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That truck driver you flipped off? Let me tell you his story.

• Cushman 15y ago
  Am I the only one here thinking up a way to code hands-free and taking a year off as a trucker? Let's face it, it's pretty much what we do all day anyway. Plus traffic.
  • semiquaver 15y ago
    Coding takes concentration, and so does driving. The problem is that on a highway, split-second reflexes are called upon infrequently. This makes it even more important to give the road your full attention. Also see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012393/Distracting-hands-free-devices-dangerous-mobile.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012393/Distracting-...
    • Cushman 15y ago
      Solution: Do it with a buddy and pair program. You're just having a conversation about the code, I do that while driving all the time. You can work and drive in shifts. Roaming the wireless streets. That would be great!
• almightygod 15y ago
  To sum it all up, we need more empathy for others and their situations we are not aware of. I highly recommend this short TED video http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_richards_a_radical_experiment_in_empathy.html http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_richards_a_radical_experiment_i...
  • lisper 15y ago
    I voted that up, but I feel the need to follow up with a more emphatic endorsement: this video is well worth twenty minutes of your time.
  • InfinityX0 15y ago
    Reminds me of one of PG's best posts (IMO), See Randomness: http://www.paulgraham.com/randomness.html http://www.paulgraham.com/randomness.html
    • Apocryphon 15y ago
      Or from a comedic viewpoint, the Monkeysphere: www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html
    • Caballera 15y ago
      Great video, thank you for sharing that link.
• lukev 15y ago
  I found the economic part interesting. Definitely sounds like a tough job with some poor incentives. The other part, about the possibility that he is going through a personal crisis, applies equally to all interactions with strangers everywhere, so it seemed a little out of place.
  • starwed 15y ago
    Maybe you missed the last line? It wasn't a "possibility", but an account of an actual event. That said, I'm always saddened that folk don't consider such a possibility in interaction with strangers -- especially when it doesn't cost them anything. Assuming the worst of someone to protect yourself is one thing, but all too often I see such an assumption used as a reason to get angry at a stranger. Quite why people search for reasons to be angry I'm not sure, but it sadly seems to be a human trait. :(
    • bostonvaulter2 15y ago
      It's really quite widespread. Cracked has a great article talking about it: http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html
    • code_duck 15y ago
      It's a possibility, but how many truck drivers does this emotional situation with the sister apply to? Not many specifically. I'm sure they all do miss their families, however.
      • masterzora 15y ago
        The sister thing in particular doesn't tend to apply in general, but something does. The article says "out 10 days and back for a couple" but that vastly depends on what kind of trucking you do. My dad's current schedule, for example, has him out for 5 or 6 and in for 1 or 2 (in a good week; recently there's been a few where he's only been out for 3 or 4 days which is a huge strain on the finances), but in the past he's had some short haul routes where he was home every day just long enough to sleep and before that, when I was young, he did some long hauls where I sometimes didn't see him for a month or more. For the long haulers, even if their sister didn't die, odds are something has happened that they haven't had a chance to deal with. The real take away message from this, though, is just respect and not to get upset if a truck is slowing you down for a minute.
• ptomato 15y ago
  How is this in any way HN material?
  • deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
    • lowglow 15y ago
      It just means that the HN audience is also a subset of reddit's audience.
  • tlrobinson 15y ago
    It doesn't matter, if HN users legitimately voted it onto the front page, it's by definition HN material.
    • ptomato 15y ago
      Not necessarily, or things would never get killed off the front page by the mods.
      • tlrobinson 15y ago
        Well, it hasn't been killed yet, has it? ;)
    • davidw 15y ago
      So if I get a bunch of people interested in professional bicycle racing to sign up for HN, we can upvote all our favorite articles and it will be HN material because a lot of us voted for it? The problem with that definition is that there's no "entry exam" or anything like that.
      • tlrobinson 15y ago
        I wouldn't consider that "legitimately voted onto the front page". Moderators would step in and remove it.
• jhamburger 15y ago
  Is there some kind of widespread anger at truck drivers? I've always found them to be the safest drivers on the road personally. Obviously their livelihood depends on their driving record so this is no real surprise.
  • dpcan 15y ago
    It only takes one moment where your entire family almost dies because of a truck driver to jade your opinion of all of them - or at least to be nervous every single time one comes within a 100 feet of you. I don't flip off truck drivers, but I get an uneasy feeling every time I'm around them and I try to avoid them.
    • bigohms 15y ago
      Complacency and misplaced trust is a big danger when operating any moving vehicle. Your wariness is warranted, on a sweeping highway curve, I once watched a large truck devour a compact car because it cut too much into the right lane during the turn. Similarly, all it takes is one texting teenager to trust the fact that they're going straight, while in fact they've just cross into oncoming traffic.
    • anonymous246 15y ago
      From your comment, it doesn't seem like you were ever almost killed by a truck driver. Were you? Then why so afraid? I second the previous poster that in my experience big-rig drivers are the safest.
