Any Tips To Keep Cool Around Crazy Drivers?

Hey, I love this conversation. Staying in control of your emotions is a super critical part of being a Top Tier Professional in this business. I started giving a long reply here and realized this conversation and the things I wanted to add to it would make a great article. So here you go:

Keepin' Your Cool: Managing Road Rage

Great article Brett!

...make the switch to Decaf. I started 1/2ing my caffeine intake when I knew I was going to be dedicated to a Northeast DC years ago.

In the article Keepin' Your Cool: Managing Road Rage this paragraph reminded me of a Zen Master approach:

Getting angry is distracting. You're taking your eyes off the highway, you're losing focus on the vehicles around you, you're not on top of your game.

If someone gets your attention by cutting in front of you, and you decide to be angry, you have given control of of your life to your antagonist.

Think not? Then why are you moving up to tailgate the driver? Why do you leave your high beams on while they're in front of you, instead of continuing with your load to it's destination?

Keeping calm in such situations is simply a matter of not allowing another person to control you.

Stay between the white lines, Grasshopper.

One of the comments was to go a little slower than the flow of traffic and I couldn't agree more with that one. I'm a local flatbed in Chicago dealing with heavy traffic on a daily basis. Speed limits at 70/65/60 for 4-wheelers/busses/trucks are my favorite. I'll play a game with myself setting the cruise just under 60 and see if I can get through the city interstate without hitting the brakes. I get to my destination stress free and in plenty of time. Of course at the height of rush hour, this simply isn't possible but for those times, I just prepare myself mentally and physically to deal with a 20 mile trip that takes 2 hours before I even start the truck.

This is a subject IMO that I conquered very quickly. I am not CDL but I am on the road every day. I decided I would keep track of "the idiot of the day". The creativity of the "idiot people" just amazes me. Knowing I would see someone who is a special kind of stupid quite often made the usual triggers of WTF go away i.e. flip offs, cut offs, etc. This, for me, is what works.

try to go three mph slower than the flow of the traffic when it's really heavy. Let the congestion head on down the road, and get away from me. Once they're gone, I'll maybe increase my speed.

Packrat, I gotta say bud, this suggestion is awesome. Works like a charm. Takes me a tad longer to get where I'm going, but it's considerably less stressful. I think that was what was tripping me up. Just couldn't figure out what speed I should be cruisin' at.

I also have switched up where I'm stopping for my 10 hr breaks so I'm not so pressed for time. I still should get home on the same day but I just won't have a short day on the last day of my week, which is fine. I just sat back, cruised a little slower, listened to podcasts--more relaxing and didn't feel rushed at all.

Anyways, appreciate the advice from everyone--very helpful. Alot of this is stuff I was doing at one point, but I think I got a little rusty while I was local.