While I to have had my share of being cut off by truckers, over all they can be some of the most courteous people.
When I was in high school, we took a bus load of kids from Minnesota to South Carolina. We had all of our stuff in a trailer being hauled behind. At one stop, someone got into the trailer, and didn’t latch it. We spilled luggage for the next 10 miles down the road, until a trucker behind us got hold of a trucker in front of us, who flagged us down, and then helped us walk back along the road collecting stuff.
And just 2 years ago, I was forced off the highway by another car. I end up hitting a tree down the embankment. I was fine, car was totalled. A trucker immediately stopped, checked to see that I was ok, and offered to take me to the next exit and phone. I had already called, but he stuck around for a couple of minutes and chatted, just to be sure I was ok.
I just wanted to give the other side of the trucker group a fair hearing too.
Maybe I just drive in different places than most in this thread, but I have almost never seen the behaviors under discussion from professional drivers.
On the contrary, I’ve always found truckers to be very courteous. Once when I was U-Hauling myself across the country, I noticed that most helped me change lanes by flashing their lights when I was clear, and that really impressed me. I can’t recall ever seeing aggressive driving behavior from a trucker.
I think I’m a pretty good driver, so perhaps I see good stuff because I think when I’m around them. One did blow the horn at me many years ago when I thoughtlessly cut him off, but I would expect that from any driver.
Here’s how I think of it: They’re professionals, and I’m guessing most know what they’re doing. We, the great unwashed driving public, are basically tooling around in their workplace. Which would be fine, except IMHO, Americans as a whole are lousy drivers. So imagine a bunch of morons careening carelessly and recklessly around your workplace all the time. You’d probably get testy too. So maybe these things do happen, and I just don’t see them.
I can sort of relate: I’m a flight instructor. Which means I sometimes must deal with idiots doing stupid things in airplanes when I’m trying to work in the same piece of airspace. Frustrating when one is trying to do things right - prides oneself on it in fact, and must put up with people doing it poorly who don’t care.
No excuse for rudeness or aggressive behavior of course. But I can relate.
This hasn’t been my experience. I’m very fond of truckers, especially the 18-wheelers; if they signal they want in, I flash my brights to let them know they can come on over. Most of the time, they “thank” me by flashing all the lights on the rear of the semi. I’m especially fond of them after an experience a few years ago on I-95, headed north, somewhere in the Carolinas. Out of three lanes, the left one was closed due to maintenance work. Well, of course there are those people who wait till the last minute to move over to the through lane, even though there were plenty of warning signs a mile before. But, no, these folks are so important, they figure they can save, oh, 10 seconds or so by staying in the lane that’s going to disappear, and then barging into the through lane. Well, two 18-wheelers were tired of this crap. One that had moved to the right and was near the ending lane blocked it; as I watched in my side view mirror, I noticed another move to the lane that was going to end, thereby creating a blocking maneuver. One car that was already in the lane got up to the front of the line, but couldn’t get in because of the semi! HaHa. I was wishing I had a big poster and marker to scribble “thank you truckers!” to hold out the window. Sure, there may be truckers who are rude or careless, but it’s my experience that there many, many more car drivers who are rude and careless.
Also, remember these guys and gals have CB’s and alert each other to cop cars that they see (on the road or lurking behind somelthing); they slow down; so I tend to stay with the truckers, knowing that THEY know where the cops are.
Speaking as a trucker’s wife, this guy was WAYYY out of line. Get his plate #, notice was company he’s driving for and get his truck #, or give the cops a description of the truck and they can contact the company. Companies want to know when stuff like this happens. The “call about my driving” stickers are usually on all trucks.
As for the cutting off thing, it could be you were in the blind spot. Not all truckers check all their mirrors (even though they are supposed to). Blinking the lights helps signal your intentions. Truckers do have brain farts every now and then (imagine sitting in the same chair for hours upon hours), and sometimes the directions they get are not great (which may explain some of the erratic driving seen on the roads). I am by no means trying to offer excuses. If the cut-off seems deliberate, call the company or the cops.
I’m a bicyclist, I don’t drive a car and thus stay off the freeways, but I can honestly say that I have never, ever had a problem with a trucker. They seem to be far more aware of my precence than the car drivers, and they are a lot more couteous about it. Maybe the number of objects to run into in Urban and Suburban roads means they must be fully aware.
My experience is different. Yes, there are exceptions, but if you take into consideration the huge inertia of a moving 18-wheeler, MOST of them are driving quite intelligently IF you are also driving intelligently.
A few years ago I had the misfortune to have to drive from central Pennsylvania to my home in New Jersey on a winter night. It was snowing AND foggy. Interstate 80 was a nightmare. For a good portion of the time most of the vehicles on the road were trucks, and there was no tailgating, signals were used, and lights flashed to indicate “You can change lanes in front of me; I see you.” The drive could have been a lot worse. Of course, as soon as I got back in NJ and entered a normal county road winding through the hills, some nutcase in a pickup started tailgating. There was no place to pull off the road and let him by, either.
I would not want to be a truck driver. I think most of them probably take more abuse than they give. And most of them seem courteous and professional. However, some of them are plain nutjobs, and I have certainly, and frequently, seen the behaviour described in the OP. I’ve even basically been run off a winter road by a truck during a severe blizzard.
