving a car, it requires you knowing everything going on with the truck, it requires you to have 100% complete control of the truck and I'm sorry but you cannot do that with an electronic truck with an auto trans. This isn't cars and motorcycles where all that stuff helps, in a truck it is dangerous because the driver is not focused on the truck, he can now sit there and daydream, talk on the phone, play with himself or the ipod, whatever. All he has to do is point that thing down the road and the electronic gizmos will take care of shifting and everything else. All you have to do is wait for the truck to tell you something is wrong. You can't have Auto Pilot in a truck. When you are driving 40 tons among 2 ton cars that outnumber you by the thousands by god you need to have control of that rig not some damned computer!!
But all the toys and gadgets that make driving a rig "easier" puts people in trucks that have no business being there. We need truck drivers out there, not laid off factory workers whos only care is a paycheck. Sorry but truck driving is more than a paycheck, you have to be a truck driver first, safety depends on that.
quote:Originally posted by bigoutside
I suspect the economy has something to do with it as well.
High fuel prices drove many of the owner operators with tons of experience into retirement or the sale of their business.
I've noticed a lot of the crazy things I've seen on the road lately are less experienced drivers.
I'll probably piss a few people off with this one.
Since the economy took a dive and people got put out of work state employment agencies starting placing out of work people in CDL mills, they have flooded the trucking industry with people who simply put have no business being in a truck.
You have a couple different types of pe3ople out there, truck drivers and steering wheel holders. Sadly the majority of people driving trucks are steering wheel holders.
It takes a strange breed to be a truck driver, a real truck driver, not some candy assed Billy Big Rigger or JB Hunt cloned steering wheel holder.
Steering wheel holders, you see them in the truck stops all the time supporting the HOS rules wishing they was tougher, they want 9-5 jobs, not what a truck driving job requires. They love the big fancy condo trucks with all the electronics that take car of everything for you and auto transmissions.
Driving a truck is far different than driving a car, it requires you knowing everything going on with the truck, it requires you to have 100% complete control of the truck and I'm sorry but you cannot do that with an electronic truck with an auto trans. This isn't cars and motorcycles where all that stuff helps, in a truck it is dangerous because the driver is not focused on the truck, he can now sit there and daydream, talk on the phone, play with himself or the ipod, whatever. All he has to do is point that thing down the road and the electronic gizmos will take care of shifting and everything else. All you have to do is wait for the truck to tell you something is wrong. You can't have Auto Pilot in a truck. When you are driving 40 tons among 2 ton cars that outnumber you by the thousands by god you need to have control of that rig not some damned computer!!
But all the toys and gadgets that make driving a rig "easier" puts people in trucks that have no business being there. We need truck drivers out there, not laid off factory workers whos only care is a paycheck. Sorry but truck driving is more than a paycheck, you have to be a truck driver first, safety depends on that.
Exactly. I would go so far as to same the same about cars as well. If they had to actually drive the car there would be a whole lot less issues.
The big company's run auto transmissions because the CDL mills don't take time enough to teach students how to shift gears. They teach em to run the onboard GPS and do paper work. Even some log books are online now. They know how to run a computer, but don't know how to adjust brakes.
I learned on a really old KW, 1952 model, HBR Cummins (185 hp) with a 5 speed main box and 3 speed brownie, water on the brakes and a Williams exhaust brake. This, in the Cascade mountains, where it's either up or down, not much flat.
Took a lot of pride in being a truck driver, was taught by old drivers that where proud of the job, and of doing it right.
One of the old guys that taught me used to tell the young drivers, "hell son, they've used more ink writin' my pay
checks than you've burned in diesel oil".
I put almost 3,000,000 miles in a truck, a lot of it hauling heavy machinery, a lot of it log hauling. I've hauled every thing from Cheerios to cows, at one time or another, even hauled beer.
How's that song go? From Tucson to Tucumcari? Well, I'm kind like ol' Hank Snow, I've been every where.
In todays world, I'm just glad I'm not out there dealing with the idiots any more.
I do miss hauling logs though, nothing like being in the mountains at daylight every morning, and getting paid for it.[^]
W.D.
on the road today and there are too many
idiots on both sides of the coin.
There are just too many cars and trucks
on the road today and there are too many
idiots on both sides of the coin.
Well I would say that about sums it up[:D]