Posted on 08/06/2023 4:16:13 AM PDT by xxqqzz
A long haul trucker averages 125k miles per year. At 50 cents per mile, that’s $61.5k per year gross. Higher than average police officer salary in most states. About the same as an elementary school teacher who requires a 4 year degree in most circumstances.
Perhaps the truck traffic could be segregated onto dedicated rights-of-way. To keep them in those lanes even if they are hacked, some sort of steel guide rails could be installed on the truck roadways. Also, to increase the density of freight being hauled on these roads-with-rails, a number of trucks could be coupled together to make all of them run at exactly the same speed.
It's a bizarre concept, I know, but maybe someone will take a look at it someday.
I just had a flashback to the time a tire on one of the double trailers I was hauling went flat and I had to pull over onto the shoulder of the highway. The trailers were full of hazardous materials — swimming pool chemicals — so the safe, legal thing to do was to stay right there on the side of the road until a mechanic could arrive and change the tire.
But there was a problem. These were the days before cell phones and I was far out of radio contact with dispatch in Phoenix. It was no-man’s land, on I-10 halfway between Blythe, California and the meet spot in Desert Center. It was pitch black, and the only visible signs of human life besides the trucks passing by on the highway were the lights of the Chuckwalla Valley State Prison a couple miles to the south. Fresh in my mind were the “Don’t pick up hitchhikers” sign I had just passed.
I put my four way flashers on and limped on down to Desert Center at 45 MPH.
Not bad but isn’t there a limit now to how long they can drive? I heard there is new regulations no doubt instituted by the DemoMarxists.
Current time/rest regulations have been in place since 1995.
Interestingly, as a surgeon I don’t have any such regulations.
IF NO DRIVER——WHO IS THE VEHICLE INSURANCE COVERING????
I hope any connection with a driverless truck makes people billionaires.
No kidding. A few years ago, I had to go to a Yellow Freight depot to check on a shipment - it was apparently a piece of cargo that had to be taken from a large trailer and loaded on a bobtail for delivery, and was in freight limbo between trucks for over a week. The place had Teamsters posters everywhere you looked - it appeared to be primarily a Union Meeting Hall with a loading dock added as an afterthought.
Ha, don’t speak too soon, I’m sure the DemoMarxists will come to that. Different surgery regulations between white and ‘people of color’ to fight racism.
BTW a friends of mine just went through some major brain surgery out in California. He supposedly has Parkinsons and he’s only 51 and shakes a lot and they found he had a cyst deep in his brain that was causing too much fluid to accumulated around his brain and they got to it and drained the fluid and from what he tells me now his shaking has been reduced. You guys are heroes you really are, that is unbelievable skill to be able to do that.
I was on I-45 around Madisonville driving all the way to Dallas when I realized the car next to me was driverless. It was scary for a bit then it turned out to be a better “driver” than many others on the road.
Did the driverless car have any passengers?
Usually, when I see a car with no driver, I can usually find someone just too short to see over the dash.
Reminds me of driving in South Florida.
Does not fill me with warm fuzzies!
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