Don’t block us in
It never fails in a large city. I’ll be driving down the expressway and see a sign reading “This lane ends, 1/2 mile.” Naturally, I hit my turn signal and start looking to get over. The result? Cars piling up in the lane next to me because nobody wants to be stuck behind a truck. Eventually, I’m forced to do something I don’t like to do. I start riding the line and very slowly creep over. Eventually, people get the point and start to scatter out of my way. All the while, people are thinking I’m unprofessional, flipping me off, and calling the 800 number to tell my company that I almost took out 5 cars. Ok, well, I don’t think anybody has actually called my company. But people clearly get upset. Some places are worse than others (I’m looking at you Jersey!!). I don’t have a choice folks! Eventually, somebody is going to have to let me in. Can’t you be the good guy for me? I’d surely appreciate it!
Don’t cut in front of us at a light
Thankfully, I don’t deal with this very often, but most local truck drivers deal with it every single day. A stop light turns red, and a car cuts in front of the truck then brakes for the light. Not a good idea folks. You could have 80,000lbs. coming through the back window of your 5,000lb. car. It’s even worse to do that with a tanker truck. All that liquid surges forward. When the truck stops, it surges back, than forward again. This can make the truck “jump” forward and push you right into the intersection. I know your time is precious and we might make you 4 or 5 minutes late to wherever you’re going, but hitting the brakes in front of us is a very bad idea. So cut it out!!!
Stop behind the lines
Since many of you aren’t aware, I’ll let you know right now. At intersections, there are these white lines on the pavement. Really, they are there! I swear! And those white lines are measured so that trucks can make turns in the intersection. Be especially aware of this if you’re in the left turn lane. Not only will our trailer cut into that lane, but if we’re making a right turn, we may have a curb to clear, so we will swing out into that left turn lane. Even if you’re behind the line, if you see a truck coming that is going to need to make a turn, back up a little for us. Even if we don’t necessarily need the room, it’s nice if we know we won’t have to worry about you at all. We understand that you need to get close enough to the line to trip the stop light, and that sometimes it’s not possible to back up. That’s ok. But when it is possible, please do so. Also, if we start to make our turn and see we won’t be able to make it without hitting you, we aren’t backing up. We will stop and wait for you to move. Even if that means a line of cars behind you has to back up first. We’re sitting right there until you’re able to get out of the way. It’s just a safety issue. We aren’t trying to be jerks. Although, I must say, when a car isn’t moving, I do get a kick out of setting the air brakes. Nothing gets the message across better than the “whoosh” of the brakes being set. Yup, I’m not movin’ til you’re out of my way people!
Try to be patient on secondary roads
Generally, when I need to make a delivery, the customer is right off the expressway. But sometimes, I have to go into town to find the place. It’s usually a town I’m not familiar with, and my directions are less than stellar. Should I miss my turn, it might take me 5 or 10 miles to find a place to turn around. Or worse, I might end up on a weight restricted road or a road with low bridges. So I’m going to drive way below the speed limit to ensure I make all my turns correctly. I do feel bad when you get stuck behind me doing 25 in a 40 mph zone, but please understand why I’m doing this. Giving up a few minutes of your time could literally save an hour of aggravation for me. Besides, I might have something in my truck that you’ll really want at the store next week. I gotta get it to you first!
I could probably go on forever. And truckers, feel free to use the comment section to list anything I forgot to mention. I’m not complaining in this post. Really, I’m not. I truly believe most people on the road just don’t know any better. They don’t know why we do certain things and don’t understand what is dangerous around trucks and what isn’t. A large part of that is due to our drivers education system. I don’t think they covered trucks at all when I went through drivers ed. No better time to start like the present!
Until next time, drive safely!
TruckerMike
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TruckerMike,
“What’s that four wheeler thinkin!!!!”
Well they are not thinking about driving.
They are absorbed in whatever is going on in their lives at the moment. Girlfriends, job, fight with the wife, sporting events, work, you name it, but not driving. Driving to most people is an autopilot state of mind and of course that is very dangerous.
You’re a pro they are the amateurs, but they get to play on the same field.
My question for you is:
What do you think is safer, driving over the cracked thawing frozen Arctic Ocean or driving through New Jersey?
-ike
t
TruckerMike I couldn’t agree more on the drivers ed part. I took it in 2003 and they said nothing about how to handle big vehicles. I hope state DMV and DOT will add it, maybe even have a handout and test for those renewing their DL
When merging onto the highway, increase your road speed amd merge ! don’t merge over doing the ramp speed of 34 or 40 then take off like a rocket when you see me hammering down in your mirror ! just a pet peeve of mine when i give a 4 wheeler plenty of room and time to merge only to watch them ease over doing 20 miles below the posted limit with a clear lane in front of them.