I was reading how to avoid getting speeding tickets.
I have finagled my way out of several of them over the years.
Once, going 75 in a 55 zone, not realizing how fast I was going.
I engaged the Highway Patrol officer in a discussion about hunting
and camping and after 30 minutes of getting absorbed in that conversation,
the officer basically came back to his job and said: "Oh, well, please slow down
and be safe out here". Yes sir. No ticket, not even a written warning.
Other tickets I have gotten out of the same way, basically. Getting cocky, cranky
or irritable with the officer? Yeah.
Nowadays? With any kind of ticket on my record counting against me, I would
have to go to court and at least try to fight it. Being forced to stay home a day from
work with no pay doesn't exactly sound inviting, but that's exactly what my company
has implement for it's CDL drivers that get any kind of ticket or even just a warning.
That includes in my personal vehicle, not just the semi. Yes, that puts a lot of pressure
on a person while driving. There aren't any perfect drivers out there and everyone makes
mistakes in traffic, that's a fact. It's been 15 months since my last warnings, issued by Arizona
Department of Transportion Highway Patrol and I can't tell you much I do to go out of my
way to avoid them on the highway while driving the semi. Let them pull someone ELSE over
and do inspections. I had one cruising beside me for quite a while the other day, scary, really.
Get pulled over even just for an inspection and almost guaranteed you are going to walk away
with at least some type of warning.
Whatever. I can only do what I can do and if something happens, oh well. I read in the comments
of a news story about professional drivers the other day some dude that stated that truck drivers
are not "professional" drivers but are just drivers like everyone else. I wonder how much of the motoring
public believes that little gem. I invite you to get behind the wheel of 80,000 pounds of truck, drive
it all day, every day, stay out of accidents and do that for years and years. PLEASE do that and then
tell me that truck drivers are not professional drivers. Uh-huh. There are definitely some that are not
professional in their driving or their demeanor, definitely.
Whatever the case, work day is here and I must be off to the races!
G'day.
ben
4 comments:
Professional means slightly different things to different people. Technically, any time you are paid to do something, you are a professional.
But many people tend to use the term to mean someone who excells or is particularly good at their craft. Many truck drivers themselves will grudgingly admit that many truck drivers on the roads today do not qualify under the second meaning.
Yes, I most definitely agree, and that because these are people that lost their jobs and decided that trucking was a way out. They drive a semi truck like they would drive a car, weaving in and out of traffic, cutting other vehicles off with extremely unsafe lane changes, on and on. Those drivers are not professionals, they are steering wheel handlers at best. I steer clear of them when I see them. Usually, though, they come barreling up behind you because they are going 20 mph over the speed limit. They throw pee bottles out their windows or dump them out at fueling lanes at truck stops. The list is seemingly endless. There are certainly at least 2 different classes of truck drivers out there.
One company seems to put their profits ahead of the safety of everyone else on the road, by limiting their trucks to 62mph even if the speed limit is 75. So they save on gas, but the entire rest of the motoring public who is obeying the speed limit has to make two needless lane changes for the benefit of their pocketbook.
f
I'm guessing Werner - well J.B. Hunt used to have theirs at 55, I dunno what it is now. My truck will go the speed limit, including 75mph on the Interstates around here. They wanted to give our branch a new truck but I declined. All new trucks in our company, as I understand it, will be governed at 65mph. Which isn't any big deal in the city on the freeways, but if you are in the Interstate and the speed limit is 75mph, then darnit, I wanna go 75!
I have the current truck until sometime in 2013, I believe, which is when it is a forced hand: the truck will be reach it's maximum age limit and they will give us a new one whether I want it or not.
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