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Careless trucker

Started by sawguy21, July 19, 2011, 10:23:02 PM

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sawguy21

We heard two loud bangs while sitting at our desks this morning, we thought someone had knocked over racking with the forklift. I was on the phone but my colleagues scurried into the warehouse to investigate.
A tractor trailer driver had cut the corner short presumably to give himself more room to straighten out before backing into the next loading dock. He caught the end of our safety railing with the trailer, tearing off the end of the railing and puncturing  both outside duals on the rebar in the process. Our shipper was just inside the open man door 10 feet away and nearly wet himself.
I got there just in time to see him trying to get centered in the bay, it wasn't
pretty. ::) We went back to work assuming he would call a tire service but nosirrie he drove off with two blown tires.  :D Have to wonder how far he got before destroying the other two or got stopped. We Googled the company name and the first item was complaints about their safety record. Unbelievable.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

Doc Hickory

Just because there was a guy sitting in the seat doesn't mean he's a truck driver.  He sounds like he's 'meat in the seat', basically able to sit upright and maintain a body temperature.  There are a lot of those out on the road nowadays.  Truck driving is like everything else, about 90% are in it to draw a pay check, the other 10% treat it like a craft and practice all the nuances that go into doing it with efficiency and grace.
Feed a fire, starve a termite...

Coon

That trucking company sounds just like they have the same criteria to gain employment as Walmart--- Breathing.   :D 
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 w/Kohler,
Husqvarna, Stihl and, Jonsereds Saws

CT Trapper

I have a great respect for the big rig drivers. Like anything else, theirs good and bad but the way people in cars drive around them is ridiculous.  Either they get right in his blind spot and then refuse to pass for 20 miles, or cut him off with no signal and 10 feet of space....In a small car.  What the heck are you thinking doing that?  Those people have no concept of what it's like to drive something that big, none what so ever. 
In Ct the state PD regularly inspects at the weigh station near me so I don't think theirs to many safety violations, at least when the weigh station is open.
I did have one guy, 18 wheels, run out of diesel almost right in front of my house the other day, back country road.

sawguy21

I used to administer a fleet of light and medium duty trucks along with fuel tank trailers, it was an uphill battle with so many regulations and indifferent management.
The commercial vehicle inspectors do their best but they don't have nearly enough people to do regular spot checks. We keep hearing of shady 'driving schools' selling licences without proper training. Another stunt is swapping fresh tires around between trucks when the inspection is due then putting the old ones back on until they start shedding. I regularly see trucks and trailers with bald mismatched tires on the same axle.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

sandhills

Doc Hickory hit the nail on the head, I've always said everyone should learn to drive a truck before they can drive a car.  That's a little extreme I know but some people don't have a clue when they cut in front of you then slam on the brakes waiting for traffic so they can make a left hand turn.  The little old truck I drive (73 freightliner 318 detriot) doesn't leave much room for error, you learn to do it gracefully.

beenthere

 :)
And there is the time the 18 wheeler was passing me on I-80 across IA, when still in the left lane and about 300' ahead of me, decides that he is missing the off ramp to the open weigh station. He set his brakes and in a cloud of smoke slid sideways from the left lane across the right lane and onto the off ramp. I thought he came close to flipping on his side. I had to brake hard to avoid piling into him, and about was rearended from the traffic behind me.

I came close to following him up that ramp but I had no time to think and react that fast.

So there are a percentage of all drivers who maybe make up the bad driver list.  ;)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Tom

When my Mom was a little girl, in the 20's and 30's, Truckers were icons of safety and protection.  They were the gentlemen of the road.   Families on vacation in automobiles would stay in close proximity to them and the children would wave at the drivers, making friends for the while that they shared the same space of road.

Truckers stopped to help with flat tires and were generally the slower of the vehicles on the road.  Their concern was their load and their beautiful truck. 

Something began to happen in the 50's to destroy all of that.  I don't know what it was, but truckers began to think that the road belonged to them and the rest of America was in the way.  It might have been the creation of the "Super Highways" and the movement of perishables for long distances.  These kinds of things had been relegated to the railroads before that.  It might have had to do with the growth of the trucking industry when drivers no longer owned their truck or the company.  As the Sixties progressed, it became worse and I remember many instances when I felt I was being run down by a Semi tractor when all I could see was his grill, and sometimes his hood ornament, in my rear window.   His blowing his horn wasn't a "howdy", it was a "git outta my d+++ way".   

