Besides the fact that you can use it to be immediately alerted and alert others to an accident on a blind hill or bend, there are other uses.

Sometimes it's a waste of time: Some schizophrenic hillbilly in Austin ranting about his rates or the Panties Guy in LA (who is obviously a local just broadcasting illegally from a boosted tower and not a trucker). Sometimes funny jokes about "Fancy Gap." Sometimes it's a racist (who can easily get wound up when you give him the clap back he isn't expecting).

But Sometimes you get the guy who is riding down and telling everyone about a bad wreck immediately ahead and to find an alternative route, with time for you to catch the exit. Saving you time sitting in nut-to-butt traffic going 1 mph for the next 10 miles.

Other times you get someone letting you know that officers are posted up behind a sign or on a state border looking for the easy ticket.

And there is one phrase above all that makes it worth keeping on. It doesn't come across often ... but when you hear it, you feel like a straight outlaw. An old head will blast across that radio with all the energy of Smokey & The Bandit:

"Trucker Trucker Trucker. <direction>bound lane is free and clear. No highway men 'til <Town or exit or region>. Open up 'dem horses and Godspeed."

in my defense, it was raining when I left.

My husband is the driver, I’m just the rider/drink opener/entertainer/PITA. He was driving in Tennessee on I40 and his GPS went sentient AI and decided it wanted to kill us and took him down HWY 328. There was absolutely nowhere to stop or turn around. The road didn’t have any shoulders or guardrails.
Some of the curves were almost 90 degrees. He was honking his horn when he was driving around a curve, attempting to give someone coming the opposite way a warning. The mountain was jutting out in some of the curves so it was literally a blind curve. At one point, the passenger trailer tire looked like 0.5mm from the edge of the road.
The scenery was gorgeous. Maybe it seemed prettier than it was bc I thought that it was the last thing I’d ever see. 🙄
We needed to have the seats surgically removed from our assholes but we survived. I couldn’t even imagine if a newbie got sent down that highway.
What pissed him off the worst, he ended up being back on I40 after getting on another road for a short minute.
1 mile from where we had turned off the freeway, I asked my husband how long did we have until the fuel stop. I needed to use the bathroom. Apparently GPS was like, “biiiiiitch, you only think you need to pee now. Ima show you!” 😒

My company apparently just made a change to the system to alert us to shut off the engine if we’ve been idling for 10 minutes, if you leave it on it keeps yelling at you every 10 minutes. Previous to this for the past 6 months I’ve never heard samsara talk to me. Other drivers at the company are saying the same thing.

This is my first real trucking job so I’m not sure if this is normal or not.

What is with people having that kind of money and not being able to afford a hundred dollar sticker for your logo and information. Edit this is inside the port in Long Beach, dropping off a chassis, so it is in use for operations.

NY Strip, Cilantro Lime Chicken Thighs

I just had a phone interview for the perfect job. Close to home, 4 day work week, local, starts @ $40/hr, no hazmat or twic, non union. HOWEVER, they told me in the interview they have driver facing cameras with ai built in. What would you do? I politely declined

Witnessed my first semi crash today, went to help out 2 dead on arrival 1 serious/critical. In my haste i forgot to wear gloves and went to move 2 bodies and got blood and guts on me 🤢😱. Gonna have to get blood work done now. First time for this experience, i think i need the day off...stay safe out there drivers.

Im on a "brand new account" at my mega carrier. They told me they'll pay me a minimum of such and such a week, the minimum because theres a lot of waiting at the shipper and I won't get the miles. Just got my check. Ask me if they paid me that minimum. Honestly, why lie? Just give me .50 a mile and run me. Screw all the empty promises, I'm here to work man.

Is it really that hard as a trucker to not do drugs and just drive the speed limit while in your personal vehicle? Or just get out and look while backing if unsure? Or just to be careful in general?
It seems all too common that folks i interact with IRL or in this community, have trouble with it….I understand that shit just happens sometimes, but being safe, dependable and clean isn’t that hard… I’ve made mistakes, and have been in some tough spots, but they were all after I exhausted the extent of what I could’ve done to prevent it or fix it.

Getting my CDL was absolutely life changing….i went from being broke all the time to having a good solid and consistent paycheck. I can afford my car, life and provide for my family, I make 93k a year before taxes and I’m doing great. I just don’t really understand how you can be so careless to speed or do drugs or god forbid a DUI.

Can someone illuminate? This is a great field with tons of opportunity.

Edit*

I knew I’d run the risk of sounding like a judgmental dick. It’s some good money to be made out here. Scenic drives, alone with a good podcast/audio book/ music, and no boss breathing down your neck or office lighting or workplace politics. Like I said, getting my CDL was what took me from poverty to living more than comfortably. So it’s hard for me to fathom doing something to risk that

In all sincerity I don’t mean to judge.
And my post here doesn’t contradict my previous post about being stuck in a Schneider contract. 93k is what my job pays PRE TAXES in other words my GROSS pay. I don’t need comments telling me not to go based of the W4 or the recruiters sweet talk. I’m not new to driving, I just got my actual CDL this year and before that I was a straight truck driver for long hauls and was often put up in shitty roadside motels. I did that for 4.5 years. So yes I consider that being a trucker, maybe it’s up for debate since it wasn’t a CDL-A gig idk 🤷🏾‍♂️.

