How Do You Deal With Tailgaters?

[sandman2234]

Local work is not so much fun either if you are the low driver on the totem pole. Some days you get to fill in for someone whom has taken the day off and "their" truck looks more like a squatter lives there. That and sometimes dispatcher's/terminal managers have their favorites.

I tend to be one of the "preferred" or favorites because I know my job, do it without supervision and keep my mouth shut.
One manager was talking about drivers that were always complaining. I had just walked up, and asked if he was referring to me? He said he knew how to shut me up, just give me a run and he wouldn't hear anything from me till I had it done.
I have split my career in sections, as I will go local for a while, then OTR, then dedicated or dedicated OTR. Right now I am dedicated Southeast. Next week I will be in Janesville, WI lol!
David from jax

 

[RB5]

Oh, they are not bashful about giving a long distance truck driver a ticket, for most anything ... Indiana is the second most ticketed state we get nailed in, only New Mexico is higher ...

If you don't have a prepaid lawyer group to call on, it's difficult to get back for the court date to fight it, and they know that! Most tickets involving trucks are double that of cars, and if in a construction zone, double again!

It's very frustrating when we are not allowed in certain lanes, and we are being held up by idiots, AND the lane(s) us truck drivers aren't allowed in are empty, AND we have a customer needing our freight delivered, just how tempting do you think it is to sneak out into the forbidden lane to get past the rolling road block, but then you get stuck out there, as nobody will let you back into the gap that's "was" there when you pulled out?

Then there are the rotten campers! Well at least a third of them anyways ... They shouldn't be on the interstate, as they want to putter along 10-15 or more mph under the limit, and are an unsafe rolling road block, with traffic backing up behind them ... Even with my left turn signals flashing, people tailgating me, jump out and won't let me get by the rotten campers ... It's sometimes MILES before I can get out to try to pass them ... I said try ... As these modern trucks have all kinds of sensors and fake intelligence that think it knows how to drive (be careful what you wish for!) that won't allow me to tailgate ...

My adaptive cruise control wants to follow at 4 seconds, if I override it by putting my foot on the accelerator, (or turn it off!) I can close the gap to 2 seconds, then I get both a audible and visual "alert" to increase following distance, or the truck WILL put the brakes on!

So I gotta do a minimum of 2 seconds, once I pull out into the #1 lane (on a double lane road) quite often some impatient idiot(s) insist on passing me on the right, and cutting in front of me, which causes me to have to slow down before the trucks self braking takes over, and idiot tailgating me, kisses my rear bumper ... This then just cause more hate and discontent in the line of traffic trying to get down the road ...

What truck do you have with all those gadgets? I don't trust automatic braking or my vehicle correcting what lane I am in. The first time one of these gadgets caused me to have an accident I would cause the company so many problems they would be better off to pay me to shut up.

 

[sandman2234]

What truck do you have with all those gadgets? I don't trust automatic braking or my vehicle correcting what lane I am in. The first time one of these gadgets caused me to have an accident I would cause the company so many problems they would be better off to pay me to shut up.

The 2022 truck was bad enough about trying to take away my years of experience by deciding when it would allow me to drive the truck. Now a 2026 has all the things Shawn mentioned plus a few more like lane assist where it fights the steering wheel when you try to steer away from the center of the lane. Took me 10,000 miles to even get used to that one! It still doesn't understand when I have to steer to the outside of a curve to keep the trailer from running over the stroller that Mom pushed to the edge of the curb so she could push the crosswalk button.
Let some idiot pull out in front of me, and if I let off the throttle, the idiot behind the curtain slams on the brakes. All the flat spotting can't be good for tire life or my nerves!
David from jax

 

[Shawn T. W.]

What truck do you have with all those gadgets? I don't trust automatic braking or my vehicle correcting what lane I am in. The first time one of these gadgets caused me to have an accident I would cause the company so many problems they would be better off to pay me to shut up.

I have a 2026 Kenworth T680 ...

