How To Make A Truck Driver Mad

Today's Thoughts 9/12/11 How To Make A Truck Driver Mad

You see folks; this is why I never turn on my CB radio any more. All it does is leads to big time fights and sometimes that leads to two CB Rambo's fighting it out on the side of the highway. Personally, I have no intention of doing anything like that.  That’s why I turned the radio off years ago. But today, just for the giggles of it, I decided to turn it on just to see what the truck driver blowing his horn at me while blowing my doors off in the right lane had on his mind. Same old thing, slower traffic keeps to the right. Trucks only allowed in the right two lanes and I was blocking him in due to the fact that once again I was running the speed limit.  

Well, we all know that thing about slower traffic stay to the right; sure that’s an easy one. But he explains this to me as he is about two feet of the tail of the car that is getting on the interstate as he cuts me off about a foot in front of my bumper. That’s about three feet to spare between three moving vehicles at highway speed. I can just about bet you that if he was the one coming off that ramp, he would have been raising holy cane because I did not move over and let him on.

I've learned a little something about some truck drivers over the years. And I want to repeat the word some because there are a lot of great drivers out here. What is considered legal or what is consider courteous is based solely on the fact of what gets you out of their path. When you meet these drivers the best thing to do is get out of their path. Because not only is the law what they see the law to be, but they will basically kill you to prove it. And people wonder why I support a limited version of EOBR's on every truck. And I also support standards for not only training but standards for who they allow behind the wheel.

So how do you make a truck driver like this mad? Simple, just tell him when he starts obeying the speed limit; he won't be having these types of problems behind truck drivers that are obeying the speed limit. I think this will make their head explode faster than any other comment you can make. Their first response is always the same. "Slower traffic keeps right" And you counter with faster traffic keep left" Same argument that has been going on for years.

The next line is "trucks only allowed in the two right lanes" and you counter with "speed limit for trucks is fifty five" It never changes. They expect the safe and legal driver to slow down and run in a crowded right lane so they can speed merrily on their way while you're stuck in a backed up lane. The legal truck must follow all the laws while the renegade gets to pick and choose which laws they feel like following.

It's kind of like this as I see it. I'm a business owner trying to make a living as safe and legal as I possibly can. The rules and regulations only allow us so much time to accomplish this. If there is a legitimate reason for me to step out into that second lane while only doing the posted speed limit, I will do so. I will decide what is legitimate, not them. Traffic entering or exiting is a legitimate reason. Traffic that is traveling below the posted speed limit is also a legitimate reason. There may be other reasons as traffic will do as traffic will do. No one can sit here and explain everything that might happen.

So if I'm in a lane legal for trucks to use and I'm doing the speed limit, that’s too bad for you. You can choose to start running legal yourself or get pissed because I'm going to run as legal as I possibly can. What I will not do is allow you to bully me into an unsafe situation. Nor will I allow you to cause me to lose revenue as you break the laws to make yours.

Now see, I've just went and made a bunch of truck drivers mad. While thousands of truck drivers are out there trying to improve our image, they have to deal with the realities of what's behind the wheel of some trucks. It's a shame it only take a few to tarnish the reputation of the whole.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
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