It’s like a streetlight that burns out when you approach it – you notice the exceptions. When I change lanes to pass, vehicles in front of me often decide to change lanes shortly afterwards (before I’ve passed, in essence cutting me off). But it happens much more often with cars than trucks. Very rarely, I’ll admit to doing this myself. I’ll bet you do too.
My father’s been a trucker my whole life - long-haul when I was a kid, short-haul now.
Separate speed limits for truckers, CynicalGabe? Maybe on some roads, but not on any of the East Coast interstates and major roads I’ve ever driven on. Actually, wait, I think I was on a highway in Texas where the daytime speed limit was 70, and the nighttime limit was 65, and truckers and school buses were also required to do 65 regardless of time of day. But certainly never 90 vs 55. That would be a traffic hazard, having so much slower-moving traffic.
I’ve found most truckers to be courteous - if they see me coming down an on-ramp they actually MOVE INTO THE FAR LANE to make room for me, unlike most 4-wheelers, which stay in the near lane, blocking me, because apparently it’s a fucking race and it doesn’t matter to THEM whether or not I end up at a DEAD STOP IN THE BREAKDOWN LANE because they won’t make room for me to get into the actual highway…
The proportion of asshole truckers to good truckers is no different than the proportion of asshole drivers to good drivers, you just notice the asshole truckers because they are bigger.
Just for the record @william, you’re responding to a 20 year old post, so don’t expect much of a response. Stick around and read a while, but be mindful that responding to such an old point may not get you much of a response.
In general, truckers are assholes. The behavior in the OP still happens every time I drive cross country. I was listening to the CB going through Chicago one time and all the trucker were complaining about all the cars on “their” interstate. And how interstates should be just for trucks. I mean, none of you wheel holders have days off, have families that go places? Remember this was in the city limits.
One thing that has changed in 20 years is the proliferation of dash cams and the youtube videos of bad drivers. On the one hand there are far too many car drivers that delight in brake checking trucks. On the other, there are a whole bunch of clueless truck drivers that post videos of “asshole car drivers” and the video clearly shows the truck driver was in the wrong.
This seems to be my impression now, but interestingly my grandfather (I’m 60) said when I was a teen that truckers used to be among the most courteous drivers on the road. Granted, that’s entirely subjective and I’m sure there were asshole truck drivers back in like the 1940s and 1950s, but my grandfather was not generally a particularly opinionated person. He seldom expressed opinions on much of anything, so for him to say that I strongly suspect there’s a healthy kernel of truth to his claim. What do any older Dopers here have to say on the topic?
I worked at a trucking firm for many years. Hauling contracts generally go to companies that get their product to the desired destination the fastest, and trucking companies will favor the drivers that get it done. Anything on the road that stands in their way is an obstacle to be overcome, courtesy be damned ( for the most part).
For us, the roads are how we get to work, but for truckers the roads are the work, and they are the superior professionals.
The problem can be reduced to a simple concept - many drivers are assholes. Doesn’t matter if they’re driving a car, a truck, a motorcycle, a bicycle, or a golf cart, people get behind the wheel and imagine themselves to own the road.
Some of these drivers are trying to make a living though. Doesn’t make them less of an asshole for cutting people off but I’m a little more understanding of that circumstance. Life for truckers is miserable now with cameras in the cab, sensors that detect if they take their hands off the wheel for a moment, on top making less money in real terms than ever before.
Long-haul truckers are like certain breeds of dog - not any more prone to vicious behavior than others, but capable of causing a lot more damage when going off the rails.
There’s a good short story (by Lawrence Block, if I remember right), about a trucker who overhears another trucker telling a story about running clueless drivers off the road, and later starts noticing news stories about cars being mashed on the interstates and drivers killed in suspicious circumstances, and begins to wonder if the other trucker is responsible…
A particular fetish in those videos is “brake checking”. It’s a especially stupid thing to do when the vehicle following you is an enormous tractor-trailer combination. But I’ve seen a number of those videos where it looks like the trucker had time to brake and avoid a collision, but let himself drift and squash the back end of the brake-checker.
It was not a highway paradise back then, but it definitely has gotten worse.
Truckers in general used to show more courtesy and professionalism, but even in the 70s (I can’t speak farther back than that) there were drivers hepped up on speed driving too many hours and falsifying their log books, driving overweight with improperly secured loads and under maintained equipment.
And speeding! One thing I will say is no matter where I drive these days, I travel 0-5mph over the limit and it is a rare day that a truck passes me. In the 70s and 80s they would routinely fly by 70-80-90 mph in the days of the 55 limit, and you’d better MOVE OVER NOW. tell me that’s not asshole behavior.
These days, we are the beneficiaries of “anyone can be a trucker” mentality. In ye olde days, you had to go to school, learn how to maneuver, back up, drive down steep hills, shift, use your mirrors. It took several (?) weeks to learn. Now they show you which end is forward, show you where drive is on the automatic trans, and turn you loose. And some companies are notorious for hiring “wheel holders”. Ever see the company Swift? Stands for “Sure wish I’d finished training”.
In addition to @puzzlegal’s note, I would also add that we should not be so harsh and unwelcoming to newbies.
It’s very easy for someone to arrive at our message board through a google search or the like and not notice the old dates on posts. We should be more forgiving of such, especially to newbies who aren’t familiar with our board or our culture.
