Game: Name Something That Scared You And How You Dealt With It

When i first drive through construction in IN with barriers on both sides of the one lane...a lane that shifted and the ground sloped..i was terrified.

i put my hazards on and went REALLY slow. it was a 55mph lane but i was going 45 and still was very nervous. the guy behind me blew his horn and i blew back and kept my speed down.

what bothered you?

Geez, I guess everyone in this forum is fearless...

I'll offer the first volley of rookie driver fears;

"SNOW " just another four letter word for frozen crystallized water.

Real simple; preparation is the best weapon to reduce the fear, but can't eliminate it. As in most "Things Trucking" experience is definitely the best teacher.

Having the benefit of spending my entire life in the north east, I learned how to drive in snow during my teen years. So, most of the concepts learned driving a car in the snow also apply to a truck, only to greater extremes.

As follows:

Reduce your speed

Increase your following distance to the point of doubling or tripling it.

Hyper vigilant with space management.

Finesse on the controls; no abrupt adjustments.

Best way to avoid trouble is to stay out of it, if possible avoid bunching.

Use better judgement, if it's unsafe to drive? Don't. Find a place to shut down and wait it out.

A lot of good information has been written on winter weather operation. Use the search capability to access it.

Final thought...after five winters, snow still instills the hint of fear in me. It always will.

Honestly, the thing that scared me the most was the first time I had to tell my fleet manager I was shutting down due to unsafe conditions. I was PETRIFIED of being labeled as a wuss who couldn't do the job, or a whiner, or something along those lines.

What did I do? I sent a detailed message on the Qualcomm explaining why I was shutting down. My fleet manager's response was simply "Okay, be safe and keep us updated." Always, always, ALWAYS make important safety-related communications via Qualcomm (or whatever electronic messaging system your company uses). That way, it's stored in writing and doesn't turn into a game of "he said, she said."

Fog. Really dense fog. The kind where you can’t see more than 150-200ft in, which of course isn’t enough distance to stop a truck going 55. I didn’t ‘deal’ with it in so much as I ‘reacted’ to it.

I won’t go into details, but it could have ended very, very badly that day. I have new respect for the phrase “too fast for conditions.” If you can’t stop your truck in the amount of space that you can see, then you’re driving too fast.

I was hauling some non haz out of the harbor. I had a feeling I was heavy. :( I was scared to even go towards the scales. Finally got to the scales got a red light and a bur bur bur on my transponder... I’d rather not tell you I decided to just keep going... that’s how I dealt with it. I avoided it. I could have avoided it all together. But I was hoping the scales would be closed... I got very lucky that day.

Really tight exit ramps, where we go from 65mph to 35mph within a super short distance. I still get the heebeegeebees, on a few of my "regular" ones I see several times a week.

Wind is what gets my pucker factor going. I pulled a light load from. Cherokee, AL to Kansas City, KS. The winds thru Illinois and Missouri where just horrible. Something like sustained at 30mph gusts up to 45 to 50. I knew my trailer was light, but I didn't realize it was less than half loaded. (Sealed load at a drop n hook).

I made it upright so I'm the end that is what matters.