Driving, Truckers, and anything else that winds you up!

[Crash]

After reading Nadine’s article on Trucking and Truck drivers, I thought that this topic was something which affects us all, and deserved a good airing on the forum

As I once spent a couple of years driving trucks in the UK, I’d like to add my thoughts on this and get the ball rolling!

We all eat, drink, sit on, wear, and even wash our socks with products that are delivered by truckers...so instead of moaning and groaning about them, drivers should try and make their lives easier, and in turn, that would make life better for everyone.

Let me explain... a truck does not accelerate quite a fast as a Porsche 911, therefore, when they are on the ramp trying to merge with hwy traffic, allow them space. If you can, pull into the middle lane and let them merge with ease, do so. Or slow down; flash your lights to let them know that you’re letting him/her go in front of you. After all, your car can easily make up the speed again.
Doing this will help the trucker maintain their speed and keep them on schedule. Of course, you could also be a selfish moron and make them slow down instead. Congratulations, this means that you’ve saved a 1000th of a second in time getting to your destination, or the hideous task of changing lanes, but it also means that many other road users will now be stuck behind a slow moving truck trying to get back up to hwy speed.

Then, what do you do when a truck passes you?
Do you just sit there listening to your stereo whilst cursing that the truck pulling back in is going to block your forward vision of the countryside, or perhaps stop some of the sun from filtering through the windshield and adding to your golden suntan. No! Only an un-caring ignoramus would do that!
What you do... is wait for the rear end of the truck to pass you, then you flash your headlights to let the tucker know that it is safe for him/her to pull back in. This is just common courtesy, and is something which is practiced to an eminent degree by the Europeans. What it also means, is that all other road user traveling behind the truck now have a clear road ahead of them slightly earlier, thanks to you. This is not only something for large eighteen wheelers, this works just as well for cube vans, and even people towing trailers.

In this country we need to become more in tune with our driving manners. These truckers are just doing their job the best that they can. Think about that for a moment? If I came around to your office and blocked the path to your desk, or switched off your computer while your using it for a bit of fun, you wouldn’t be too happy!

Give them a break! If we all helped them do their job...we’d have fresher foods, more timely deliveries and most important of all...Clean Socks! :lol:

[woohoo!]

A good point of view, Crash. I just wish truckers would slow down a bit, especially in nasty weather. Too many times in snowstorms, cars are driving very slowly in the right lane, and an 18-wheeler blows by in the passing lane, driving way too fast for its own good, and creating turbulence for the cars that are trying to stay in the road.

[Lesley]

I don't generally get all worked up over truckers... but those with cell phones are another story. I've had a few close calls - being cut off by someone who comes flying over into my lane, completely oblivious to the fact, while yakking away on their cell.
I have to admit that incessant cell phones in public really gets on my nerves, not just in traffic.

[Crash]

Good point Lesley.

I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say that I never talk on the phone whilst driving, but eventually we will follow the Brits and ban cell phone use behind the wheel, and I don’t think that it is a bad idea really.

However, it is one thing chatting to your favorite auntie Edna while you’re driving home from work in your little Ford Focus, it is totally different to be calling your best mate Fred from behind the steering wheel of an 18 wheel multi-ton juggernaut doing 100kph plus along the 401.

Truckers are supposed to be professional drivers. They are deemed to know what they are doing, and should be responsible enough to realize that whilst a slight misjudgment while driving a car could lead to a nasty accident...doing the same in a fully loaded 18 wheeler could quite easily lead to “a catastrophe and several dead bodies”.

In my opinion, any professional driver (a person who drives for a living) should be seen as such by the eye of the law. If a trucker or even a cab driver gets stopped for a driving safety-related offence then they should expect to pay heavily for their mistake. After all, if a doctor was on his/her cell phone while they were pulling out your appendix, we’d totally freak! Lawyers would get involved and it would probably end up on the front page of the The Sun.

I live just north of Toronto in what is basically Gravel Truck Country. Whilst I realize that we need gravel and sand to build houses and roads, the drivers of these trucks basically terrify me. Every time the light I’m sitting at turns green, I take a good look each way before pulling off as I’ve lost count of the number of trucks that have come barreling through on Full Red. They sound their horn and think that because they have done that, they feel OK to run straight through the red light.

It’s times like that when I wish I was a cop, because I’d rip the trucker’s driver’s license up right in front of them.

[Lesley]

They do what????
If they can't stop in time for the light, then they are going too bloody fast and you should get their plate number and report them!

[Crash]

You’re right Lesley, the trouble is...the road junction which I’m talking about is Airport Rd and King St in Caledon which I’m sure you know. If the trucks coming down Airport Rd don’t think that they can stop in time...they just sound their horn and actually SPEED UP through the red lights!!! Try catching the license plate from the back of a dirty trailer doing 100kph!

I used to run a mechanical shop at that intersection, and over a period of 3 yrs I probably saw this over a dozen times, and that was just while I was outside the shop having coffee breaks.

This area is well known for accidents, in fact, only a few weeks ago my next door neighbor awoke to find an 18 wheeler had gone off the road and landed in his front garden, it ended up on its side about 20 feet from his front door. That’s enough to give you nightmares eh!

