Profile For Suicide Jockey

That's a dang nice looking truck. Congrats Old School.

Many, if not most, trucks operated by companies operate with speed limiters. Companies set their speed limiters at different speeds. Company A may be 75mph, company B 72mph, company C 70mph, company D 68 mph, company E 67mph, company F 65mph...etc etc. The lowest I've seen in my area is a company limited to 52mph that regularly travels on the interstate locally.

Now let's say you have a 70 mph truck that wants to pass a 68 mph truck. These trucks are around 70 feet long, and therefore need a pretty big gap between cars to change lanes. In heavier traffic those gaps may be few, and often cars will speed up to close the gap as soon as they see a trucks turn signal come on. That truck is likely going to take the first opportunity they see to change lanes and pass the other truck at their maximum speed, which is only 1-2mph faster...and that may take a while.

Possibly further complicating is weight. If a fully loaded truck going 70 starts to pass a truck going 65, and then the highway starts going up even a slight incline, that 70mph truck is likely not going to be able to maintain 70 on the hill. Most of the time these inclines aren't even noticable to a car, but loaded trucks struggle to maintain their speed. If that 65 mph truck was empty and doesn't loose any speed, you'll get the classic example of two trucks passing each other depending on if their going uphill or down.

A considerate thing to do while being passed would be to turn off the cruise control and bleed off a little speed to allow the overtaking truck to complete the pass. But many drivers don't want to constantly slow down and speed up for the sake of others. Keep in mind truck drivers are often behind the wheel 10-11 hours a day, every day. They just want to get down the road, and aren't that concerned with what the thousands of cars a day that pass by them think about them.

Coming up on 3 years hauling assorted flavors of gasoline and diesel.

And loving it

You've made a bunch of mistakes, but what matters is you now have a job. Concentrate on excelling at that job and your opportunities will begin to open back up. But it will take time and dedication to get to that point.

I started in trucking with no money in my account and my wife and two daughters at home depending on me to make it work. That was terrifying. 4 years later i got into local fuel hauling earning 100k+.

You've made some bad choices in the past, learn from them.

Now it's time to make good choices, for you and your new family.

You can make a great living for you and your family in this industry. But you have to strive to make it happen.

I do not miss OTR during the winter.

My company grounds the entire fleet when it snows here. NC is not known for dealing with snow on it's roads well. To risky having fuel tankers on the road in that mess.

Have a deer guard? My company has had to play around with different deer guards because some interfere with the radars on certain brands of trucks. One particular trucks deer guard got slightly bent, and it also began interfering with the radar.

Many folks are getting a bit starstruck by that $170k number, and overlooking the words accompanying it.

"Full-time drivers will make around $170,000 in annual pay and benefits by the end of the five year contract."

That does not mean they are being paid $170k at all. Their total compensation and benefits package will total around $170k. And that's by the end of a five year contract.

Last year was my first full year with my company. My total compensation including pay and benefits totaled $166k. I made $101k with $5k in unused vacation time paid out to total $106k pay. Health and Retirement benefits made up the rest.

So using those numbers as a rough comparison, I'd expect full-time UPS drivers to make in the realm of $100k-$110k after 5 years. Their Health and Retirement benefits value pushing total compensation up around the $170k mark.

Hope you got this looked at.

I also drive a 2023 Mack Anthem daycab. It too had steer axle alignment issues causing it to pull left and right. My slip seater and I insisted it be sent out for an alignment, and the alignment solved the pulling issue.

Now if only the dealer could solve the persistent ABS system errors...

As reported it seems the driver took an exit to fast and rolled over. The remains have not been positively identified, but are believed to be the driver.

Excerpt from another article below:

The tanker truck, carrying 8,500 of gasoline, attempted to navigate a left-hand turn after exiting at the Cottman Avenue offramp of I-95, according to officials. Losing control through its turn, the tanker fell on its side and ruptured its own tank, according to Carroll. Once ignited, the fuel burned at a high enough heat to structurally compromise the concrete and steel I-beans of the overpass.

Have seen plenty of instances where they have. Topics like that generally have high engagement for a while, but eventually traffic slows and the topic sinks into obscurity.