DriveSmartBC - Trucker's Top Five
 

I asked a couple of transport truck drivers what bothered them about the drivers of small vehicles. We had a lively half hour discussion from which I gathered their top five concerns. Each of them could have serious consequences for everyone on the highway.

The first two concern sudden reductions in speed. The small vehicle driver will either pass the transport truck, pull in suddenly, and then slow down, or just slow suddenly without taking note of the truck behind. When you consider that a fully loaded truck with all the air brakes properly adjusted has only 50 to 65% of a small vehicles braking efficiency, you can guess how dangerous this move could be.

Passing over a double solid line when drivers are impatient with trucks forced to travel slowly is next. Often there is oncoming traffic and nowhere to go for all vehicles involved. The truckers would travel the speed limit on hills if they could, but they can’t so it would be best to wait for the proper place to pass.

On multi-laned roadway slow drivers that won’t keep to the right are frustrating. This situation isn’t limited to truck drivers either. People need to realize that even if they are traveling at the speed limit in the inside lane if someone faster approaches they must move to the outside lane.

The last situation is where drivers of small vehicles follow along directly beside heavy trucks. There is no law against this one, but it is not a good idea to do this with any vehicle. If either driver is required to make an emergency maneuver there is nowhere to move to. Pacing slightly ahead or behind is the preferred method.

Reference Links

I think that drivers should also be aware of the "no-see zones" that big truck drivers experience. MANY blind spots to hide even full sized vehicles from their view. If they can't see you, YOU are in danger.

There really should be a law against this. Following directly beside any vehicle for a period of time is dangerous.

Yeah, there are times where I want to get by a truck, but the car beside the truck is going exactly the same speed. Also, I've seen some drivers who are just scared to pass the truck and just stay slightly behind the truck, but in the lane beside the truck, and then effectively hold up all traffic behind.

and then you get the people who insist on traveling the speed limit in the passing lane because they think tahts the right thing to do, and they are somehow enforcing the law... but yet, not a single police officer i have asked has ever issued a failing to stay to the right ticket

^
I'm not surprised. This rule is not even emphasized at all in the Roadsense book, or even driver training. Why do people in europe know this rule so well, but not here? It's not because every driver just happens to be dumb, the system is obviously lacking in this area.
In the city I'm not surprised people don't follow this rule, especially if there's a fair amount of traffic and frequent stops at traffic lights. It's just pointless in these situations. It's also very hard to pinpoint a "left lane blocker" on streets with frequent stops. On the freeway, or "freeway-like" streets, ie. long stretch with very very few lights, then yeah the rule makes sense and it's pretty obvious when there's someone slow in the left lane.

and btw, not everyone is driving 50 in the left lane for the purpose of enforcing the speed limit. Most just don't know any better because driver training sucks here.

I disagree... Well maybe not EVERY, but the vast majority.
It seems like peoples self preservation skills are on the decline. How is it ever a good idea to follow directly beside a vehicle considerably larger than your own that is plagued with huge blind spots?

no i'm talking about lane hiearchy. There's a reason why europeans know about it so well, while canadians (or at least vancouverites) don't. Driver training seems like a good place to put the blame. It's not like people do it on purpose just to piss other drivers off...
I just don't buy the attitude of "i know the left lane is for faster cars, but I'm just gonna sit here because it's fun to piss people off." I bet 90% of the time they just don't know there's such a thing as a fast lane. They're prolly thinking "wtf can't this asshole behind me just change lanes...faggot I'm just gonna do what the roadsense book says on how to deal with tailgaters" ie. slow down a little more. In other words, they take on the attitude of not letting other drivers get to them and proceed to minding their own business.

As many on this forum have said, we need better driver training. Or at least more commercials talking about lane hierarchy. Maybe put an article in the Province/Vancouver Sun/24 hr/Metro too. At least, in the Roadsense book, make it clear with diagrams which lanes are allowed to be used. The Roadsense book I used when I got my L had no pictures about this. I think it had like 1 or 2 lines suggesting people stick to the right. Certainly not emphasized at all.

those were good, but the number one aggravation, for myself and any other truck driver I know, are the idiots who cruise along slowly, I finally get a good long straight stretch to pass, only to come up to a hill, and have them pass me again on the incline, and I'm right back behind them again on the down side.

"Suggesting." Nice. Considering that "slower traffic keep right" is THE LAW. That's like "suggesting" that you follow the speed limit and signal your turns. I guess stop signs are red lights are just a "suggestion" as well.

