Driving Close To Other Vehicles

Never ceases to amaze, how so many truckers, including many who appear to be long-time veterans, drive so close to other trucks. Tailgating within 50' or less. Cutting close in front of other trucks after a pass. And even doing all of that when there is a wide open lane to the left. And they seem to think of themselves as some sort of hotshot truckers. 100% stupid. Don't care if someone has been driving for 40 years, it doesn't change the laws of physics.

Never ceases to amaze, how so many truckers, including many who appear to be long-time veterans, drive so close to other trucks. Tailgating within 50' or less. Cutting close in front of other trucks after a pass. And even doing all of that when there is a wide open lane to the left. And they seem to think of themselves as some sort of hotshot truckers. 100% stupid. Don't care if someone has been driving for 40 years, it doesn't change the laws of physics.

Ah. Supertruckers.

I was rolling through Dallas a few weeks ago, in one of the construction zones. There were jersey barriers on both sides of the two lanes available to traffic. I was driving @55 MPH in a curve, and a Supertrucker passed me at what I'd guess to be around 65-70 miles an hour. He was passing me at a good jogging speed.

He came so close to me that he slapped my driver side mirror with his passenger side mirror. I nearly shat myself, but kept my hands steady on the steering wheel and refused to take any evasive maneuvers.

When the road straightened out, I rolled down the window, reached out, and pulled the mirror back into position. Thankfully, the mirrors were undamaged. They had even kept their alignment, so I didn't have to adjust them.

That is a situation where I wish I had an automatic dash cam. I have a smartphone mount on my windshield for taking pictures, but I damn sure aren't going to fool with it in a metro construction zone in heavy traffic. Similarly, I wasn't going to try to write down his trailer number or tag.

Being a true professional means you're not only top notch at handling your own rig but you're so d*mn good that you can overcome the poor driving of those around you.

To me, nothing is worse than tailgating. It just shows an utter lack of driving intelligence and mental discipline. It's really like advertising to the world, "Look at me! I'm dumb as a rock! I don't have the slightest awareness of what I'm doing, nor do I care a lick about the safety of myself or anyone around me."

Now I've never driving a truck with a camera in it but for those who have I've yet to hear anything about a tailgating warning. It would seem simple enough with the collision avoidance systems that if the system detects you're too close to something in front of you and you're doing more than maybe 40 mph that windshield camera should kick on and record how close you are to the driver in front of you.

To those of you with those cameras - has anything been mentioned about that type of capability? Because I'm tellin ya, if I owned a truck and saw on the video display that my driver was doing 60 and all I could see out the windshield was the back of another vehicle taking up the entire screen they'd be fired on the spot because it's only a matter of time before they kill someone.

There is only one reason you should be that close. And it's not even a good one but that is when you are in a governed truck trying to pass another vehicle that is going 3 or 4 mph slower. If the vehicle is less than 5 mph slower then it takes an awful long time to pass them and I don't like to be a rolling roadblock any longer than I have to be.

Being a true professional means you're not only top notch at handling your own rig but you're so d*mn good that you can overcome the poor driving of those around you.

To me, nothing is worse than tailgating. It just shows an utter lack of driving intelligence and mental discipline. It's really like advertising to the world, "Look at me! I'm dumb as a rock! I don't have the slightest awareness of what I'm doing, nor do I care a lick about the safety of myself or anyone around me."

Now I've never driving a truck with a camera in it but for those who have I've yet to hear anything about a tailgating warning. It would seem simple enough with the collision avoidance systems that if the system detects you're too close to something in front of you and you're doing more than maybe 40 mph that windshield camera should kick on and record how close you are the the driver in front of you.

To those of you with those cameras - has anything been mentioned about that type of capability? Because I'm tellin ya, if I owned a truck and saw on the video display that my driver was doing 60 and all I could see out the windshield was the back of another vehicle taking up the entire screen they'd be fired on the spot because it's only a matter of time before they kill someone.

Many of the collision avoidance systems installed in the newer trucks alert when driving to close to another vehicle and some well even brake automatically if you get too close. Most do not notify the company though. The one system that Werner has in some off their trucks that does alert the company gives many false alerts as well and it doesn't take video of it, just send them a message.

My personal dash cam does alert if you follow too closely, but it doesn't save the video automatically when it does. So obviously the technology is there, but I haven't heard of it being implemented in quite that way yet.

My camera doesn't go off in that situation. But then again I refuse to get too close to anybody, truck or car, unless it's stopped or very slow traffic. But even at a red light or in a traffic jam I try to leave at least a car length for those crazy four wheelers who like to jump in front of the big, slow truck.

To those of you with those cameras - has anything been mentioned about that type of capability?

Brett, I can't speak for everyone, but at Knight we are using the "Smart Drive" camera system, and it definitely kicks in to the "send this video in" mode when following too closely. In fact we've gotten multiple messages on our Zonar communication tablets from safety alerting us that this has quickly become the top reason that they are letting drivers go. During that first month when they started rolling out this program I had to go into my home terminal for scheduled maintenance and they put a camera in my truck. While waiting, the safety guy came walking through the lounge and saw me in there - he says, "Hey Dale, come here a minute I want to show you something." We go in his office and he shows me a video of one of our drivers at highway speeds following way too closely behind a four wheeler. The kicker on the scenario was that the truck driver never bothered to adjust the distance for miles, he just kept hugging that closely as he continued down the highway. "Look at this man," he says, "you can't even squeeze another car in between his bumper and that vehicle."

He told me that the cameras have definitely made his job more challenging due to the fact that he keeps having to let drivers go for safety violations that normally would not be caught until an accident occurred. He was not real happy about it, but he told me that it was a commitment that management was making to improve their safety numbers, and from everything they gathered from their initial testing of the program for one year, at only one terminal's set of drivers, they were happy with the results they were producing. One of the things the camera does is makes the driver more aware of the fact that he can be reported for something that he didn't actually get cited for. If you are aware of that, it should change some of your poor habits. I realized immediately with my camera that it was having that effect on my driving. I mean, I love this gig that I have, and I don't want something that I have control over to cause me to loose it. So, I am more conscious now of paying close attention to things like following distance, speeds in construction zones, speed on a curve like an on/off ramp, etc.

Let's say you are going 63 mph on the interstate and a big truck passes you then turns back into your lane leaving about five or six feet between the two of you - not an uncommon event. That will trigger the camera. Well, wait a minute, that doesn't seem fair! With the smart drive system all you have to do is let off the accelerator or brake slightly to regain a proper following distance, and even if that video does get sent in, it vindicates your driving knowledge and skill to your safety manager. Everything you are doing to re-establish that safety buffer is also recorded as data that is sent to safety. I have had several calls from safety thanking me for doing what it takes to avoid accidents since I've had the camera. The thing about the presence of the camera and it's activity is that it has made me more focused on how to keep that thing from reporting my occasional lapses of being focused - it helps to keep the driver from becoming complacent. Like it or not, that is a good thing for a commercial driver.

I'm going to go on record here to say, "That camera has improved my driving."

What's even dumber (as if it gets any dumber) is that "following too closely" is considered a SERIOUS OFFENSE when it comes to citations you can get while operating a CMV.

Calculating 3-5 second following distances aside - the law states that you must leave enough distance for a vehicle to pass. Now it doesn't say whether or not it's enough distance for a 4-wheeler or a 70' rig.

When you consider that, at highway speed, it takes more than the length of a football field to stop, that 10' these idjits are trailing behind soccer moms van full of kids @ 60 MPH are a MASS CASUALTY EVENT waiting to happen.

When you also consider that 60-70% of the 4-wheel drivers you see on the road, are staring at a mobile communications device - the odds of an "oh crap braking event" happening in front of you are extremely high.

I'm real careful, on both a 4-wheeler and motorcycle - to leave enough room around me for an "emergency escape route". In an 18-wheeler - the only "safe route" is really STRAIGHT AHEAD (versus taking out folks in neighboring lanes, jacking or rolling the rig). Pays to leave at least enough room to make an emergency stop in the lane you're in.

Rick

As a lifelong Motorcycle rider, I learned decades ago to keep lots of following distance and ALWAYS look way ahead and scan for problems. It has served me well in this business. I always leave "Too much" room in front of me, if there is such a thing. I constantly re adjust my following distance, as many trucks and cars seem to think that passing and coming back into my lane and leaving 10-20 feet is adequate!😠

I'm going to go on record here to say, "That camera has improved my driving."

They've done a ton of studies about watching workers and one I read was really interesting. I can't remember a lot of the details but the specifics aren't that important. What was really interesting is that they watched a bunch of workers doing their jobs for a while and then they went and put up a bunch of different safety posters. When they put up posters that had eyes on them, implying they were being watched, it completely changed their behavior. They were far more safety conscious and wasted a lot less time. Just the implication that there were eyes on them made them change their work habits.

There's no question that being watched is going to make anyone more attentive.

He told me that the cameras have definitely made his job more challenging due to the fact that he keeps having to let drivers go for safety violations that normally would not be caught until an accident occurred.

And there are quite a few companies that have tested cameras but have chosen not to use them at this time and I'm certain this has to be one of the big reasons. They're going to lose a lot of drivers who have excellent safety records and do an excellent job overall but at some point are going to get caught doing something dumb like looking at their phone or digging around on the floor for something they've dropped. Then what do you do? Do you say, "Well, he didn't get in a wreck so it's ok" or do you let them go because that kind of thing is obviously not ok?

Then of course as soon as the firings begin so will the lawsuits.

There are no easy answers.