My favorites are the drivers that show up at lunch (we have posted hours and notify all vendors/contractors/etc). Then they get LIVID that no one opened the door, or they get some random person from the office to let them in and it turns into a huge mess.
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Yes, those are great too. Or the guy who screamed at me that the site was too confusing, and when I asked him if his dispatch provided him with the detailed instructions on how to get back to the dock I sent them, he went silent. That one got kicked out for the day, no one is going to talk to me like that over a problem I did not cause. He apologized and is allowed on site again.
Or the Dayton guy who drives back and forth in front of the plant 5 times, then reports to his dispatch 1) that he showed up and no one answered the door, or 2) that he showed up and we didnât have his product ready. We flagged him, thatâs baloney and reflects super poorly on us. The guy never pulled in!!
Or the eastern european guy who was kicking metal shavings at me in his trailer while insisting I talk to his dispatch. Nah, no thanks, come back with a clean trailer dude.
Are you aware of how easy it is to get a fake CDL and how big a problem this is?
From Google AI:
Hereâs a snip from a news report:
I think itâs perfectly reasonable for trucking companies to rely on other assessments of competence in addition to the CDL that a driver has/claims to have. After all, itâs the trucking company who is going to be sued and get all the bad press if that driver causes a serious accident.
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I actually know someone who canât read (I suspect dyslexia) but at any rate, he can drive a trailer better than anyone I know. He actually managed to get my trailer out of a bind⊠I drove down a road that dead ended at a lake and he managed to do a 3 point turn and somehow miss all the trees.
I have no idea how I would have gotten out of there. I probably would have tried to back up 3/4ths of a mile down a super curvy road because I certainly donât think I could do a 3 point turn the way he did. I thought he was crazy for even thinking that was possible.
Often non-english speakers can read better then they can understand spoken words. At least that is how I felt when I learned Spanish.
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Employers (ie trucking companies) are under entirely different obligations vs the customer.
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You literally just contradicted yourself with this statement. Either speed limits help, or they donât. Your bolded statement seems to indicate that they do, in fact, help.
And when you say that Germanyâs road fatality rate is lower than in the US - where is this statistic from? Is it adjusted for population size? For the fact that more people travel by train in Europe than in America? For the fact that in a smaller country with more towns closer together like Germany, help might arrive more quickly than in the US?
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This is how. I understand youâre talking about the states, but in Canada itâs a very big, real problem.
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Welp, I have some new people to put on ignore, so at least something useful comes of this discussion.
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I believe it would be called a tangent. Something many/most COTH threads have.
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Here in MA, our State Police (yes, those folks with such a sterling reputation) just got nailed for selling CDLs in return for suchconsiderations as "a $750 granite post and mailbox; a new driveway valued at over $10,000; and a snowblower valued at nearly $2,000. "
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From the same article:
"cases of bottled Fiji, VOSS and Essentia water, cases of bottled Arizona Iced Tea, coffee and tea products and boxes of Twizzlers and Swedish Fish, all of which Mathison delivered to an office trailer at the CDL test site in Stoughton. Cederquist sent Mathison a text describing one of these applicants as âan idiot,â who had âno idea what heâs doing,â and âshould have failed about 10 times already.â Cederquist then texted Mathison that Mathisonâs boss âowes big time.â
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âAmong the CDL applicants to whom Cederquist gave preferential treatment were six MSP Troopers who Cederquist falsely reported as having passed a Class A skills test. In reality, however, the Troopers did not take a real CDL skills test. For four of the Trooper applicants, Cederquist conspired with his friend Camara, who worked for a truck-driving school in Brockton, to accomplish this offense.â
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One persumes that the state trooper âapplicantsâ at least were fluent in EnglishâŠ
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This is absolutely mortifying, considering the implications of a mistake when theyâre driving.
It also makes a lot more sense why itâs far more prevalent that thereâs a driver that takes 15 tries to back into our straight-forward dock. Itâs literally straight backwards, no turning needed, and some of the drivers canât keep the trailer straight.
I always appreciated getting stuck behind a 18 wheeler putting on a master class in crazy backing on the tight streets of Chicago. No sarcasm at all intended, itâs fascinating to watch them twist and recover.
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A friend had a sale horse sell cross country and the buyerâs hauler was rear ended by a semi on the interstate. They lost a few horses and the photos are gnarly. Sending my condolences to those involved here.
Iâm always amazed when horses load so willingly. Even with the best defensive driving, nothing is guaranteed.
As far as haulers generally, Iâve had two good experiences with Equine Express.
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Nope. Cops giving tickets wonât help. Itâs an annoyance at best.
Driving four lengths behind and not being on your phone. I bet the semi that hit the horse trailer was either on his phone or tailgating.
Using AI tech in your cars. It automatically puts the car four lengths behind and slows down.
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I donât believe you. Weird flex you act like this.
Horse trailers and trucks are allowed on the Autobahn in Germany, but there are some regulations and restrictions to consider. Horse trailers are generally permitted, but they may have speed limits and may need to be equipped with certain safety features. Additionally, there are rules regarding the towing vehicle, including its weight capacity and whether itâs suitable for the trailer and horses
And donât forget they hired an uniquified drug tester Annie Dookhan to do drugs tests and just made up the results.
Epic Drug Lab Scandal Results in More Than 20,000 Convictions Dropped
generally itâs not a particular speed thatâs the problem itâs people driving at varying speeds. You have the speed of the collective group, then you have the idiot in the left lane going 30 or the other idiot going 90 weaving in and out of traffic etc. if people could all maintain a reasonable speed together it would help, but then the issue is what should that speed be? Some drivers are very good drivers and others can barely back out of their own driveway. Throw some cell phones in the mix and here we are.