    • munificent 15y ago
      > It only takes one moment where your entire family almost dies because of a truck driver to jade your opinion of all of them How is that statement any different than "it only takes one moment where your entire family almost dies because of a woman driver to jade your opinion of all of them" or "because of a white driver" or "because of an old driver"?
      • nate_meurer 15y ago
• lysol 15y ago
  Would a more extensive rail infrastructure eliminate the need for so many trucks? Does rail fail to scale at the distances and route complexities involved in traversing the US to all the major population centers? I promised I didn't intend to rhyme in the previous sentence.
  • splat 15y ago
    I doubt it. The United States already has the best rail infrastructure in the world for cargo. The problem is that rail is relatively slow and you still need to get your goods from the rail station to whatever store or factory they're needed at.
  • dmm 15y ago
    The US has the largest railway network in the world, in terms of total length of tracks and in tonnage of cargo. The US does not have a very extensive passenger rail network.
    • arjunnarayan 15y ago
      dmm is right. Citation: http://www.economist.com/node/16636101 http://www.economist.com/node/16636101 There's a reason Berkshire Hathaway spent 34 billion to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation.
    • lysol 15y ago
      Seems like this is an unavoidable issue with the land area of the United States, then. The pain-in-the-ass has to be relocated to someone, so it ends up with the truck drivers and/or product costs.
  • jrwoodruff 15y ago
    Problem is there's a lot in between all your major population centers, and you can't run a rail line to (or in many cases, even close to) every mom-and-pop store. Also, many of these trucks will haul cargo for multiple locations - custom windows for three different stores and two construction sites for instance. No rail line is efficient at delivering small loads.
• dpcan 15y ago
  If a truck driver (or anyone on the road) gets flipped off, it is usually because they are driving a huge vehicle too aggressively and dangerously. If his sister died, or he's getting paid peanuts, he still has to drive respectfully and safely to avoid causing any OTHER people on the road to die. Also, I don't think the financial information is correct. I've spoken with truckers in the past and many are making around $40k per year (hearsay), which isn't that shabby for the lifestyle. Lastly, welcome to life. Guess what. Work is hard, people are mean, and most jobs become frustrating if you are in them long enough, and everyone has personal problems. I'm not saying that it's OK to flip someone off, but I understand the helplessness of being in your vehicle with your family and almost getting run off the road by some trucker who seems to be "numb" to the fact that they are driving an enormous and deadly machine 70mph down the highway. EDIT: Not sure why I'm getting down-voted, perhaps a few rebuttals in the comments??
  • VladRussian 15y ago
    >people are mean yes, you made it obvious without need to state it explicitly. Driving a fast, maneuverable and small, compare to a truck, car, i have no problem to accommodate for their much slow and less maneuverable dynamic, just pay attention to what they are doing or intend to do - they are pretty good and accurate drivers and signal their maneuvers in advance. It isn't trucks who are menace on the road, it is flipping off jerks in cars.
    • dpcan 15y ago
      > It isn't trucks who are menace on the road, it is flipping off jerks in cars. The article states: - The driver may be "numb". - He is in emotional distress. - He has skipped meals - He has been driving the better half of 14 hours. THIS is my beef. There is NO EXCUSE for putting others in danger on the road, and instead of flipping him off, the state police should have been notified maybe, but to say we should just relax is out of line. I'd argue that NOBODY should be driving under these conditions, let alone a truck driver.
      • masterzora 15y ago
• wccrawford 15y ago
  You know what? If your job is crap, quit, or demand more pay. I never bought this "I have a hard job, so you should be nice to me" crap. You get compensated for your job. If you don't get compensated well enough, that's your problem. And as for all the schedule crap? Also not my fault. I didn't make you late. I didn't regulate the speed on your rig. (And yes, that DOES make it safer, especially when you're running non-stop and tired.) However, you -did- get in my way. For a long time. 3mph? Cripes, do you know how long it takes to move a rig around another rig at 3mph more while being safe? Suck it up, buddy. You take crap from your boss, your co-workers, and anyone else at your workplace or your client's workplace, and you have the nerve to get upset at someone who isn't getting paid to deal with your crap?
  • mrcharles 15y ago
    Actually, if you are a consumer, you did do most of that. This is the reality of market pressures at the very end of the line. We still need humans to drive trucks -- but we expect them to be superhuman. I find this post saddening. How little we care about the people responsible for all the things we take for granted in life.
    • wccrawford 15y ago
      Everyone is affected by 'market pressures', so I don't buy that cop-out either. I'm serious here: If you do not like your job, demand more money, better working conditions, or quit and find a better one. The first 2 of those are what unions were designed to fix. If the truck driving industry (freight industry?) is so horrible, why haven't they unionized and fixed it? If they have unionized, why is their union so ineffective? I do pity people who think they have dug a hole so deep they can't get out of it. Mainly because they are -wrong-. They have allowed the world to walk allover them and have stopped considering that they can better themselves.
      • mrcharles 15y ago
        The unions exist to do things like limit how much they drive in a day -- before truck driving unions and such, drivers were basically expected to drive whatever it took to get their load where it was going. This was, obviously, horribly unsafe. But unions aren't a magic fix for everything. Also, how quickly we of the first world are to assume that you can just up and change jobs. It's easy when you sit at a desk. It's not easy when all you've ever done is drive a truck, or work at a factory, or done construction. Your intolerance disgusts me, honestly.
• pavel_lishin 15y ago
  > You can't tell by looking at him, but two hours ago he took a call informing him that his only sister was involved in a car accident, and though everything possible was done to save her, she died. They had flown her to a trauma hospital in Detroit, but it was too late. Oh, come on. This is where I closed the tab; the story was sad enough without making it into a Christmas special. edit: Wasn't aware that this was an actual incident. Still, picking the sappiest possible story isn't very representative.
  • jbk 15y ago
    Unfortunately, if you had read until the end, you would have seen that this is a true story...
• latj 15y ago
  Our dependence on truck drivers is artificial though, right? We should be depending more on rail. And yes, someone will drive the cargo from the train station to the walmart, but it wont be a long haul driver. It will be someone with a predictable job who gets to go to funerals and goes home every night.
• regehr 15y ago
  During college I was on a road trip with friends and we stopped at a rest stop on the interstate. After a while a trucker came over carrying a tire iron and looking ready to use it. He was so strung out on uppers he had decided we were all laughing at him. Scary...
• shrikant 15y ago
  If they're tracked electronically anyway and cannot fudge route-logs, it's criminal to make the driver pay for their own truck-fuel. (It would be shitty even without the electronic tracking, but now it's inexcusable.) This is like a company making you pay for the electricity you consume while working in their offices. (This is right up there in with paying waiters ~$2 an hour because they can make up the rest in tips.)
  • jhamburger 15y ago
    Not sure what the comparison is with waiters. A lot of waiters are in their teens or early twenties and it's already one of the highest paying jobs for that group without requiring any real qualifications. Restaurants, on the other hand, are not the most profitable business around as it is, and you want them to triple their payroll expenses to pay minimum wage?
    • dreww 15y ago
      the fact that you think being a waiter has "no real qualifications" underlines the fact that you probably haven't been one. also, there is an immense range of compensation for servers, depending on the restaurant in question. any restaurant that you go to where the servers make a decent amount of money definitely requires skill.
      • jhamburger 15y ago
        I have been a waiter actually, in college. I had no qualifications. I also wasn't very good at it. I did work at a 'Chili's'-type restaurant, not a nice place where the waiters would be more experienced obviously. I do realize that it's a demanding job and is difficult to really be good at. That doesn't change the fact that it pays very well for the class of jobs that a 17-year old high school student can get.
    • shabble 15y ago
      It only works because its been around long enough that there is a culture of tipping for service, to the point it's practically an invisible tax on each meal (granted, with the option to avoid it if you really want/have to, but is considered negative socially) Elsewhere in the world, there is much less of a tipping custom, and wages for service staff tend to reflect that. Isn't there some kind of US law that requires restaurants to pay the difference between wage+tips & minimum wage if the tips share is low enough? (OTOH, I recall reading somewhere about people paying huge sums (order of $10's of K) for high-profile service jobs like Maître d' at a prestigious hotel, or head waiter in a high-class restaurant, due to the quantity earned in tips)
• watchandwait 15y ago
  The truck driver and his company is also exploiting the highway "commons" and passing most of the costs on you, the auto driver. Almost all damage and wear on U.S. roads comes from heavy trucks, and the gas taxes paid by truckers come nowhere near covering the cost they inflict on the highway system. So next time you are stuck in traffic in a construction zone, you can thank the big rigs.
  • masterzora 15y ago
    And that truck is delivering the goods that you buy, so it seems to me that it washes out in the end.
    • watchandwait 15y ago
      If trucks paid their way, more goods would travel by freight rail.
      • scarmig 15y ago
        Hugely, massively ignorant. For one, much of the funding for roads comes from taxing gas, which truckers pay proportionately for. Beyond that, have you ever bothered to notice those little areas on the side of highways called weigh stations? You know, the ones where you don't have to stop? Yeah. If anything, the subsidy runs from truckers to casual drivers, not the other way around.
        • watchandwait 15y ago
          If you are going to engage in name-calling, at least cite a source. There are multiple studies that show that heavy trucks destroy roads and bridges (one truck causes 9,600 times more wear than a car) and also that heavy trucks are disproportionately dangerous, killing about 5,000 people a year. The point is that heavy trucks don't pay enough taxes to cover their actual impact on the road-system.
          • 15y ago
• code_duck 15y ago
  Well, sounds like the perfect reason to enact sensible, non-petroleum lobby fueled transportation reforms. If you've traveled by interstate lately, you may have noticed the number of trucks on the road has reached ridiculous, to the point where the interstates now mainly exist for use by trucking companies. Unfortunately, transportation by truck is one of the least efficient methods possible. Train and barge can transport tens,if not hundreds, of times the cargo for a given amount of fuel. 80% of the thick black pollution they spray out, all that diesel fuel - the fuel they spend idling - is being expended completely stupidly. Exxon and BP like it, and they guided us here - it's time to do something else.
  • eropple 15y ago
    Are you aware that we already have a massive freight rail system? Trucks get around the unfortunate and largely unavoidable problem that rail can't carry everything or go everywhere.
    • code_duck 15y ago
      The proportion of cargo moved by truck has increased significantly in the past 40 years, for no good reason. Of course transport by truck is needed for the last leg (into cities). It's not needed to move the majority of the interstate cargo currently being moved this way.
• ryandvm 15y ago
  I like the post for the humanist viewpoint. I have to think that maybe truckers aren't going to be as disappointed as I thought when the entire industry workforce is displaced in 15 years with self-driving trucks. I've put quite a bit of thought on it and my guess is that the truck driving workforce is going to evaporate almost overnight once self driving trucks are green-lighted. It's going to be hard for a human to compete unless he can drive 24x7, never get tired, have split-second reflexes, and works for 65 cents worth of electricity a day...
  • r00fus 15y ago
    Not sure if your comment is satirical, but I doubt we'll see self-driving vehicles on the road in any reasonable numbers anytime soon... we'll sooner see mass-adoption of electric vehicles before then. Driving (with irrational human actors) is non-deterministic.
    • Triumvark 15y ago
      > I doubt we'll see self-driving vehicles on the road in any reasonable numbers anytime soon I don't know about the rate of deployment, but Google is already lobbying Nevada to officially allow its driverless cars. They have successfully logged hundreds of thousands of miles on U.S. roadways with only one incident: one of the driverless cars was rear ended while waiting at a red light. > Driving (with irrational human actors) is non-deterministic. They don't have to "solve" driving. All they have to do is be less stupid than human drivers. We haven't set the bar that high. Even so, the Google project seems to be working fine so far, irrational human drivers notwithstanding.
      • Unseelie 15y ago
        They've gotten past lobbying Nevada. Nevada's building the regulations for it, which counts as "google has gotten Nevada to allow driver less cars"
    • bh42222 15y ago
      Nevada has already legalized self driving cars: http://blogs.forbes.com/alexknapp/2011/06/22/nevada-passes-law-authorizing-driverless-cars/ http://blogs.forbes.com/alexknapp/2011/06/22/nevada-passes-l... And I bet Google's car is already better then most if not all human drivers can ever be. The fact that the road is full of unpredictable humans does not mean that a computer can't be a better driver then another human. In fact, the more dangerous the road conditions, due to other bad drivers, or any other reason, the better it is to have a super-human computer do the driving.
• knieveltech 15y ago
  Most of the folks driving truck are true professionals. For example, anyone else ever spot truckers herding traffic? I've seen this a few times locally, it normally happens when there's a lane merge coming up due to construction. On more than one occasion I've seen truckers entirely block the merging lane, forcing folks behind them to merge cleanly. This gets everyone through the construction zone faster since you don't have a stream of last-minute merges jamming things up.
  • megamark16 15y ago
    I love when they do that, I hate all those last minute assholes who zoom by the rest of us who are adhering to the construction signs indicating that a lane is closed ahead. I always think that I should herd traffic myself, but I'm just one guy in a little car, so I really appreciate when the big rigs do it for me :-)
    • kelnos 15y ago
      Actually, the zoomers are usually doing the right thing (sorta). When traffic is congested to the point where you can't do a natural "closing zipper" merge, the best way to avoid jams is for everyone to use up all available lane space, but -- and here's where the problem comes in -- leave enough room for alternate-feed merging at the end. That's what causes the stop-and-go jam: people at the merge point not letting other cars in.
    • ldar15 15y ago
      adhering to the constructions signs indicating that a lane is closed ahead What part of the construction sign are you adhering? Is there a construction sign that says "merge immediately"? No. So your anger is based on what? The fact that you merge into a lane, and then the person behind you drives by you? Think about this logically: If you merge in at point A, and a driver passes you to merge closer, are they an asshole? So now the merge point is now point A. Anyone merged after point A is an asshole. But you have just established a definitive, permanent merge point that a driver may not pass. Is this effective? Is it effective to have a merge point, beyond which someone may not pass, or should they merge at some point before this? If the answer is "yes, it is effective to have a hard merge point" then why should that merge point be point A, and not the lane end? What is magical about point A? Should the drivers in the thru lane at point A automatically let you in? Why? But if drivers behind you should also merge before point A (in the same way that you merged before the lane-end) then a new merge point A' is established (beyond which anyone is an asshole). So the "polite, non-asshole" endpoints A, A', A'' move further and further back down the freeway, leaving a huge area of the freeway unused and causing the traffic jam to extend as much as twice as far as it need be.
