To Whom It May Concern

Highway Etiquette: Trucks

I drive a truck at work, a straight truck that weighs 22,000 lbs. I also drive a tractor trailer for the military. I have always had quite a bit of respect for truck drivers and what they have to deal with, and I also respect most passenger car drivers when they slip in and out of traffic responsibly in order to save time so they don't end up behind a truck. But I have zero respect for gravel truck drivers, especially the ones who drive the truck + pup trailers. These guys are like the low life of truck drivers, they have no respect for good manners or any laws of the road, be they written or unwritten. I sometimes wonder if some of them even have a license, as I watch them speeding recklessly thru traffic.

As I drive my truck, I know that in most situations it is best for me to be in the right lane, the slow lane, this allows faster more agile passenger cars to go around me and get to their destinations more quickly, especially in areas with a lot of stopping, like suburban or commercial situations. Not gravel truck drivers, they come up on a line of cars in the right lane and they whip out into the left lane, hoping somehow to trim an extra 5 seconds off the time it takes to get thru a stoplight. They do this especially if there is a truck(s) already in the right lane. What is most amazing about this is that usually the gravel truck ends up being the last one thru the light, blocking all normally faster moving traffic in the left lane, as the right lane moves smoothly along.

I realize that my truck will go anywhere from 5 to 10 miles an hour slower uphill than downhill, and I adjust my driving accordingly as to not block people in on the passing lane. Again, not so with gravel trucks, they will 'downhill drive' like crazy (45 mph up hills, 85 mph down hills), causing big time frustration to passenger cars, and even worse for truck drivers who are able to hold somewhat of a constant speed. Those truck drivers cannot pass a gravel truck going uphill and many times cannot gain enough momentum to get around them going downhill, causing at the least frustration and at worst cases of road rage, something you do not want to have happening between trucks.

Nebraska has a state law that requires gravel trucks to be tarped. But you will rarely ever see one that is using the tarp, oh, it might be on the truck, but it's very unlikely it will be unrolled over the cargo of blasting sand that pelts yours and everyone elses vehicles as you travel down the road. If you stick your hand out the window while following one down the interstate, good luck, you are likely to lose some skin. I have never quite understood why none of them are ever ticketed for this, at least none to my knowledge.

There are times that passenger car drivers do stupider things than even the gravel truck drivers do, things that make no sense whatsoever and end up with the person in the car probably wishing they had used a little more intelligence in their decision making. I was involved in just such an incident today.

I was driving my truck along Interstate 80 today at about 4:15 in the afternoon, when I made a move to get into the outside left lane, in order to join the faster moving traffic. I put my blinker on, then noticed that the car coming up was moving along at a fairly good rate of speed so I let him pass by, then began to move into the left lane. At this point my blinker had been going for about 12 to 16 seconds, there was a cadillac moving up in the fast lane, I adjusted my speed accordingly to enter the lane, and the cadillac was a good ten car lengths or better back from me at that time. This wise ass decides to speed up and actually passes me on the shoulder, driving thru gravel and all sorts of debris and within about 5 inches of my truck and the concrete barriers they have in the middle of the interstate to divide the traffic going in opposite directions. Dust and sand pelted my truck as he moved back into the driving lane of traffic.

I was completely shocked that someone would do this, especially someone in about a $40,000 automobile. not only that, but he ended up slowing down to an even slower speed than I had been going to begin with. I moved up behind him, to a point where I had a four second cushion of space, and just shook my head. About a half mile down the road, smoke rolled from under the cadillac and his driver's side rear tire exploded. Now he moved onto the shoulder for a reason. As I drove on by, I turned and looked out the window and gave the biggest, friendliest, most sarcastic wave and smile you could possibly imagine. I know, this wasn't a very gentlemanly thing to do, but in this case, I could not resist.

Moral Of The Story : Sometimes saving yourself precious seconds adds aggravating hours to your journey. Jackass behavior got jackass results for Mr Cadillac, and he should have known better than to drive his car thru the shoulder where, most likely, he picked up a pretty decent sized chunk of debris in his tire. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and I had the highlight of my day, perhaps even my work week.