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What do you think will convince people to keep a safe distance and put down their phones? Deterrence â consequences for their actions. Which typically means enforcement.
Whatâs your source for your claims that enforcement is just an âannoyance?â Your own personal opinion? Hereâs what some of the experts have to say:
Studies directly examining the impact of policing on traffic accidents have often been conducted at the ecological level using aggregated data. To summarize, this body of studies suggests that levels of policing and proactive traffic enforcement, in general, are negatively associated with traffic violations and accidents over time across large areas, indicative of a deterrent effect of police enforcement (e.g., Beenstock, Gafni, & Goldin, 2001; Botteghi, Theofilatos, & Macaluso, 2017; Castillo-Manzano, Castro-Nuño, López-Valpuesta, & Pedregal, 2019; Chen, Wilson, Meckle, & Cooper, 2000; Macaluso, Theofilatos, Botteghi, & Ziakopoulos, 2017; Theofilatos et al., 2017). These studies examined large areas (e.g., jurisdictions, countries) and focused less on the optimization of police deployment at a more granular level within a jurisdiction (e.g., across high-risk locations).
On the other hand, traffic research has long been engaged in the identification and treatment of traffic âblack spotsâ (BĂl et al., 2013; Elvik, 1997; Geurts & Wets, 2003; Hayidso et al., 2019), but rarely was the evaluation centered around regular police proactive work outside of a programmatic setting. These studies of police interventions at crash hot spots typically focus on specialized programs to enhance enforcement and prevention at high-risk locations. For example, programs targeting driving under the influence (DUI) through media campaigns, coupled with intensified enforcement and greater uses of sobriety checkpoints and breathalyzer equipment at high-risk locations, have been shown to reduce vehicle crashes involving drugs or alcohol (Erke, Goldenbeld, & Vaa, 2009; Fell, 2019; Fell et al., 2014; Goss et al., 2008; Voas & DeYoung, 2002). Studies have also shown that police can curb speeding and reckless driving behaviors through targeted, intensified speeding enforcement programs. These programs generally have a suppression effect on speeding (de Waard & Rooijers, 1994; Holland & Conner, 1996; Siregar, 2018), as well as on road collisions and fatalities (Botteghi et al., 2017; Zaidel, 2002).
From Wu et al., Journal of Criminal Justice 2021. They note that enforcement reduces crashes in âhot spotsâ (areas with high levels of accidents) but not necessarily in other areas, which would be consistent with an effect of enforcement in the area where this accident occurred. Other studies, as they explain, have found more generalized effects of enforcement â so Iâm not just cherry picking the one study that finds positive effects of enforcement. But please, tell me, why should I believe you and not the research?
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Interactive graph! Please watch for bicyclists & pedestrians, loose dogs, etc.
Words! Many words by an insurance company!
The Science of Speeding
There is solid scientific evidence behind the truth of the clichĂ©. The evidenceâbased on physicsâinvolves Newtonâs law, centrifugal force, kinetic energy, vehicle mass and velocity. In simpler terms: for every 10 mph of increased speed, the risk of dying in a crash doubles. In practical terms, increasing driving speed from 60 mph to 80 mph increases the risk of a fatal crash by 4 times.
The Consequences of Speeding
Itâs harder to drive through curves safely as driving speed increases because of centrifugal force. Kevin explains, âThose curves just pull at your vehicle and the faster you are moving the more difficult it is to maneuver through the curve without straying into the other lane.â
Speeding increases the risk of a crash because it diminishes a driverâs reaction time. âWhether itâs rain, icy roads, or a deer or pedestrian stepping out in front of you, you are at a disadvantage the faster you are moving,â Kevin says. âOur brains are limited by how quickly they can noticeâand then react toâan external event. And unfortunately, the faster we are moving, the less chance to react in time to prevent a crash.â
The effectiveness of a vehicleâs built-in occupant protection equipment decreases as the force of the accident increases. This includes seat belts, air bags and the crushing abilities of the vehicle body.The faster the vehicle is moving, the greater the rollover risk in vehicles with a high center of gravity.
Stopping distance is increased. This means that even if the driver can see a danger ahead, it may be impossible to stop in time before impact.Speeding while driving puts nearby pedestrians and cyclists at greater risk. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association in 2019, there was an increase of 5% to 6,590 pedestrians killed and an increase of 6.3% or 857 cyclists killed. While there are other reasons for this increase, speed does play a role.
Physics is fun! Well, except for when it isnât.
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Police speed traps cause accidents because people slam on their breaks when they see a cop. Iâm all for DUI traffic stops, which are not done on the highway.
I drive in high traffic areas and even though we all go about 80 smoothly, as soon as someone sees a cop, all the brake slamming piles the traffic up to a 30MPH crawl. Annoying. Fender benders happens etc.
Not being on the phone while driving. Drive defensively and keep a safe distance. Trucks and trailers, Semis stay in the slow lane. Dash cams can help with aggressive drivers that causes accidents or those who do not pay attention. I donât like aggressive drivers who weave in and out traffic (unless itâs an emergency)
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lol. Whatever. Just criticism. No solutions. Documented solutions. And no I doubt horse trailers are doing 80 mph on the autobahn. Europe is notorious for having smaller trailers that can safely navigate slender back roads at less than 50 mph. But you carry on
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