• jmspring 15y ago
  A great story with a human angle. It is interesting, when the personal connection with the other party is not present or is reduced, how personalities can change. Email / news groups / etc. regularly erupt in flamewars, people making snide comments, etc. The same thing happens often when people get in their vehicle. In their own little world, drivers aren't always as aware of their actions and behaviors as they should be (or how their actions impact other drivers, for instance). I know I have been guilty of this from time to time. This is another call to really just bring an awareness to your actions and who/what they may affect.
  • Caballera 15y ago
    Yeah it interesting. I work Tech Support, and often get angry customers, when I deal with them I have to try and remember where they are coming from, how they feel and think, otherwise I end up angry myself and it makes it a lot harder to deal with them.
  • johngalt 15y ago
    Tinted Windows I've noticed other drivers are more courteous when I'm driving a car without tinted windows. Specifically I had two cars. One was an older standard cab pickup with no window tint anywhere (think fishbowl) and the other was a luxury car with dark window tint and a black interior. Night and day difference between how I was treated on the road. These are the same routes driven similar times. My own little observation that seeing the other driver causes you to treat them differently subconsciously. Truck drivers may have a similar issue being unseen. Edit: Also as a pedestrian it's nice to see where a driver is/isn't looking.
• ddw 15y ago
  I honestly can't think of any positives that come with being a truck driver. You aren't even "traveling" in the sense that you get to see different places. You're just burning away life with no time to do anything besides listen to radio shows/music. We should all be so lucky that we're never in that position. My dad used to work for a company that sold communication services at truck stops. He always told me that it's important to not change into the right now too soon after passing them and to just remind that they've got a blindside much larger than a car. Pretty simple stuff, but I bet most people don't think about it. I've driven on I-80 a good amount at night when it's almost all truck drivers and I've never had a problem. I would often get a annoyed when two trucks would drive next to each other going around 68MPH, but now I know better. A little empathy can go a long way.
  • 3pt14159 15y ago
    Many of them are former construction workers with injuries. Trucking is far from the worst job they could have had.
• trotsky 15y ago
  It was suggested to me recently that the widespread push into trucking and away from rail for freight had something to do with busting strong railroad unions. I didn't think much of the idea at the time because of historically how powerful the Teamsters were in trucking. However, reading this and considering how many owner operators there are that have apparently been subjected to declining wages and worsening working conditions, I wonder if there might be some truth to that suggestion about rail vs. trucks. Obviously there are other advantages to trucking, but does anyone think there is some validity there?
  • Dysiode 15y ago
    Speed and flexibility perhaps? There are significantly more trucks than there are trains, for one. I imagine there's an incentive to fill a train to capacity whereas you can contract as many trucks as you need for a particular load. Further, a bunch of trucks can go from one distribution point to many different unloading points a train may not be able to reach. I imagine the explosion in consumer shipping and expectations of two-day shipping from a number of companies has changed the dynamic. A hundred Ted's ordering iphone cases isn't the same as one Bob ordering a hundred head of sheep. Just some thoughts; I don't have any knowledge about the industry, or the state of the railways.
• jgoewert 15y ago
  So, what the article is trying to say is that we should be using trains more for long hauls to concentrated depots and trucks for short hops from the trains? That would alleviate highway traffic congestion, save a ton on the amount of fuel used to ship goods around the US, and would keep Chuck the Truck Driver in a location close to home. Wonderful idea.
  • kelnos 15y ago
    Of course, if we were to do this, I'm sure the next article would be about how trains are taking jobs away from truck drivers. You just can't win, really.
• raldi 15y ago
  Driving trucks is also one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. For example, this list shows it to be more deadly than being a firefighter or police officer: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-most-dangerous-jobs-in-america-2010-3?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-most-dangerous-jobs-in... When a policeman or firefighter dies, it's all over the news for days. The funeral is gigantic, with hundreds of peers drawn from all over the region. The mayor almost always attends. When a trucker dies, he gets a regular funeral attended by his loved ones.
  • FireBeyond 15y ago
    Without belittling any tragedy, and with the obvious bias of being a firefighter, whilst trucking may be more deadly than being a firefighter, the situation you describe is largely in response to the fact that that person typically gave their life in order to try to save a stranger, or their home. Despite the risks to themselves, they put their hand up and said "I will go into that burning building if I know you are in there. I will risk life and limb to get you out. And in the process, I acknowledge that there is a chance that -I- may be the one that doesn't come out." Their big funeral, with all of their peers? Is but an acknowledgement of that. No-one made them make that decision, but they did. Their peers come because they want to show support to the family and friends, knowing that if that worst should happen to them, they'd want their own family and friends to have that support.
    • oscardelben 15y ago
      Why do you think that truck drivers aren't risking their life for us like the firefighters and police men are doing? We live in a society where most jobs are needed. If it wasn't for them it would be hard for millions of people to get their food in the stores every day. Edit: to clarify even more, even the truck driver knows thst he's got a probability to die during his work, which seems to be higher than most other jobs. Most drivers know this.
