No consideration by Truckers.........

Is it just me, or has the professional truck driver population decreased as of late?  It used to seem that truckers used to be the sharpest ones out on the road. Anymore I think there is a new breed out there.  IE, we pulled into a Loves Travel Center on I/S 10 in Texas just outside of Kerrville. It was a Monday, about 4 PM.  There was not enough room for us to fit in the auto pumps, so we went to the truck pumps.  All of the lanes were full, and some were stacked 2 deep already. 

We picked one that only had one truck in it, a heavy duty tow truck that did not have a tow.  He was in the #2 lane away from the fuel desk.  We pulled up and stopped a ways behind him. He was outside the truck, and no fuel hoses were in the truck.  He was picking at one of his tires, not paying any attention to us.  After a minute, he looked up at me, and walked into the fuel desk. I assumed he was going in to pay, or have the pumps started. 

He was gone about 10 minutes. When he came back, he was holding a Subway sandwich bag!  He looked at me again, and walked to his truck.  He sat in it about 5 more minutes, at the pump. Finally he started up, and finally pulled out.  When he pulled out, I could see another truck in front of him that had already pumped and was just sitting there.  He turned and easily drove around the front truck and drove off.  What an idiot. 

So I pulled up, fueled, paid and got in to leave.  The front truck was still there!  I pulled up, drove around him and drove out.  As I passed by, the driver was sitting in the drivers seat on the phone.   

What the heck ever happened to common sense and courtesy??  Pretty sad.  I think that there is a new breed of driver out there.  In stead of being professional drivers, they are just people that couldn't get another job.  It's too bad. 

And this is a few months after a guy in a Bimbo Bakery Semi truck pulled out of a line of trucks at the weigh station on the 5 fwy in Castiac from a dead stop directly in front of me.  We were in our MH driving at 60 MPH pulling the Jeep.

Be careful out there....... (end of rant)

It's not just the trucking industry...

Check out page 17 of the current issue of Business Week... College grads in the US lag those in  Au, Denmark, Finland, Island, Japan,  He, NZ, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the UK.  It is gonna get much worse.  The authors of the article conclude that ''the skills gap in America has reached a crisis point...''  So your rant is right on...

Federal tax credits meant to encourage new hiring have made it more profitable for a company to continually hire new replacements and claim the tax credits instead of trying to retain more experienced drivers.

In the past this has been tempered by higher insurance rates for newer drivers, but several of the fleets are now large enough that they are self-insured.

The driver turnover rate for the large, entry level trucking companies is well in excess of 100% per year.  This means their average driver has less than a year's experience driving big rigs.

And the freight rates these companies can offer with their subsidized driver costs makes it harder for individual owner-operators or companies with more experienced drivers to compete against them.

In short, yes the trucking industry has changed drastically over the last few years.  And IMO, it's not for the better.

Well, with the new government regs they are driving the experienced drivers out and replacing them with kids.  These kids get about two weeks of training, then spend all their time on the cell phone, and have no consideration for others.  Back in 1981 when I started it was a different atmosphere all together.  I've seen these kids throw trash out of their window in a truck stop where there are trash cans all over the place.  They will park at the fuel island even when they aren't getting fuel.  Congress is not concerned with requiring proper training, as they think they can put computers in all the trucks to watch their every move.  And the cops pull trucks over for no other reason but to inspect them, which takes about an hour, then they need to speed to make up the time they lost.  Also the companies are using the computers to push the drivers to drive when they are not in a safe condition to drive, but they "have the hours" to drive.  Our government at work.

I know several good, experienced drivers which have just called it quits, as it has gotten so bad out there it's "just not worth it anymore."  So for a big part of it, there's a new breed that has taken over the highways.


I personally get pulled over and "checked" about once a month.  I know they are just doing there job, so I'm nice, they are professional, and I get out of there after losing about an hour of my time.  I haven't gotten a ticket yet, I always have my stuff up to date, and take good care of my equipment.  When I drive the MH, car, or bike, they just don't pull me over. 

Hi Sarge and all,

Besides no consideration, safety issues are what scare me. I am wondering if there will be more fatalities on the roads with the lack of training. In the past it was a very rare thing to see a truck driver who wasn't professional and safety minded. Now, these days I see lots of things that scare me.

    What we rant about these days is the "all about me attitude" that seems to be prevalent everywhere on the highways.  driving below the speed limit but unmovingly in the left lane, pulling into traffic from a ramp without looking and/or yielding to oncoming traffic but at speeds well below oncoming traffic, never stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks, texting/on the phone while weaving into other lanes, passing the RV cutting in then slowing down, and the list could go on.  Yet there really isn't any lifestyle like it. 

