According to Sam and Jim Commenting on things that irk us off, make us laugh out loud or just seem too weird too believe According to Sam and Jim: Too Many Trucks Leave Little Room For Us Other Drivers

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Too Many Trucks Leave Little Room For Us Other Drivers

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’, keep those trucks a rollin’. We got us a convoy Big Perky!

Sam thinks Big Perky should be my handle if I drove truck. I think I’d call him Little Fluffball. Of course I don’t drive truck. Probably never will, because I’m not crazy about trucks - not to mention truck drivers. Sorry, but I think there are too many trucks on the road, and truck drivers , as a whole, aren’t nearly as professional as they’d like us to believe they are.

Isn’t it amazing how many trucks are on the road these days? Where are they all coming from? Where are they all going? On a recent trip to California I was driving along and there were so many trucks on the road I felt like I was driving through one of those sheer-walled canyons described in a Zane Grey Western. It’s the same way almost anywhere anymore. Have you noticed when there’s news about multi-vehicle pileups somewhere how many trucks are involved? The resulting pictures resemble the carnage of Saddam Hussein’s desert convoy after the A-10 Warthogs got through with them. Talk about carnage.

On my way to Seattle the other day I saw trucks hauling groceries, furniture, tires, gas, wide loads of excavators, mobile homes, concrete, lumber and logs, soda pop, beer, chips - every manner of thing. At any given time out there on the freeway you can see trucks hauling pipe, hay, steel, aluminum , gravel, asphalt - - It’s American goods on the move. It is so frenetic out there you might say, “So many goods, so little time.” I’ve seen trucks pull up one right after the other at a local port while giant overhead cranes grab containers off a ship and set them on the trucks, and as those trucks are being loaded, others are pulling up to be relieved of their containers, which are set up on the other end of the ship. WOW!

My gosh, we have so many grocery stores, so many Wal Marts, so many Costcos, so many Home Depots and Lowes and shopping malls , so many car lots, so many fast-food restaurants and every kind of store you can think of - Petsmarts and Petcos (sorry Sam). It’s no wonder America’s economy depends on us buying all that crap and it’s no wonder we need an army of trucks and truck drivers to deliver our goods. You have to wonder though what Dwight Eisenhower would think of the freeways he helped birth simply to more easily move military equipment and goods.

And how about those pro truck drivers? I’ve seen truck drivers knock down bridges and overpasses. I’ve seen them dump loads of logs on poor unsuspecting car drivers (and usually kill them). One time on the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland a truck driver hit an overpass with a huge, monolithic, multi-ton electrical transformer. When the transformer fell off the truck it squashed a car traveling behind the truck (and its driver) flat. . How many times have I seen truck drivers take off-ramps too fast and turn over? How many times have I seen truck drivers fall asleep and run off the road? How many times have I seen truckers not pay enough attention to how little room they were leaving between them and a car in front of them and run right over the poor little car (and its driver). How many times have I seen trucks jackknife and turn over and spill dog food, gas, toxics substances, molasses, hay- almost any item you can think of. I once saw a truck drop coffins on the freeway. Fortunately, the coffins were empty. I saw a truck overturn with a load of military ordinance, which fortunately, wasn’t armed.

I hate trying to pass a truck in a rain or snow storm. They obliterate you and the road your driving on. Worse, when you’re inching carefully along so as to avoid a crash, they’ll sail blithely past you like they’re in a hurry to meet their maker - or help you meet yours.

The thing is, for all their bragging about professionalism, truck drivers aren’t much better drivers than the rest of us. Poop on too many trucks and unprofessional truck drivers. They should have a separate freeway. That would make life easier for all of us.







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