Seriously Am I Wrong For Shutting Down

I agree with the others ^^^, Mike. The photos on FacePalm were even MORE explanatory/supportive, yet the 'super truckers' in Trucker Feed beat you down.

Always should come HERE for advice first, IMHO~!!

Stay Safe, man! Listen to the ABOVE advice.

~ Anne ~

Georgia Mike, you can be "wrong" for shutting down a hundred times and still be alive to drive another day, but you can be WRONG for continuing to drive only once and never see another day. SAFETY FIRST. Good choice.

Georgia Mike, you got some great responses. Do you remember my advice last week in the discussion about giving a two week notice? I warned you about being careful with taking what you hear from all these other truckers. You have to take charge of your own career and your own destiny out here. You are always going to be your best advocate. You did the right thing this time, but you let the chatter cause you to doubt yourself. I'm glad you asked us about it. That means you made two good decisions yesterday.

Hang in there. We all know how challenging this job is. You obviously are getting a good dose of those challenges. Keep up the good work. You are learning the same way the rest of us did. Each day brings a new surprise. We face those things with rational decisiveness. We live and learn, but we don't take our lead from the Radio Rambos or the constant nonsense from the "Peanut Gallery." Remember your limitations. Your abilities will improve with time. When the weather is too severe you will know it. It's always better to be safe than having to make that difficult call to your safety manager.

To OP: None of those amchair quarterbacks that you mentioned who were questioning or even ridiculing your judgement have any dogs in the fight. You do. In fact, you have EVERYTHING in it, your CDL , your job, your CSA/DAC, your health, your life.

You made the right call. You didn't feel safe, so you made the RIGHT call. Good on you, driver.

NEVER let someone else make a safety related decision for you, whether it's unsafe equipment, unsafe conditions, of just plain unsafe due to fatigue.

At the end of the day, YOU are the one who will have to live with the consequences of your decision.

So i left OKC around 130 am and drove 40 west for about 6 hrs 4 of them in the snow. Shut down outside of Amarillo aroubd 730am. Everytime i looked at live maps most areas were red especially gallup new mexico. I got alot of flack for "being scared", lazy, all that crap. What do yall think was i wrong for shutting down due to me not feeling safe to drive?

I'll drive in snow when they put snow tires on my tractor.

I just wanted to throw something out there Georgia Mike and other new drivers. When you're deciding if you should shut down you should also take into account what part of the country you're in. Being able to keep your own truck on the road isn't the only thing you need to take into account. A couple years back the news was covering a snowstorm that dropped a couple inches of snow somewhere in the south (Atlanta maybe?). They showed how people just left their cars on the interstate and walked home because of the amount of wrecks and not knowing what to do. Aside from mountain areas the southern states usually aren't equipped to remove snow or salt the roads to get them cleaned up the same way they can in the north. Just because you're able to comfortably drive in 6 inches of snow doesn't mean the locals who are going way too fast or much slower than they need to know what they're doing. At the end of the day you made a decision to shutdown and nobody thats worth a damn is going to question it. You'll obviously need to drive in some inclement weather but always listen to what your gut is telling you.

Yesterday, on my route in Indiana we where supposed to get a few flurries and maybe a inch or 2 over 14 hours it turned into a nightmare on the roads as the snow was more intense than a "few flurries". I did about 45 mph for 150 miles my usual 3.20 hour drive turned into around 5 hours on snow and ice covered roads. Plus I saw a lot of accidents including a 6 or 7 truck wreck, every driver I spoke too did not expect the weather to be that bad and we all agreed if we had known none of us would have ran.

You made the right call weather can turn pretty quickly like it did yesterday, there is a saying " Id rather be at home wishing I was on the road, rather than on the road wishing I was at home"

You can never go wrong by stopping if you don't feel safe. As my dispatcher once told me, "the receiver might get mad about their delivery being late, but they'll be even madder if it's scattered all over the interstate".

Figured I would update. I recently had a very light high value load worth millions of dollars. It should have taken 2.5 days from OH to WA. NE, WY and ID winds did not comply and 70mph gusts caused me to park it. I kept going and stopping on the way. Im sure Security didnt like it.....but the Safety Dept would support my decision.

Who gave you flack for your decision? Your company? Other drivers?

I'm looking forward to hearing the answers to these questions when Georgia Mike checks in again.