I don't doubt there are rude inconsiderate truckers out there. However, in the 20yrs I've been driving across this country in various sized automobiles, 85-90% of the rudeness is from car drivers, not truckers.
Think of it like this. The trucker's office is the road and he's on it 8 to 9hrs a day (or more). How many encounters does he have in those 8 hrs with rude inconsiderate drivers? How many rude automobile drivers even know they are being inconsiderate? There are unwritten rules of the road that most truckers operate under - rules that are increasingly forgotten and overlooked by the general public.
For example:
It is an extremely rare occasion where I see an automobile driver flash his lights for a trucker to switch lanes. It is also an extremely rare occasion where one trucker fails to do this same thing for another. They even flash them for me if my pickup is heavily loaded.
And they just hope some chicken$#!t cop doesn't see it, because for some idiotic reason, signaling in that manner is illegal in many, if not most states.
Yeah but its every day I have truckers on my tail (doing 80mph), cutting me off with no signal, running in the left lane for no perceptable reason, and weaving left in an
attempt to cut me off in the merge. Since I'm on a motorcycle, they don't see me half the time. The other half
they are trying to crush me.
I say put them all on flat cars.
Really? (Not being sarcastic) I see that a lot around here and I do it all the time myself. I know how hard it is to judge distance when all you see is a pair of lights at night. I'm also teaching my kids to do that as they learn to drive.
That being said, I avoid the interstate at all costs. We live very close to one and it is extremely easy to hop on and zip to where ever, but there are plenty of much less stressful state and county routes that run parallel to it that I take the vast majority of the time. It may take a few minutes more but it's so much more relaxing, and safer, IMO.