Like most country suburbs surrounding large cities, the area north of Toronto is a real “Accident Black Spot”, what with commuters rushing to and from work, and sand and gravel trucks everywhere, we have fatalities all the time up here. Sgt Cam Wooley and the OPP run truck blitzes every now and then and the local cops are super quick at getting to the accident scenes, but if there was ever a need for red light camera’s, it here.

The main problem is that it costs money to have a large police force working these rural area’s, and sitting at red lights watching for speeding truckers doesn’t generate as much revenue as speed-trapping commuters.

I wouldn’t go as far as asking for speed camera’s, as I’ve seen what a mess the UK has made out of that stupid money-grabbing idea, but be fair, anyone who runs a red light is a complete and utter moron, and so the red light cameras make a lot of sense.

[Lesley]

That's terrible, and the sad thing, is that probably nothing will be done at that intersection 'til there are fatalities.

The greatest thing about living in a little hick town... is that most of us aren't daring enough to run red lights. :wink:

[Crash]

Why do I live here???

That’s easy! I live on a small farm, with neighbors who are far enough away that I can go skinny-dipping in my pool whenever I want to, or even change the wheels on my car in the driveway butt naked if I wished!

I’m literally minutes away from the Toronto Airport, and the Downtown Metropolis is only a short drive away, “should I ever wish to go there”!

I basically live surrounded by “friendly country neighbors”, and yet, I’m still only a spit and a throw from the Big Bad City, what could be better?

I know! Not having to participate in “Death Race 2007” every time I leave the house!

Still, if it was “the perfect place to live”, everyone would be living here, and then I’d have to put my clothes back on :lol:

[The General]

Still, if it was “the perfect place to live”, everyone would be living here, and then I’d have to put my clothes back on :lol:

Glad you remembered to put your clothes on when you went to Detroit...

I suspect that you would not have crossed the border without incident...

[Crash]

Hey Man, don't even joke about that...If U.S. border security gets much tighter, we might all be stripping off to cross into the States!

Heck! I might have to give this writing lark up and become a Border Guard!

On second thoughts, I've seen some of those lovely large American women coming across to play at our Canadian Casinos, I think that I'll scratch that idea :lol:

[apl16]

LOL..........you really know how to make me laugh, Crash........not just smart and good looks, eh?

[Crash]

Talking on phones whilst driving is a big problem. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've have an odd scare whilst driving and using the phone...

There I was, in my car, and I’m driving along, my boss phones up, and he says "You've been promoted to Manager". I was so surprised, that I swerved.
Then he rang up a second time and said "You've been promoted again, you’re now the General manager". Blimey I said, and I swerved again.

He rang up a third time and said "you’ve been made Managing Director now". I gasped, swerved and ran right into a tree.

As I sat there dazed, a policeman came up and said 'What happened to you mate"?

I said, "I careered off the road". :lol: :lol:

[smartcheck]

Has any one heard about or has used the lease return inspection service
By Auto Check Canada in Montreal. This is a great service for people who have to return a leased vehicle after the lease term has expired.

[Lesley]

Um... right.

[Crash]

Err... Yes, well.... if we're going off topic like that...My Auntie Edna makes some wonderful home made jams which she sells at very reasonable prices indeed, catalog and price list to follow :lol:

Sorry mate, but I couldn't resist that :P

I'm sure that your service is very good and could be useful info for some folk, but post your comments at the right time, and under an appropriate subject :wink:

[Chevytruk]

Excellent post Crash. I drive a 5 ton truck with a 24foot box every day doing city p&d, and I am amazed at the number of driver who will speed up just so they can be in front of me and in their rush to do so cut me off. I always drive in the curb lane unless I am passing or making a left hand turn, I leave good distance between me and the vehicle in front and I try my best to alow other driver to merge in if I am able. I may start off slow but I have a well maintained truck and can get up to speed rather quickly, even when fully loaded and do my best to travel with the traffic flow. I know that when I took drivers ed, there was nothing really covering etiquette when dealing with trucks or large viechles. I would like to see driving schools and training courses focus on how and what a driver of a large viechle sees and has to cope with when they are on the road working. I think this would help people realize and be more respectful to them.

[Crash]

I couldn’t agree with you more, I like to see all driving instructors teaching pupils about consideration for trucks...and visa-versa!!

I spent a few years driving trucks back home in the UK, and so I have a foot in both camps, so to speak.

Only today I was reminded of the other side of the story... I was traveling on a country road in order to return a press vehicle. I was on a single lane road with lots of hills and the occasional straight. I was sitting behind a tractor trailer unit, and in front of him was roll-off truck which was obviously “over-loaded”!! I say that because on some hills we were down to 20kph (any slower and I could have got out and ran passed him) :roll:

Now I could have over-taken them many a time as there were plenty of short straight stretches of road, but the tractor trailer driver sat right on the bumper of the roll-off. To pass would have meant passing both of them at the same time.

This type of inconsiderate behavior on the part of the tractor trailer driver really annoyed me. It was like “he wasn’t able to over-take, so nobody else was going to”. Together with a dozen or more other vehicles, I sat behind them for nearly 25 kms.

That driver is the type of trucker who brings a bad name down on the trucking industry, and causes people try to jump in front of trucks whenever they can. The truck training schools should teach new truckers how to share the road with car drivers too. This "them and us" mentality has to go!

The funny thing is...it was a local trucking firm...and I personally know the owner!! Therefore, we will no doubt be having a beer soon to discuss this matter. :lol: