Truck Drivers

[Cow Poke]

I thank God for them.

And I thank God I'm not one of them.

I see so many people seemingly going out of their way to make their lives more difficult. We need them. Think of how much stuff is brought to your grocery store, Walmart, your home... by truck drivers.

Sometimes, they really hack me off! Like, when a section of our highway was closed down to one lane Northbound, and it was "up hill" to the traffic light. There has been a seemingly endless convoy of trucks carrying oilfield drill pipe North, and when they would get stuck at that light, it would seemingly take them FOREVER (and lots of black smoke) to 'granny gear' up that hill and get out of the way (where the road widened back to 4 lanes) to let impatient people like me fly by.

So, I often try to watch out for them. If I'm approaching an intersection where I see a truck attempting to turn, I make sure I'm back far enough from the intersection to allow him to come through.

OK, time for some trucker music!

[mossrose]

I understand where you're coming from, and I do appreciate their contribution to our lives.

However, in 1989 my car was backed into by a gravel truck with a pup. He was turning right and I was behind him. He changed his mind and decided to go straight across the intersection instead, and had to back up to do it. I had started to move up as he turned the corner, and had no time to back up before he hit me.

He didn't even feel the collision, but continued backing up until he was straight enough to go through the intersection. I was trying to back up, blow the horn, and get out of my car all at the same time. I actually hit the car behind me as I was backing up.

Then I had to run across the street to get him and tell him he had backed into me. Fortunately there were lots of witnesses, including an RCMP who just happened to show up out of nowhere just after the incident.

My car was totalled. I had to fight with the owner of the trucking company who didn't want to "increase his insurance rates", so I had to threaten him with court, with the officer fully behind me. The guy finally settled out of his own pocket, but it was a hassle.

I don't like gravel trucks.

[mossrose]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6BD0_s3TKa4

[mossrose]

Stupid URL thing never works.



Edit: never seem to work on my ipad. Works on my lappy.

[Cow Poke]

I understand where you're coming from, and I do appreciate their contribution to our lives.

However, in 1989 my car was backed into by a gravel truck with a pup. He was turning right and I was behind him. He changed his mind and decided to go straight across the intersection instead, and had to back up to do it. I had started to move up as he turned the corner, and had no time to back up before he hit me.

He didn't even feel the collision, but continued backing up until he was straight enough to go through the intersection. I was trying to back up, blow the horn, and get out of my car all at the same time. I actually hit the car behind me as I was backing up.

Then I had to run across the street to get him and tell him he had backed into me. Fortunately there were lots of witnesses, including an RCMP who just happened to show up out of nowhere just after the incident.

My car was totalled. I had to fight with the owner of the trucking company who didn't want to "increase his insurance rates", so I had to threaten him with court, with the officer fully behind me. The guy finally settled out of his own pocket, but it was a hassle.

I don't like gravel trucks.

OK, true confession - I've been needing to get this off my chest for years.

One day, I was driving through College Station, Texas, and a gravel truck was beside me. He wasn't loaded properly, and he was spilling some of his gravel - like how people get cracks in their windshields. He seemed to be trying to pass me on my right side, but I was slowing down because I was about to make a left turn. As I slowed, he finally "gained on me", and was in the right lane ahead of me.

SUDDENLY, he jerked left into my lane, and started slowing down quickly, obviously aiming for the same left turn I was headed to, which was kind of an uphill cloverleaf entrance to another highway. He made me slam on my brakes, and turned left in front of me - he HAD to know I was there, and he obviously was racing to get ahead of me so he could turn left. There was NOBODY behind me, so he could have slowed and turned in behind me instead.

Well, the devil got hold of me, and as we (he in front) turned left onto that uphill ramp, there was enough room for me to zoom past him on the left, get in front of him, and he's blowing all kinds of black smoke trying to make it up that hill. I zoomed in front of him and stopped, causing him to slam on his brakes in that UPHILL condition, meaning he'd have to start UPHILL from a dead stop.

He honked and cussed and obscene gestured.... and I felt vindicated! In the flesh. Then realized I had played right into the devil's hands.

So, maybe some of my kindness to truck drivers is due to that GRAVEL TRUCK incident.

(all kidding aside, gravel trucks are more likely to be "short haul", and more likely to be (in my experience) people who couldn't qualify for the good long haul jobs, maybe because of bad driving record, or.....

[Cow Poke]

)

[Cow Poke]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6BD0_s3TKa4

My ALL TIME favorite trucker song....

[mossrose]

OK, true confession - I've been needing to get this off my chest for years.

One day, I was driving through College Station, Texas, and a gravel truck was beside me. He wasn't loaded properly, and he was spilling some of his gravel - like how people get cracks in their windshields. He seemed to be trying to pass me on my right side, but I was slowing down because I was about to make a left turn. As I slowed, he finally "gained on me", and was in the right lane ahead of me.

SUDDENLY, he jerked left into my lane, and started slowing down quickly, obviously aiming for the same left turn I was headed to, which was kind of an uphill cloverleaf entrance to another highway. He made me slam on my brakes, and turned left in front of me - he HAD to know I was there, and he obviously was racing to get ahead of me so he could turn left. There was NOBODY behind me, so he could have slowed and turned in behind me instead.

Well, the devil got hold of me, and as we (he in front) turned left onto that uphill ramp, there was enough room for me to zoom past him on the left, get in front of him, and he's blowing all kinds of black smoke trying to make it up that hill. I zoomed in front of him and stopped, causing him to slam on his brakes in that UPHILL condition, meaning he'd have to start UPHILL from a dead stop.

He honked and cussed and obscene gestured.... and I felt vindicated! In the flesh. Then realized I had played right into the devil's hands.

So, maybe some of my kindness to truck drivers is due to that GRAVEL TRUCK incident.

(all kidding aside, gravel trucks are more likely to be "short haul", and more likely to be (in my experience) people who couldn't qualify for the good long haul jobs, maybe because of bad driving record, or.....

You are so bad!



Gravel trucks have been the cause of many fatalities around here through the years. I don't know if it's because they can't qualify for long haul, but they are certainly always in a huge hurry to get the load dumped and pick up another. It seems they're paid by the load....

[Cow Poke]

You are so bad!



Gravel trucks have been the cause of many fatalities around here through the years. I don't know if it's because they can't qualify for long haul, but they are certainly always in a huge hurry to get the load dumped and pick up another. It seems they're paid by the load....

Yeah, I think it's a supply and demand thing - the gravel companies have to have somebody driving with a commercial license, and it appears that "gravel truck driver" and "cement truck driver" are at the bottom of the job market possibilities.

[Juvenal]

And I thank God I'm not one of them.

Ten years, fifteen at the most, there won't be any more driving jobs.

On the one hand, that's a lot of jobs leaving the market, and on the other, it's about 30k lives a year just in the U.S. alone, because humans can't be relied upon to drive safely.

I'll be first in line for a car that drives itself.

But they can pry the throttle on my motorcycle out of my cold, dead hands.

[Faber]

OK, true confession - I've been needing to get this off my chest for years.

One day, I was driving through College Station, Texas, and a gravel truck was beside me. He wasn't loaded properly, and he was spilling some of his gravel - like how people get cracks in their windshields. He seemed to be trying to pass me on my right side, but I was slowing down because I was about to make a left turn. As I slowed, he finally "gained on me", and was in the right lane ahead of me.

SUDDENLY, he jerked left into my lane, and started slowing down quickly, obviously aiming for the same left turn I was headed to, which was kind of an uphill cloverleaf entrance to another highway. He made me slam on my brakes, and turned left in front of me - he HAD to know I was there, and he obviously was racing to get ahead of me so he could turn left. There was NOBODY behind me, so he could have slowed and turned in behind me instead.

Well, the devil got hold of me, and as we (he in front) turned left onto that uphill ramp, there was enough room for me to zoom past him on the left, get in front of him, and he's blowing all kinds of black smoke trying to make it up that hill. I zoomed in front of him and stopped, causing him to slam on his brakes in that UPHILL condition, meaning he'd have to start UPHILL from a dead stop.

He honked and cussed and obscene gestured.... and I felt vindicated! In the flesh. Then realized I had played right into the devil's hands.

So, maybe some of my kindness to truck drivers is due to that GRAVEL TRUCK incident.

(all kidding aside, gravel trucks are more likely to be "short haul", and more likely to be (in my experience) people who couldn't qualify for the good long haul jobs, maybe because of bad driving record, or.....

Psalm 68:2

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish before God.

[Sparko]

Pretty soon their won't be any truck drivers.

[The Melody Maker]

Trucks are like computers. They both have drivers and they can both crash.

[Goulette]

As a shipper/receiver, I see them all the time. It's not easy to drive those things.

Wish they'd be on time more often!

[mossrose]

Trucks are like computers. They both have drivers and they can both crash.