quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I've driven a lot since I got my license 17 years ago. Somewhere around a million miles. I feel like I have experienced more questionable truckers in the last half of that time period. When I have had occasion to deal with truckers making poor decisions in person, they have almost always been immigrants with poor English skills, which can't make it any easier for them.

One of the guys that I know that drove a semi-truck is now retired, he told me that they're getting worse because they're coming from other countries, they pass the CDL test and they still drive like they did back in their original country. He told me to expect it go get worse too.

quote:

Originally posted by SBrooks:
I use an exit with three truck stops (one of which is the busiest store for Pilot/Flying J - like top 5 in the nation busy) every day for going to and from work.

They will pull out in front of you with no regard for how close your are or what speed you are going. They don't care. Happens all the time. Been going on for the twenty years I've lived there. A certain percentage of truck drivers are just bad people. I suppose it's true for car drivers as well, but I just don't see it as often from them as I do the trucks...

Yep. Two truck stops, directly across from each other, on the main road I take to and from home. Every day, twice a day, I go past these. Nearly every day a truck pulls out in front of me or someone near me. They're important you know.

quote:

Originally posted by mrapteam666:


Every time I go home to visit, I cannot believe the traffic around Columbus especially during rush hour near I-270 and the RT 33 exit.

They rebuilt that area around Dooblin. Its pretty nice to travel through there.

The stretch of I81 through the Shenandoah Valley has turned into a demolition derby in the last couple years. Between idiot drivers in both semi trucks and regular vehicles it's like Mad Max. Not sure why but SWIFT seems to hire an incredible number of horrible drivers. The joke is that the company name stands for Sure Wish I Finished Training.

Only on the internet can you have a thread complaining about driver quality running side by side with a thread bitching about shipping costs. In an industry that hasn't seen increased driver wages in two decades, it should be no wonder that the job is being populated by immigrants who bring their habits and culture to the job. Trucking is now longer a profession, but has become just a job.

This is the same as those cities who complain that they have no qualified applicants to their police departments, while offering an $18,000 starting wage while asking you to buy your own gear. You kinda get what you pay for.

They have to rest some time.

I was nearly killed by one in a hit-and-run on I-15 years ago. He came up along side me on my left side and suddenly changed lanes and moved right into me. We locked up and he started dragging me down the freeway. After a while, my car broke free and and as he started braking, I did a 360 and spun in front of him, he then hit me broadside, on the driver's side, and started pushing me with his bumper down the freeway sideways. My car then slid off to his left side where we locked up again and he started pulling me down the freeway backwards. After a bit, I broke free and started doing 360s down the freeway towards the oncoming traffic, I hit a VW head-on in one spin and totaled it. That collission then threw me backwards into a reverse spin where I spun into the jerseys dividng north and south bound traffic. That put me into another spin back towards traffic where I finally came to a stop facing traffic in the number 1 lane; the VW was in number two. The semi driver pulled over and came back and asked if I was OK and said he was going to radio for help. The @#)$(* then got back in his truck and took off. Fortunately, another trucker stopped too and he recognized the fleet line and turned them in. About a week later, the highway patrol caught him returning to his yard. They found paint from my car on the bolts holding his bumper on. The bolts matched the holes in the side of my car when he was pushing me sidways down the freeway. The highway patrol figures the bolts were the only reason he didn't roll me or go over the top. This was in '89. I still have a bad back from it.

Last night, I'm driving home with the kids and wife in the far right lane towing our travel trailer when some trucker in a rush cut over (right) to pass a slower rig in his lane. I stood on the brakes and he missed the front of my truck by maybe 10'.

See this shit all the time around here. Especially on I95. Those drivers seem to think that speed limit signs are suggested minimums.

Not to mention the reckless insanity they commit.

My brother was a state cop up in the northwest and did a lot of interstate patrols. He had a lot of "interesting" stories to tell about truckers and their antics. He clocked one at something like 105 mph. Going downhill on a long stretch, heavily loaded.

Around here one of their/my favorites is to get side by each, bumbling along at 20 MPH and tying up traffic for miles.