Ed

Thanks for the insight guys. It doesn't fix the problem, but it does make it easier to understand.

Hfx_Cdn said:

    What we rant about these days is the "all about me attitude" that seems to be prevalent everywhere on the highways. 

Click to expand...

You could delete "on the highways" from the end of this sentence and be dead on.

It is not just truckers.. I drive a gasser so I can fuel at the car pumps.. I was in a station that either did not have RV pumps or they were too tight for my comfort so I lined up on the car pump.. A kid in an SUV suddenly started it up, exited the parking spot he was in and pulled into the pump. He proceeded to wash the windshield.

Finally his mother came out and they took off and I gassed up.  I have a name for folks like that kid but ... I'm not going to type it.

That said.. The RV life is about not rushing, so I'm not all that bothered, UNLESS the RV and towed is in a location that limits movemnet of other vehicles in the lot, Then it's not just me he's trying to piss off, but whomever wishes to cross the path I'm sitting on and those folks may well be in a hurry.

Years ago.. Folks would hold the door for you.. Today, I do that for people and they dang near pass out in shock.

Years ago.. Folks would hold the door for you.. Today, I do that for people and they dang near pass out in shock.

Click to expand...

Funny I held the door for a woman the other day and in a snarky voice she asked if I did that because she was a Lady a little taken aback I replied  "no because I am a gentleman"

A very good answer.. I often hold doors for others.  And I've had rare occasions where someone held one for me.

And many where they let it slam in my face.

Sarge, please don't get me started!

Yah, courtesy/consideration on the road is certainly heading downhill in a hurry. I have tried to tell myself it just me getting older and getting less tolerant of "kids" driving habits but it's all ages, men, women, cars, trucks, etc. It seems to be everyone!

On a positive note, though, the folks around here seem to be pretty good about holding doors. We were heading into a restaurant a few years ago with a vestibule entrance so I opened the outer door, let the family go in and then held the door for a couple of elderly women (one of my daughters was also holding the inside door). The women both thanked me and one said to me "Your parents brought you up right" and then said to my daughter "And so did yours". Made me feel good.

We reap what we sow.  Most of those rude unthinking folks are younger than most of us "old" guys.  Now how do you think they learned (or didn't learn) how to treat people?  "We" didn't teach them. We should have, but we didn't.  Instead, we were busy earning a living and making sure our kids had it better than us.  Unfortunately, "better than us" often overlooks the necessary life's lessons our parents taught us.  Thus, the "me" generation.

Just a few days ago at Wallyworld I was in line to pay and a older lady was behind me with just two items, I said she could pass me because I had more items to pay for. She told me that it was nice to see the world still had gentlemen. And she also said thank you young man. I'm 53 and was smiling all the way out to the car.

That was a good day!

Sorry to get off the subject!

No Terry, you are still on subject.  It's like Wendy said. It's not just on the highway.  I was just miffed because of the outright rudeness displayed at the fuel station.  It funny, I have opened the car door (among others) for my wife for nearly 20 years. It's just automatic.  It's funny to see the looks I get sometime.  I just smile and nod at those folks.

An 18 wheeler almost took us out about 2 months ago.  We were in the motorhome in the far right lane going to Tucson.    The trucker was behind us in the next lane (left) with no traffic in front of him - so he would easily pass us.  For some reason the trucker crossed partly out of his lane and headed directly for our driver side rear.  Thankfully Dan saw him in the rear view mirror and there was an open wide shoulder.  He did not move back into his lane until he had passed us.  Scary.  If Dan had not seen him and/or that shoulder was wide and open it would not have been good for us. 

Jennifer

A little realty check here.... Truck drivers are human beings like all of us. Stuff happens on the road. You could have done the same thing easily; nobody is infallible. Lucky that you were not injured .  With thousands of semis on the road every day how do you prevent that ? Be super alert at all times.

I had the same thing happen some time ago, on an interstate, he/she almost took my mirror off...1 inch away.  One other time was in Baja down a mountain road and my RV was straddling the edge of a 500' drop, I believe my wheels were actually partly over the edge. Well, I am still here...I counted my blessings.
  Stuff like this never gets reported unless there is a true disaster...happens all the time.

Carson,

I do not know why the truck driver drove into our lane.  I do know it was not lane drift.  The truck drove at least 50% (likely more) into our lane.  He was completely behind us when he did this and never attempted to get back into his original lane until after he had passed us. 

Jennifer