      • raldi 15y ago
        Indeed. The comfortable society we all enjoy literally could not exist if not for truckers risking their lives every day to provide its circulatory system. People talk about soldiers bravely and selflessly putting themselves in danger to protect The American Way(tm). Truckers deserve that same respect.
• whom 15y ago
  Every truck drivers sister has just died moments ago? That's sad.
• Nat0 15y ago
  Just yesterday, I had a friend get run off the road and total her car because of a careless truck driver. The driver of the semi left the scene and came back only after another truck driver stopped to help my friend and got on the radio and told the driver who caused the wreck to come back or he would make sure he lost his trucking license. There are good and bad people regardless of the profession.
• Triumvark 15y ago
  I know someone who represented trucking companies in major road crashes. A night of anecdotes with him destroyed my perspective on this completely. I don't have anything personal against the average trucker, but I primarily want driverless cars so we can put all of these guys out of work. If we can get robots to lower accident rates and drive all night without getting sleepy (or, in what I'm sure are rare cases, methed up), I'm sorry, but I'm for it. I always brake for truckers. I have enormous respect for the good haulers out there. I still hope they disappear in my lifetime.
• Dysiode 15y ago
  I find it interesting that hackers of all people are so polarized about this article. I wonder if working in an industry with such a high customer turn-over rate where you either make it big or try something else has desensitized us to the fact the masses of people paying us $0.99 for our apps are still people. Especially those of us in jobs with absolutely no customer service aspect whatsoever. I wonder if it would help to require everyone in a company to respond to a couple emails a week would help them feel more attached to the people actually using the product (In a way, Opera does this with their Desktop Team blog by having different people write a blurb before the change log).
• seldo 15y ago
  Why isn't the moral of this story "trucks are terrible, we should transport more freight by rail"?
  • _delirium 15y ago
    I agree that that's probably a good way to mitigate the problem, but the U.S. already does transport a surprisingly large amount of freight by rail, with relatively little fanfare. It's a lot more than Europe, for example, which has much more high-profile passenger trains, but much lower use of freight rail. The last time I looked up statistics, it was about 35% of American freight going by rail, versus about 10% of EU-nation freight. Obviously 35% could go up, but it's not too bad. It just feels like we have fewer trains than we do, because as a human wanting to get places you can't easily take them. A bigger problem might be the geographic distribution of truck vs. rail traffic. Rail traffic dominates in the transcontinental trips, because it's a lot cheaper to ship bulk cargo or shipping containers by rail from LA to Chicago, than by truck. But open-road inter-city trucking from LA to Chicago is relatively safe. Where trucks are most dangerous is within-urban-area transit, in congested metropolitan areas, but those are also the hardest to replace. For example, Safeway alone sends thousands of trucks out daily to supply its grocery stores; much of the produce is moved from ships to a local staging area by rail, but the last 10 miles to the actual store goes by truck. It'll be very difficult to replace that, unless we return to the days of a dense rail network where businesses had their own local rail sidings for deliveries.
  • Unseelie 15y ago
    Well, Rail is efficient in that it ships huge quantities...fifty, or a hundred standardized containers. Trucks do a bit less than one of those, and so are -amazing- if you only have to ship that much between points C and W (point A being a manufacturer in Asia, b being a port, and C being a major freight station) Rail is a great solution for a specific portion of that network, but it becomes very, very inefficient if you're only moving one box of goods to a town, and in a nation this size, with as dispersed a population as ours, you simply cannot manage the outlay of hundreds of thousands of railway spikes...and taken to the smaller position, you'd still need trucks unless the railways went to each and every department store.
  • 15y ago
• kyusu 15y ago
  Is this place reddit now?
• bh42222 15y ago
  Let me tell you his future. He/She will be replaced by a self driving truck.
• marcamillion 15y ago
  Wow...the comments on this thread are more callous than I had anticipated. The story is a good story. Sure, these things happen in all professions - that policewoman that put her life on the line chasing some young drug kingpin in the back of an alley last week, just lost her baby 2 months ago - but that doesn't make this story less true and require less empathy. I never understood the road rage thing. If you know that there is a big truck in front of you (or near you) on the freeway, and you know they might drive aggressively, do what you need to get away as quickly as you can. Either slow down, or overtake, in a responsible way. But no need to be a douchebag about it. Sure, you may have been bad-driven by truck drivers in the past, but believe me...that's not bad driving. Come to Jamaica where EVERYBODY bad drives EVERYBODY, it's a regular occurrence. You can either get pissed and cuss everybody, or you can let it roll off your shoulders and not let it bother you. Just protect yourself, drive responsibly and don't get flustered.
• switch007 15y ago
  What irks me is they they expect us to understand they're limited to a certain speed, but when there's a down hill and drivers need to brake to stop going over the speed limit, we get gestures made at us. Double standards.
  • gravitronic 15y ago
    If you brake going downhill on a long-distance highway you shouldn't be driving.
