Pickup truck drivers are the worst drivers on the road..
- Thread starter #juan
- Start date
Semi trailer drivers used to be some of the safest drivers on the road. Not any more. I've seen them travelling 120kph on the 401 blowing their horns to get traffic out of the was so they could go faster. I saw one travelling over the speed limit with a paperback on the steering wheel, and yet another using a lap top on his dash... These are the unsafe drivers on the road.
If you were in the passing lane, you are supposed to be passing ... and as quickly as you safely can. It sounds to me like the truck was running out of road.
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Easy, especially if the cab is on your drivers side. Also if you are the passenger in a SUV and the truck is on your right....
Risus, report them. Either get a company name and a plate# off the truck (even a trailer plate#) and
pull into the next scale (no shortage of those on the 401) or just get the phone# off the cab of the
truck and call that number, and you'll end up on the phone with someone like me (a Safety Supervisor
and Compliance Officer for an International Transport Company) and I'll deal with it. The Driver, if he's
being an idiot and a danger to himself and others on the road, would probably rather pay fines than
deal with someone like me, as I may very well fire that Driver or Leased Operator.
Idiots like you're describing affect a companies safety rating, which affect their insurance premiums, and
can bring down the wrath (in the form of audits) of the US DOT FMCSA, or Transport Canada, or both
which may lead to more fines and citations and even getting a companies running authorities yoinked. If you
see anything like you're describing, report it. We live with increasingly tight financial margins in the Transport
Industry and just can't afford to have idiots working for us.
...and if the truck has a mirror on his ceiling so you can see around the corner. Your window is about the height of the bottom of his door ... and aren't your eyes supposed to be on the road if you're the driver?Easy, especially if the cab is on your drivers side. Also if you are the passenger in a SUV and the truck is on your right....
Semi trucks used to have a lot more room on the road, and were given the wide berth they deserve.
Hard to tell without being there talloola, but, what you describe could have put you squarely in a potential blind spot on that semi. You need to be hyper vigilant about that, and when they might run out of road, etc.
One more aspect that we don't pay much attention to is that the fuel crunch has really hurt a lot of private operator truckers. The need to get more loads in faster to make the dollars work has certainly had an effect. There were a dozen semis on the way back from Calgary that I passed half a dozen times. I would pass them going up the hill and within a half an hour they were passing me going down the hill. I was trying to maintain at least the speed limit and they were going as fast as they could.
In hill country, trucks need the momentum they gather on a downgrade to help get them up that next hill. When you're getting paid a tonnage per mile rate and your fuel costs keep going up, you have to make it while you can and save fuel too ... so you're probably right about them going as fast as they can. Would you prefer it if they put the rates up so costs are passed on to you?
Picky picky.......and if the truck has a mirror on his ceiling so you can see around the corner. Your window is about the height of the bottom of his door ... and aren't your eyes supposed to be on the road if you're the driver?
I have no problem keeping my eyes on the road and spotting stupid behaviour at the same time....
Picky picky....
I have no problem keeping my eyes on the road and spotting stupid behaviour at the same time....
A lot of people can spot stupid behaviour. I just don't believe you can see four feet over your head into the cab of a truck.
Well if you are calling me a liar, you are wrong. I have no trouble seeing the driver and steering wheel in a semi tractor from my truck. If you don't believe me, I don't give a crap.
There are several reasons I doubt your word.
Yes, there are some crazy ones out there. Like Ron advised ... report them. The sad part is, there is a shortage of drivers and a lot of companies will hire those of any calibre. Independents are pushed to the max just to keep ahead of the repo and tax men. A lot of them are just plain tired. Then you have the out-of-province guys running just-in-time deliveries. One traffic tie up and their paycheque's shot. The truck driver schools always show a smiling trucker on a wide-open road. Why do they never show Port Union at 5 o'clock or some poor sap changing tires in a prairie midnight snowstorm?
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I guess they are going to have to pass it along sooner or later. Fuel prices are said to be going down again but a man shouldn't have to live so damn close to the edge.
Well I guess the Ministry of Transportation should tighten up the regulations.
None of the comments you made indicates reasons why you doubt my word. What do you drive a mini??
Fuel prices are going down ... but now the big news for truckers is a shortage of diesel fuel as several refineries shut down for maintenance at the same time.
http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/bc/story.html?id=af110f9d-085f-43d4-a64c-3d4424f7e6cb