Traveling home after work in Jacksonville one afternoon in the 80's, I was practically harassed by a very large step van, the size of a semi truck, that later I found belonged to Kodak and was loaded with video equipment.  The driver was doing 70 in a speed-reduced area of I-95, weaving in and out of traffic and just being generally belligerant.  blowing his horn and  trying to get people in the bumper-to-bumper traffic to get out of his way.  As he swerved by me, I noticed that he had a cigarette in one hand, was shooting birds with the other and had both feet propped on the dashboard of the vehicle on either side of the steering wheel.  His having no doors made the scene rather obvious.  It took me two days to track down the owner of the Van as Kodak and I initiated a seething phone all to their customer service department and a letter to their President.   The phone call I received a month later was comforting but not satisfying.  I dearly hope that the guy lost his job.

The creation of the CDL and the Federal takeover of "commercial truck aiming" has done nothing to create a friendly highway.  There is more antagonism and intimidation on the highways today as there ever has been.  Much is exacerbated by the deadlines of companies and the continued aggravation and threats caused by the DOT.  But, much of it, I'm afraid, has to do with the selfish, angry turn our society has taken.  It is fairly obvious when the accepted behavior is to be condescending toward our neighbors, our fellow Americans.

While there are many things about the "Good-old-days" that we are better without, I think that the slower pace and appreciation for one another is something we should have kept.


Troublermaker

I remember when I first learn to drive a big rig from an old man that all that he every did was drive because he had bad feet and couldn't do much walking. He said that you had more seat warmer than truck driver. He all said that one day a real truck driver would be in high demand. Back when I was driving 25 years ago the boss man expected you to bring the truck back. Any thing short of the motor going bad you fix it or got it fix. I know a couple of times I done had a flat tires so instead of trying to get it fix on the road I jack up the trailer, pull the tires off and chain the axles up. Throw the tires up on the trailer and come on home. Then I either get another one or fix it when I got back. How may driver out there now do you know even know how to fix a tire? Back then I was a better man than I am now. Now I couldn't even turn a big truck tire over.

Warbird

A couple of years ago, this trucker wasn't paying attention and drove onto a ski trail beside my building.  He nearly rolled it over (it's difficult to see the slope in the picture) and got stuck.  An experienced trucker was able to throw some chains on and delicately drive it out.

The skiers weren't happy with what he'd done to their trail.  LOL


ely

we have truck drivers in our company and they are good, i love it when they get in a tite spot trying to drive a 110 ft pole into a location. i get on the radio and ask them if they want me to back it in for em. that gets em going.

Gary_C

Getting back to the trucker with the two flat tires, I would say the driver did exactly what his dispatcher told him to do. Chances are they calculated his current load in the trailer and determined he was well within the legal load limits for the tires remaining. So he may have continued his pickups, gone to a tire shop for repairs, or returned to his terminal for repairs or a different trailer. Nothing wrong or illegal with that.

And while I have had some problems with big rig drivers over my many miles and years of driving, they pale in comparison to the road rage I see from the auto and pickup drivers. While driving a big rig, you constantly see people blow thru stop signs and stop lights just to pull out in front of you. And people get mad at you just for being there and going just the speed limit. And in heavy traffic, try to maintain a safe following distance and people will pass you and cut right in front of you even when there is little room for them.

Yes, this road rage thing is not at all limited to truck drivers. In fact the truck drivers are far outnumbered in most places. And when I drive a big rig, I am very much more cautious and of course slower than other traffic. But unfortunately that makes some people angry.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

Don_Papenburg

TOM i think that the motor minder started the downfall back in the 50s,  it was a little device that would run a graft paper with red and blue inked needles . giving truck speed and rpms. it would tell if the truck was stopped or moving and how long.  Then along comes gps  and all the other electonic tracking gadgets.   The UPS guy tells me that if he has stoped his truck for a few seconds longer than normal the dispatcher calls to find out what the problem could be.  
Frick saw mill  '58   820 John Deere power. Diamond T trucks

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