    • switch007 15y ago
      The UK government loves putting cameras on down hill sections of roads. Anyway, my point was they get angry you are not speeding, not the method you use to prevent speeding.
• StuffMaster 15y ago
  A truck passing another truck isn't necessarily objectionable, but when they're on a hill and spend multiple minutes doing it (and sometimes even give up), I get very annoyed.
• anigbrowl 15y ago
  Why is this on HN? I don't flip off truckers, or anyone else unless they drive dangerously enough to put me at risk. It has nothing to do with programming or economics, and none of us are experts in transit policy. {Edit: or at least, widely known to be.]
• scarmig 15y ago
  I'm sorry, but the ignorance expressed in this thread by some is absolutely astounding. Per mile, truckers drive far more safely than the typical driver. Just to put things in immediate perspective. Beyond that, though, some people here are spending a whole lot more time blaming the drivers for the inevitable lapses in safety that occur when you're driving thousands of miles a week. Of course, it's definitely more comfortable to do that than consider the systemic reasons that happens, and your own role in it. Goods have to be transported. The almighty market demands that. Which is to say, you demand it. So various companies have sprung up for centuries to transport those goods. These companies compete to lower costs as much as possible. If they don't, they're driven out of business, because stores know consumers prefer something to be a nickel cheaper even if it's bad for the environment, the truckers, and other nearby drivers. If a price is higher, companies choose to go with the trucking company that offers the cheaper price, because consumers like their nickel. The way we've set up the system incorporates the public safety dangers into the price, via lawsuits etc., and the way we like it is to essentially demand that companies force drivers to drive the hell out of their trucks and their lives. We like our fucking nickels. At least more than any safety concerns. Some here have said "well if the job is hard, then quit it!" Wow. Do you think people don't do this? Do you think that changes the market equilibrium at all? It doesn't. Whoever replaces him or her will drive under the same demands and incentives, and will on average respond the same way to those demands and incentives. No benefit. I've seen also some victim blaming in saying "well if the job is hard, ask for a raise or get a union!" Interesting story there. Back in the mid-20th century, trucking was one of the most heavily unionized industries, via the IBT primarily. However, in the 80s and 90s, various Republican and Democratic administrations collaborated with trucking companies to make war on the unions. Originally truckers were employed directly by the companies, but eventually those companies realized they could react to unionization by outsourcing truckers, either into private shell companies that closed down as soon as unionization hit or by hiring truckers as contractors. Various NLRB boards aided and abetted this regulatory change. The ruling elite (of which we are all part) largely cheered this on, because those greedy truckers are stupid and uneducated and don't deserve to make as much as us hardworking educated intelligent people, masters of the universe that we are. So, we got our way! And our nickel. Drivers ended up atomized and could not collectively bargain against the buyers of their labor, decently-sized companies who had monopsony power in the trucker marketplace. So everyone ends up driven to the least common denominator. If you want a better system, fight for it. Moreover, vote for it. Otherwise when some trucker nearly drives you off the road because they have to feed their family, you're just getting what you paid for.
• damoncali 15y ago
  so...don't flip off truck drivers? Seems easy enough.
• peterwwillis 15y ago
  So my friend is driving his big rig, probably been driving for about 5 days. Tooling down the highway in his lane during the day. Suddenly a car cuts right in front of him and he can tell the car is going to hit him. Split second decision time: A) Attempt to slam on the brakes and watch as 40 tons plows into the car. The truck will sustain minor damage and the car will sustain heavy damage, possibly killing all the people inside. Assuming the truck doesn't jackknife. B) Swerve onto the shoulder and possibly off into a ditch, saving the car and possibly killing himself, and possibly others if the truck jackknifes and other cars hit it. I know a lot of people have no sympathy for truckers, but take the time and actually talk to one. They put up with untold amounts of bullshit just to make a living. It's not a bad job for someone who might be too unskilled to get another job, but it sure is grueling. Another thing I find some people tell me is how every time they drive next to a truck they almost get run off the road. Truckers actually try really hard not to kill you. The easiest thing you can do for a trucker is not drive next to one. Either pass him or sit behind him, but not next to him. And if you see one with his blinker on, please, get the hell out of the way.
• gregatragenet 15y ago
  Most of the anger I see at trucks (and truck-drivers) is just ignorance of the physical limitations on trucks. They are big, so the rules of inertia mean they take longer to speed up and slow down, and they have limited visibility on the sides. Often the stories I hear about people nearly run off the road by a truck begins with the car hovering in the truck's blind-spot. I've seen drivers pull in front of a truck and then slam on the brakes to make a turn, almost causing an accident with the slower-stopping truck. Or passing a truck on the right as it is making a wide right turn. Good way to become a subcompact-sandwich. My favorite is when a truck turns on it's signal to change lanes prompting the cars around him to quickly fill that lane in an effort to 'not be behind a truck'. Awesome to keep the truck from making his turn/exit guys. If you have trucker-angst I suggest you go rent a large vehicle - like make a road-trip in an RV. It'll open your eyes on how poorly the cars around a large vehicle will accommodate you. And how what you thought of as 'bad truck driver behavior' may just be the physical limitations of the vehicle he's driving.