I feel blessed to have the job and opportunity I do. And wanted some illumination as to why someone would potentially risk it with drugs, poor safety practices, etc. nobody is perfect and that goes for me. I’ve been stuck in a tight spot before and I’ve made mistakes too.

Been working for this company for 5 years. I was given a pete579 10 speed. Love this truck. At times I had to drive the automatics due to injury or my truck being down. Hated every minute of it.

Yesterday, it was announced to us, all the manuals would be replaced by the end of the year with Freightliner automatics, we will have forward facing in cab cameras, be required to sign a daily form to not tamper or adjust the cameras and a bunch of other bullshit requirements. Adding in we're not allowed to work more than 55 hours without direct supervisor approval. No more merit increases without approval from national management.

I'm thinking this is my sign to leave. I like the job, it's easy. I love being a tanker yanker. But I don't want to feel like I'm stuck. I saw a few other job postings for regional drivers with 95% drop and hook. But they're automatics, thankfully it's still a Peterbilt. For region reference I'm in Colorado.

I-20 east at the AL-GA line is shut down, in Bremen at least. If you can take US-78 to ATL.

Is it normal that he can go a full 24h no contact. His routes are usually 3-4 days and I’m always the one reaching out , to check in. He says he doesnt love being on phone etc … but well talk a bit if I call. He can spend a full 24h with no contact

I was driving down a mountain grade when out of nowhere I see a large puff of white smoke come from the side of the hood, alarms start blaring, truck turns OFF, steering wheel turns stiff af, and I start losing air pressure on both primary and secondary air tanks. Managed to coast down ~1mi onto the off ramp shoulder. Motor is locked and truck won't turn on. 300mi away from home too -_-

I gotta wear hi-vis everywhere on property but they got death traps sitting around. lol

Well my trailer break chamber fell off……. Did this so I could limp it to a safe place to call road side ITS ONLY MY THIRD WEEK

I backed into a sign while parking on the side of the road, and then while I was going forward, the sign got stuck in this position and sliced through four air hoses and the ABS wiring. The lesson here is to be careful where you’re backing your trailer.

P.S. I know this was a silly mistake and I don’t need to read about how stupid this was in the comments, thank you.

Mine has to be truckers who drop trailers too damn high! It sucks having to back all the way back to the trailer, then pull forward while turning left or right cuz u stuck. Rinse & repeat until you get out from underneath a trailer that was dropped too high.. THEN I have to get out and lower a fully loaded heavy AF trailer by hand until I can connect my truck to the trailer…

I come across these a few times a month and it pisses me off lol 😂

I am into my second year, and I am embarrassed to say that I still sometimes find myself making some dumb maneuvers. I was delivering to this Best Buy location. I entered in the driveway parallel to the dock, which was smart. But afterward, I didn’t think about the truck route looping directly around the perimeter of the store. Instead, I slid my tandems up and went around the edge of the parking lot down the one way onto the street on the right side of the picture.

The hard right turn in the parking lot is too tight for a trailer, even with the tandems all the way up. I had to go over the median (it was shallow, and I positioned myself so that I would only go over by a foot or so). You can see in the close-up that it has been torn up by trucks before me. The lot was full of cars so I could not safely do a U-turn in the lot itself.

I did no damage or anything. It wasn’t a curb that would damage a rim. But I looked liked an idiot and it was poor judgment. Honestly I should’ve used that truck path.

Hopefully one day I will be more perfect, but IDK. 🤷🏼‍♂️

A little carriage town from the 1800s has stuck it's boots in the ground and refused to give up.

Once you are done filling up at the Loves, TA, ETC down end road and once you stopped to take a piss and laugh at "Gobbler's Knob" Rest area (and still found no parking), keep pushing through the night to Kit Carson.

You can easily make it here in your 11 coming from the heart of Dallas and it's spitting distance from Denver or other major areas to complete your run in two days. There's two huge-ass, free lots that have easily supported my trailer at 77k. A public workshop if you are bored and just want to do something constructive or you're a cheap bastard and like to fix your own stuff. A history museum. A motel. A freaking haberdashery/mercantile shop. The only downside is that there's no bar or saloon - though the liquor store is caked with booze from all-over and nobdy will fault you for chilling and having a drink on your walk.

And if you're driving at night the roads are basically clear enough to let your horses gallop from Amarillo all the way here - with a few exceptions in Dumas and Eads.

Like, the only place this needs is a damn saloon with quarter poker and you could lock down here through a winter storm no problem. The town is small enough that the local workers at the cafes and such could walk and keep the doors open.

The only law here is a Sheriff and the Department of Parks and Wildlife.

Anyhow I'm about to see if I can find a backroom game of cards to play or a tower to climb and have a smoke at. I have a harmless hooligan reputation to maintain.

Check it out sometime!

Normally only home Friday afternoon til early Monday morning. Managed some extra pupper time this week.