People haven’t a clue what truckers go through, what kind of ‘life’ it is on the road, how egregious the abuses from the trucking outfits, and just how VITAL they are to us, each and everyone.
The gov’t stays up nights devising ever more restritioncs on them - thought up by people who haven’t clue one what’s involved.
Truckers are in the top five catagory of our HEROES - but totally unsung. Drivers on the highway haven’t a clue hos to drive around the big rigs, how to compensate for off track, how many feet it takes for a big rig to stop or shift lanes.
It aught to be part of driver training, a prerequisite to getting a license: a course in how to drive around big rigs...and get off your damn cell phones, put your make up on and read your mail at home, etc etc.
That is an excellent idea, that driver’s training should include a course about how to drive around trucks.
And you are right about the abuse truck drivers get.
And you are right about how people do not appreciate how to drive around them. Whenever I see a truck that wants to pull into my lane (needs to pull into my lane really). I slow and give my headlights a flash to let him in. Easy enough for me to pick up speed in a bit.
For sure the truck drivers need to earn more money. A raise in their pay would add little if anything to the cost of the goods they haul. Geez, there are some companies paying 10 cents a mile for dead head runs. Other companies bounce the drivers from short run to short run with long waits at the warehouse door.
When I had my business and a long haul truck pulled up, we made sure he was loaded and in and out as soon as possible. I’ve even called customers that were making a trucker wait that had one of my deliveries to tell them to get the guy unloaded. The customer complained about delivery time and price and held the driver waiting to unload sometimes for a full day. They can’t hold up a driver and expect to have low prices for freight.
To all of you that don’t understand trucking, when you see a truck on the highway, give them some room, don’t pull in front of them and then slow down. Give them a wave and a thanks. They are Great Americans doing a tough job.