100 times better than the US, with 3x the traffic density, including countless trucks from Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia (all driven by Croatian PAWGs, BTW) clogging up the roads.
I have to agree with Dern on this one. If you drive around the Minneapolis area, you will find that there are, stereotypically, many eastern african women in mini-vans that are the worst drivers.... EVER!!!
Not punishment when slowing down and getting back up to speed takes you no time really. In a lot of truck if you drop even a few mph you'll wind up dropping 10-15 and can't make it back up for a long ass time.
If the truck was doing 80, we wouldn’t have the issue. It doesn’t take him 5 miles to get back the 1-2 mph he’d be losing in the scenario we were discussing.
No...your memory is fine. I was about to generalize the entire Hampton Rds- VA Beach area including Newport News. That was a shit-show consisting of drivers from every state possible in the military (some half drunk), tourists white knuckling the steering wheel, people fearful of bridges and tunnels, truckers having to cross multiple lanes of traffic to hit bypass to bypass and then there were the locals....mostly consisting of retirees who didn't want to go to "God's Waiting Room" (FL)... That was in good weather. It snowed and froze over 2X while I was there so the state decided to "sand the streets" because they didn't have salt. Ever play shuffleboard? Same concept except worse due to the aforementioned drivers.
Wasn't it the 250GP bikes that took forever to get up to speed, and had to keep the momentum up or lose all the speed? That's driving a truck without the top speed. Momentum is everything.
Sanding the streets is SOP in North Carolina when it snows or freezes. I remember when Chatham County (just outside of Raleigh) ran out of sand during the 2000 Blizzard and decided to switch to pea gravel. That was entertaining...
80mph is a pipe dream. Insurance companies and interest groups make sure of it. There are insurance rate factors, based on governed speed of the trucks. The slower, the better the rates. Also, every 1mph is ~1/10mpg fuel factor. Where I work, 1/10mpg is worth ~$125K fuel savings, per month, for the fleet. That’s huge. Grades you don’t sense, a truck will. 400hp-500hp simply can’t recover the speed, on a false flat, at 80K pounds, especially if there’s a headwind. You’ll be blown away, if you ever get the chance to ride along. Likewise, you’d be alarmed at what automobiles do to trucks, when the driver is doing nothing but strolling along in the right lane and cruise control set. My employer has quarterly meetings and they’ll compile windshield camera footage of the crap done to our drivers. If the collision mitigation system is activated or the driver slams the brakes, it’s all recorded and data overlaid. Yes, the vehicle license pates are legible in the footage. There are some companies running 5 cameras on their trucks to capture everything, it’s gotten so bad. Further, some trucks, including our Peterbilts, have radar built in that reads the other vehicle’s speed, which is helpful for litigation. We know the exact speed of “the other guy”. It’s a shame society has gotten to this point.
I got to watch a bunch of "E-1 & up" financed cars doing some of the best slow, poetic almost, motion crashing that I had ever observed. It would have been enhanced by some classical figure skating music, Michelob and Utz Crab Chips.
I live in Ohio and it is shitty here. There is one place on I-90 near me where the limit increases from 65 to 70 and people actually slow down. Pisses me off. However, I lived in the tidewater area of VA (Norfolk, Va Bch, Chesapeake, Hampton, NN) and that was by far way worse than driving here. I think the prob there is when you take people from every state and have them living in the same 100 sq miles and it turns into a pile of crap...
I’m not saying I don’t understand it. And don’t assume I don’t know what it’s like in a tractor. My stepdad did sales for a logistics company. I spent lots of time deadheading rides back in the day with truckers covering the state running between my parent’s houses every other weekend. I’m just pointing out that I believe truckers become desensitized to their impact on the situation over time, as well. “I have to pass him slowly because of ‘x’ ... the rest of you can deal with it” type mentality.
I totally get that. Seen it everyday, for years. It’s shameful and paints us all in the same light. I’ve not had much issue just bumping down a click or two on the cruise, depending on the load and schedule. With e-logs, it’s only going to get worse as drivers chase every minute they can. My IL to CA run took ~32-1/2hrs. Three days X 11hrs allowed driving is 33hrs. That means I only had ~30min cushion. I’d roll into each of my two overnight stops with less than 5min left on my clock. If I got held up anywhere over that 2000mi, I couldn’t make my overnight stops or destination. That’s the kind of scenario e-logs and just-in-time logistics is creating.
While I can agree that drivers suck everywhere, after driving to Miami last year, the award has to go to those methed out idiots. I feel just fine driving in NC. I don't know at what point it got back to "normal", but damn did south Florida suck!
That's a planner/ dispatcher issue. I've gotten loads like that where there is no room for error. I accept the load, and then I tell the powers that be how late my delivery will be. They can then adjust the delivery time/date, or find another driver.
Actually, it’s perfect planning. It’s a 4K mile turn with a D/H on the other end, done in 6 days. One week, I got back, D/H, ran that to another driver, swapped, and got back with ~15min left on my 70, ran 4277mi, in 7 days. Governed at 65mph (GPS) and restricted to 73mph on downhills, there’s not a lot left in it. Just happened that everything worked perfect, that week.
The have the most worst. But Baltimore topped the public list I saw recently published. They used frequency of claims from accidents. Baltimore is something like every 4 years on average.