You're obviously not related to the a$$hole trucker last weekend on the TCH, who must have wound up to 150+ heading into the bottom of the Jackass Summit incline to be able to go blowing past me halfway up the hill, blasting me with spray and slush (thanks dude), only to cut back in front of me and slow to a crawl, leaving me just barely enough time to get back in front of him before it went to one lane. And yeah, he never got back behind me because it's narrow and winding for the next 5km from there. It was almost like he WANTED to trap me behind him at 20km/h.

well the book says "you should" instead of "you must"
so it seemed like a suggestion.

like i said, we need better driver training. we also need to update the roadsense book.

No, not related. He's one of the a$$hats that I am talking about. It's not just four wheelers that have no courtesy for others.

Personally while I always keep right, I don't think there should be a reason to move right if you are doing the speed limit as you are not preventing anyone from doing anything legal.

its called running a hill. most truckers only "trap" drivers that have hindered their drive. maybe leading to the hill previous you were munching on your sandwich, day dreaming or distracted in some form and were going slower than the speed limit and couldnt let the driver "run the hill", this really aggrevates drivers with a strict time schedule. on the other hand maybe he didnt know about the hill and didnt adjust his brakes while 4 days straight and couldnt go any slower down the hill while spraying you with slush. hard to say, us truckers whom have driven in real conditions drive different than the highway maggots that call themselves "truckers"

you made it safe which is the important part

I know what it's called. Grew up in the Cariboo, I'm quite familiar with truckers.

You're obviously not familiar with Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon. It's four-laned for a long, long way leading up to Jackass Mountain. And few drivers are ever "hindered" by me unless I'm doing it on purpose.

And this gives a PROFESSIONAL driver commanding several dozen tons of equipment the right to behave like an a$$hole??

"Down"? What "down"? There's no "down" - there's a long, four-laned, flat straight for a good 5km, leading to a long four-laned uphill straight before the whole thing rounds a tight curve, then drops to two narrow, winding, cliff-hugging lanes for several kilometers.

Uh-huh. Tell ya what, Mr. Real Trucker, go drive the TCH up Jackass Mountain just once, so you at least have a faint clue what I'm talking about, before you comment again, mmmkay?

Thanks for coming out.


At least one of us did. Say, what brand of hockey helmet do you wear when you're sitting at your computer, anyway?

I will admit my total ignorance of the road, its lane and cliff huggingness but if you think that any public highway is windy or a long ugly hill then well thats your ignorance. sounds like this guy was an asshat for driving the way they did, but like i said sounds like he is a highway maggot <--- not skilled drivers 99% of the time

ps: brand of hockey hemet- wouldnt know, ive never played hockey. always had a job or more important things to do. oh and anytime you would like to experience a windy long ugly hill and have a week off ill phone my old boss and see if he'll lend me his wheeler and i can show you the old ojay main road, 27% (with a wheeler the rear set of tires on the trailer they would be about 23ft above the steering axle if theres no booster or jeep, mmmkay) descent for a 1km into a single lane bridge into a 19% climb for 2km to a hard right hander oh if you make the 33% grade on km 37 hill, all chained up of course with a real load on like a 130,000lb pump or maybe a 16ft wide mudtank, or a 80ft long derrick on a crown bunk hehe. did i mention that theres over 100km of this type of nice road? this is the type of road where theres no mandatory brake checks or run away lanes, this driver better know what the heck is going on type of road. there is some beautiful country up that way tho and real good white tail i hear. if it wasnt security gated and patrolled often it would be good quadding areas as well

hmm so heading into the bottom isnt going down? you must play alot of hockey behind your computer?

you must have a pretty mouth then

so because you grew up in the cariboo, means you know about truckers? so because i grew up in edmonton i should know about oil beacuse they have refineries there? very logical thinking, mmmkay

back to the original post. the number one pet peeve of truckers is peoples lack of knowledge of truckers and how their job is done. we leave a large following gaps because we are heavy. we take wide corners because our rigs are long. pulling a van or a reefer has a ton of blind spots so get out of the way and get seen. flat decks arent as bad but still many areas are hard to see little cars. give a trucker some room to work and do his job. dont fly by at 100km/hr on the highway by guy a tieing down his load, you slow down for police officers and tow truck drivers. i was ignorant once and use to always fill that gap at a red light so i could get 3 cars ahead but i had so much to learn about driving then and didnt understand why it was bad.

Read again: you come along a long, long, flat, straight, four-laned section of road, before hitting THE BOTTOM OF THE UPHILL STRETCH.

:facepalm:

Now I can tell you're a trucker, from your utter lack of reading comprehension.