• bg4 15y ago
  I've worked in the trucking industry for the past six years and I find this article pretty accurate. However, all of the problems that this driver is faced with can be largely impacted by better decision making and planning on the company side. Then again, I'm heavily biased since this is exactly the type of software I work on every day. We have products to help companies choose which freight to run to maximize profit (and which to get rid of), find optimal truck/order combinations to minimize cost/time of haul, to determine where the truck should buy fuel (and how much) for his current order to minimize fuel cost, and track the asset in near real time to ensure management knows when it will be late or off route (much easier to re-schedule the drop a day or two ahead, for example). We've even put considerable effort to optimize a swap of trailers between trucks on the road so that a driver can get home in an emergency. I am unsure about the burden of fuel on the driver, as many of our carriers have fuel cards for drivers to purchase fuel (sometimes constrained to our locations/amounts to ensure compliance) and the company usually charges a fuel surcharge back to the customer anyways. I work with both very large and very small carriers but I obviously don’t know the specifics of this driver’s situation. As far as the government involvement, the driver's hours of service are logged electronically because it was all too common for drivers to carry multiple log books (and use the one which allowed them to keep driving to make a drop). Electronic logging is a good thing. Personally, I think 11 hours behind the wheel of a 45,000lb semi-truck is probably enough for one day. Incidentally, they can drive 11 hours per day up to 70 hours total before they have to take 34 hours off in a row. Hauling freight isn't easy and they deserve some respect. Our Nation would crawl to a halt in a matter of days if they stopped doing their jobs. Try to cut them a little more slack and room on the road.
• Tharkun 15y ago
  So. Your job sucks. Your sister is dead. You get paid jack shit. And you're the one in control of delivering goods to everyone. And somehow you're thick enough to think that driving like a douche is the answer to your problems? Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I remember when I was a kid, french truck drivers (hundreds of them) blocked the roads because they were pissed off. They did this for days. Guess what? They got (mostly) what they wanted in the end. If, as this article implies, there is something wrong with the trucking industry, then you should take proper and responsible action. Protest. Park a truck in front of the white house. Whatever. But driving like a dickwad, breaking laws that are meant to keep others save & endangering lives is not acceptable. Especially not for a shitty wage.
• sliverstorm 15y ago
  I pretty much stopped getting mad at truckers when two things happened: 1) I learned that many trucks have 24 gears. Could you imagine having to downshift and upshift 10 or 12 times every time somebody cuts you off? 2) I started riding motorcycles. As a motorcyclist, whether or not you are in the right, if you tangle with a truck you're dead. So, instant respect for trucks. I want them to see me, and I want them to like me.
• jrockway 15y ago
  Everything you buy at the store and everything you order online moves by truck. Planes and trains can't get it to your house or grocery store. Not by long-distance trucks that this article describes, though. Those trucks drive from the airport to the city center, and then from the city center to individual homes. Say you buy something from Amazon. Their fulfillment center is co-located with UPS' hub at Louisville Airport. Your box leaves Amazon and goes on a plane to your city. Then, a short-distance truck picks up the package, it's taken to the UPS distribution center, and another truck takes it to your house. No 10 hour days. No driving 500 miles to see your sister in the hospital. No nights away from your family. Anyway, it's very possible to own stuff that was not delivered to you by a long-distance trucker, despite what the article says.
  • zacharycohn 15y ago
    That's one example - if you get air shipping. If you get ground shipping, not so much. Also, I think his bigger point was the "everything you buy _at the store_" comes from a truck part.
• grimoire 15y ago
  Moral of the story: Don't be a dick. I can't remember the last time I flipped someone off. Certainly not some truck driver passing another truck slower than I would like. I reserve the middle finger for the epically stupid, where someone has done something exceedingly dangerous.
• bfe 15y ago
  To try to add Hacker News relevance to this story and its discussion: doesn't this show it's high time for truck-driving robots to free humans from this dreary job? Robots who won't, in the midst of personal anguish, be stressed about passing another truck to stay a few miles per hour faster? The displaced jobs would make way for more fulfilling, higher paying jobs as truck robot sysadmins and the truck robot YCombinator startup founders.
• atomicdog 15y ago
  This article seems to only apply to American truck drivers.
• speleding 15y ago
  Trucking something 1000 miles is silly. One large canal boat can transport about 70 truckloads (4x3x6 containers). Average speed over 1000 miles is the same since they don't stop for breaks. Works great in Northern Europe. You still need trucks for the fine grained distribution of course, but over time all large companies make sure they are located on a canal. Digging canals is very expensive of course but they don't hurt the environment nearly as much as (rail)roads and it's a text book way to get the economy going. Many of the canals in Europe were actually dug during the depression of the last century when there was lots of unemployment.