A couple of weeks ago I got pulled into the scale in Mississippi, they pulled me around back for an inspection ... The officer was guiding me into the inspection bay, over the pit, at about 12' - 15' away from him my truck LOCKED up the brakes! I was only going about 2 mph, I held up my hands and yell out my window "Sorry, my stupid truck won't let me run over you!" He chuckled and said "New truck, huh?"

My truck does have "lane assistance" but only an audible tone through the radio speakers, depends on which side the stupid truck thinks I'm crossing without my turn signal on ... Only correct about half the time ... ! At roughly 20K miles that stopped working, I've written it up 3 times, it's still a warning on my dash, I just said "don't bother me," and covered it up with electrical tape!

What is annoying is having the cruise control on*, and a car in front of you exits, once they are completely out of my lane, but still slowing down, my truck will cut the fuel and SLAM on the brakes!

It also about 10% of the time do similar if another truck passes me, We are both completely in our respective lanes, but once the back of the passing truck is about 10' - 15' passed my bumper, it will alert and want to put my brakes on!

It also is an annoying nanny if it thinks you are going too fast around a corner, it cuts the fuel and puts on the brakes ... Not a good thing if it's slippery out ... Just let me drive the stinking thing, I've been driving trucks for 33 years!

29 months until I hang up my keys and retire ...

*My stupid truck is governed at 68 mph, but can only do that on the pedal for less than a minute, then it cuts back to 65 mph, in order to consistently get the full 68 mph, I'm forced to use the rotten adaptive cruise control ... This was a huge change, and I nearly quit when they took my 2022 away with a manual transmission and no nanny stuff!

 

[sandman2234]

I have a 2026 Kenworth T680 ...

A couple of weeks ago I got pulled into the scale in Mississippi, they pulled me around back for an inspection ... The officer was guiding me into the inspection bay, over the pit, at about 12' - 15' away from him my truck LOCKED up the brakes! I was only going about 2 mph, I held up my hands and yell out my window "Sorry, my stupid truck won't let me run over you!" He chuckled and said "New truck, huh?"

My truck does have "lane assistance" but only an audible tone through the radio speakers, depends on which side the stupid truck thinks I'm crossing without my turn signal on ... Only correct about half the time ... ! At roughly 20K miles that stopped working, I've written it up 3 times, it's still a warning on my dash, I just said "don't bother me," and covered it up with electrical tape!

What is annoying is having the cruise control on*, and a car in front of you exits, once they are completely out of my lane, but still slowing down, my truck will cut the fuel and SLAM on the brakes!

It also about 10% of the time do similar if another truck passes me, We are both completely in our respective lanes, but once the back of the passing truck is about 10' - 15' passed my bumper, it will alert and want to put my brakes on!

It also is an annoying nanny if it thinks you are going too fast around a corner, it cuts the fuel and puts on the brakes ... Not a good thing if it's slippery out ... Just let me drive the stinking thing, I've been driving trucks for 33 years!

29 months until I hang up my keys and retire ...

*My stupid truck is governed at 68 mph, but can only do that on the pedal for less than a minute, then it cuts back to 65 mph, in order to consistently get the full 68 mph, I'm forced to use the rotten adaptive cruise control ... This was a huge change, and I nearly quit when they took my 2022 away with a manual transmission and no nanny stuff!

My last long term truck was transferred from a 70mph division and the guy who turned it down wasn't a computer genius. He cut back the throttle but didn't touch the cruise. I never said a word, although I did get a text from my manager one time "quit exceeding 70mph". 530k miles later it blew the tranny and it cost more to fix it than the truck would have been worth when it came out of the shop. I miss that truck even though it was an automatic.
The thing I hate about the adaptive cruise is when you are closing in on another vehicle, it never warns you, just slows down to match that vehicle's speed. Just a beep or some sort of warning before it slows the truck down would be nice. Tailgating on cruise is impossible to do, unless you completely ignore and fight to override the trucks warning systems.
I could retire now, but my younger Bride isn't able to yet, so I just keep going to work. My company knows I can retire at any point, and have done several things to encourage me to stay. Banking a little extra can't hurt the way the economy is going.
David from jax