Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/580471
Voices October 2015 | Overdrive | 13 Being a professional truck driver, I've seen plenty on the highways. Some of the craziest stuff is on Saturday nights, when folks who have been stuck at desks all week fill our roads. What better place to cut loose than on the open road? I don't mean to profile amateur drivers, but some behave so pre- dictably, I'm going to have to: The brake-footer: Otherwise known as a two-foot pedal masher. You see this driver tailgating a semi-truck, and his brake lights are flashing on and off like a traffic signal. This guy is really dangerous because no one knows if he is stop- ping or going. The timid driver: These drivers have an overactive manners gland and can't – or won't – merge prop- erly. They try to be nice, letting others go first, the way nice people should. But then they're not sure if other drivers understand they are being nice. Pretty soon, the merging lane ends, and it's panic time. Manners vanish as both drivers race for the last spot in the same lane. The sportsman who should have left on Friday afternoon but didn't get packed until Friday night: He pulls a trailer stacked with outdoor toys like four-wheelers, duck boats, Jet Skis and camping gear. It's 1 a.m., and he's speeding and passing anyone who's still on the dark roads, leaving us to dodge the un- secured coolers, pillows and small plastic chairs lying in the road. –Bill Chatterson, tanker hauler for Pilot Flying J around Wheeler, Texas. Find his profiles of the texter, the NASCAR wannabe, the rubbernecker and more by searching "amateur day with the four-wheelers" at OverdriveOnline.com. Amateur night And once again, all it takes is one story like this, and the whole world sees it, but no one sees the rest of the story that you write here. Only us, doing the job. We need more positive media on our side out there, not just here on Overdrive. Every time I go to my doctor's office or anytime I am going to be in a waiting room, I take old copies of Overdrive and leave them for the public to read. If we all did that little thing, we could get more truth out there, and it costs us nothing. — "Roge160," commenting under Wendy Parker's rebuttal to "The trucks are killing us" in The New York Times. Written by former Transport Topics Executive Editor Howard Abramson, the opinion piece purported to warn the American public of industry attempts to roll back safety regulations. Search "Trucks are killing us" at OverdriveOnline.com for a roundup of industry responses. Trucks are killing us? Uh, right … JOB NO. DATE CHOOSE BOTH. GCR150003_Overdrive_3rdPG4C-Choose-B 1 7/23/15 4:05 PM