rumor has it that Tom wrote:
Bill R said
"almost blown off the road by an 18 wheeler. About as scared as I ever
got"
Spout off time...
Now for the other side...
For reference, I have logged over 300,000 miles in a big truck. I have
driven nearly 1,000,000 total.
The trucking industry is out of control. The worse the
weather the faster they go. Route 80 which is a big interstate (NY to
San
Fran) is closed almost weekly in PA now due to accidents which involve
trucks.
How many of those are the fault of the car? Just because a truck was
involved does _not_ mean that the truck is to blame. The view from the
drivers seat in a big truck during heavy traffic reminds me of trying
to walk with a dozen happy puppies trying to greet me. I'm afraid I'll
step on one if I try to move.
Basically a free for all. I read US traffic from trucks has
increased 100% in the last 10 years. I have tried to talk to some of
these
garage haulers.
From what I've seen, the quantity of dangerous drivers is much higher
in cars than it big trucks. Sure, there are maniac truck drivers. And
a 40 ton truck driven by a maniac _is_ scarier than a
maniac-driven Fiero.
Some of these guys/gals are traveling 600 to 700 miles a
day, 6 to 7 days a week
Yup. But there's nothing inherently dangerous about driving for 12
hours a day. And when the job pays by the mile, who would not want to
squeeze as many mile as practical? Add to that the nutty scheduling
that dispatches hand out, plus shippers and receivers that pay _no_
attention to the amount of wasted driver's time.
Here's a typical situation. Dispatch says "I have a 500 mile load for
you. Pick appointment is 8AM, delivery appointment is 8PM" That's
about 10 hrs of driving and 12 hr to do it. No problem! So I arrive
and check in at the shippers at 7:30. At 8:45 I'm assigned a door. At
8:50 I "bump the dock". Two pallets are loaded, but then it's 9:00 and
break time. At 9:30 they start loading again. At 10:00, the truck is
loaded, but the office is slow and it's nearly 10:30 by the time I
have the papers and am pulling out of the yard. Now I have 9.5 hours
to get there. Well, if I don't eat and there's no traffic,or bad
weather, or construction I'll be fine. I call ahead to the receiver to
see how tight the appointment is. They often say "You can't show up
more than 1 hour early, and if you're more than 15 minutes late we'll
have to reschedule you for tomorrow or the next day." Missing an
appointment is bad. Not only might I have to waste a day or more, it
could also result it penalties for me and/or the company I drive for.
I'll quickly point out that I think staying alive is worth more than 2
days wages, loosing a customer, and lost bonuses - but it is
motivation to keep moving!!!
and they drive those things like Porsches. Big difference in rig
weighing 100,000lbs doing 80 mph and my 240D at less than two tons
doing 70 mph.
No, not like a Porsche! Trust me, a 240D with an tired engine and a
automatic transmission is _much_ quicker than a typical big truck!!
Top speed may be faster, but acceleration with a load is sloooow, even
with a souped-up "large car". One consequence is that a truck driver
is often reluctant to slow down because it can take so long to get
back up to speed. (One truck I drove, with a full load on level ground
would take more than 1.5 miles to go from 50 mph to 60 mph) Add to
that the frustration of lost momentum at the bottom of a hill that can
result in losing 4 gears on the climb rather than 1 gear - all
because an "idiot 4-wheeler" was doing something stupid.
Something will need to be done about this nightmare...satellite
tracking of each truck to measure/report speed is one answer, but
how do you do you handle the three inches from your but stuff?
Let's do that to the cars. There are _lots_ more over-speed cars than
over-speed trucks.
Maybe separate roads?
Good idea. Let the big trucks do their job and keep the jerks in the
cars away!
Only one good trucking
outfit which drives correctly that I see, JB Hunt
!!!????!!!
and they have become the
brunt of all the other truckers jokes.
Swift, Schneider, and Roadway get their share.
Unless a highway merge is taking place, they should all just stay in
the right lane, trains could not pass, why do they think they
should. (truck doing 25 mph passing the one doing 15 mph up a steep
incline/two lane interstate oooofaaaa)
!!?? Trains _do_ pass. Freight trains are put onto sidelines to let an
express or passanger train pass. And if trucks shouldn't pass, maybe we
shouldn't let cars pass either... Passing _is_ dangerous!
We need a good diesel sky
car...
Now _that's_ scary!! There are way too many cars whose drivers can't
manage 2 dimentions - I don't want to deal with them in 3!!!
Sorry fo spouting off
Regards Tom Scordato
As a closing thought, if there were 99 trucks (or cars, for that
matter) that were driving sensible and then along came 1 lunatic -
would you remember the 99, or just the 1?
Philip, who tries to drive like he did when
he was a professional driver.
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