New To Forum; Not As New To Trucking

But, for the sake of the topic that came up in this thread, do you have any thoughts as to why veteran drivers would give the advice to a new driver not to worry about getting a CB?

My thoughts may vary from theirs. Aside from the examples I provided above how it's saved me trouble/stress it could be the cost. Most drivers get started in trucking with hardly any money to their name. However, I'd buy a CB before a GPS or any other fancy gadgets. It can be a distraction if you're playing around on it trying to cause trouble. I got started in trucking at 27 years old. It brought back memories of trash talking on Xbox live as a kid. I did more than my share feeding into people's BS on there while safely parked at our yard beside I35/I80. It's easy to get caught up in a conversation with another driver that takes away your attention, but the same can be said for your phone. If you're doing something like P&D and only staying on city streets a CB would be pretty useless. My trainer at PFG told me the CB was worthless as well, but we spent most of the day on city streets.

You don't need to buy anything fancy or have mods added. Just a simple radio tuned to get you a couple miles of range is plenty. I hear people say they run Google maps to see slowdowns and traffic issues. The problem with that is Google doesn't update immediately. If a wreck just happened you won't know about it the same as you would with someone alerting you via CB. You also run into people adding fake alerts on Google. There have been numerous times on my 3 hour drive back from Kansas City that someone has flagged "speed trap" or "debris in road" every 5 miles and there's no cops around, or debris to be found.

But, for the sake of the topic that came up in this thread, do you have any thoughts as to why veteran drivers would give the advice to a new driver not to worry about getting a CB?

My thoughts may vary from theirs. Aside from the examples I provided above how it's saved me trouble/stress it could be the cost. Most drivers get started in trucking with hardly any money to their name. However, I'd buy a CB before a GPS or any other fancy gadgets. It can be a distraction if you're playing around on it trying to cause trouble. I got started in trucking at 27 years old. It brought back memories of trash talking on Xbox live as a kid. I did more than my share feeding into people's BS on there while safely parked at our yard beside I35/I80. It's easy to get caught up in a conversation with another driver that takes away your attention, but the same can be said for your phone. If you're doing something like P&D and only staying on city streets a CB would be pretty useless. My trainer at PFG told me the CB was worthless as well, but we spent most of the day on city streets.

You don't need to buy anything fancy or have mods added. Just a simple radio tuned to get you a couple miles of range is plenty. I hear people say they run Google maps to see slowdowns and traffic issues. The problem with that is Google doesn't update immediately. If a wreck just happened you won't know about it the same as you would with someone alerting you via CB. You also run into people adding fake alerts on Google. There have been numerous times on my 3 hour drive back from Kansas City that someone has flagged "speed trap" or "debris in road" every 5 miles and there's no cops around, or debris to be found.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It seems that a CB is something that would be helpful to me, but I simply chose not to buy one. I have done pretty well not having it. Could I have avoided some backups in areas by having one? Probably. I am not particularly worried in that regard. I don't lean too heavily on GPS. One of the main purposes for which I use it is quickly planning a route with and without tolls. I have a trucker GPS, but I do check any unfamiliar roads for low clearances and such. I also use GPS as a too to see path from highway to destination address. Google Earth helps with that, too. When I first started, I was a little too reliant on the GPS. I learned that I didn't need it like I thought I did when it quit working because of a failed update. Thank you, again.

Should you have a CB or not? Absolutely. In my opinion, it's one of the most important safety items to have. Why? Check out this video. If these drivers would have had their CB on they would have known this was happening and they would have gotten stopped.

Would a GPS have helped them? No. Would their cell phone help? No. The Internet? No. Qualcomm? No.

Nothing but a CB could have allowed these drivers to alert each other as to what was happening.

Should you have a CB or not? Absolutely. In my opinion, it's one of the most important safety items to have. Why? Check out this video. If these drivers would have had their CB on they would have known this was happening and they would have gotten stopped.

Would a GPS have helped them? No. Would their cell phone help? No. The Internet? No. Qualcomm? No.

Nothing but a CB could have allowed these drivers to alert each other as to what was happening.

Are you saying that this accident means that none of these drivers had CBs? I am just wondering how you are able to know that all of them didn't have CBs or didn't have them turned on. If they did have CBs, or at least some of them, doesn't it disprove what you are saying? Not saying that you are wrong. I am asking because maybe there is something that I missed.

If I was told I can only bring one item or tool into my truck. Just one. I’m bringing my cb Every. Single. Time. I’m not going to go into how many times I gotten information that saved me from getting stuck in a backup, or hitting black ice, or running over a piece of debris in a particular lane etc etc. And it didn’t take a year of driving it for me to understand just how worthy the cb is but that’s just me.

Wow Ryan… you are a tough one. Amazing how you’d listen to a trainer no questions asked… but not us. The trainer who stated that to you is totally mistakin’. I’d be happy for him to come onto this forum and support his feckless claim… that said:

During inclement weather, best practice is to turn the CB on and monitor transmissions.

Period.

Although there is no way to answer the question you posed to Brett, common sense and experience suggests that most of these trucks careening out of control either had no operating CB on board, or if they did, it was turned off.

Wow Ryan… you are a tough one. Amazing how you’d listen to a trainer no questions asked… but not us. The trainer who stated that to you is totally mistakin’. I’d be happy for him to come onto this forum and support his feckless claim… that said:

During inclement weather, best practice is to turn the CB on and monitor transmissions.

Period.

Although there is no way to answer the question you posed to Brett, common sense and experience suggests that most of these trucks careening out of control either had no operating CB on board, or if they did, it was turned off.

Some things to correct for the sake of accuracy:

It wasn't simply my trainer, a driver with 30 years of experience (29 at that time). It was 4 veteran drivers, all of whom have decades of experience. My trainer was the one with the least among them. One of the drivers has been driving tractor-trailers for 50+ years.

I never said no questions asked. Yeah I would trust my trainer over you. My company has vouched for his credentials. I don't care that there have been bad trainers. Mine is not among them. I don't care that drivers shouldn't be trainers. Mine isn't one of them. If I had been hired by Swift and you trained me, I would feel the same about you because Swift has a proven training program and vouches for the credentials of each of its trainers. It's nothing personal that I would trust my trainer over you and you shouldn't take it that way.

You are right. There is no way to answer that question, just as there is no way to know whether or not any of those drivers had CBs and whether or not any of them were turned on, at least not without an extensive investigation. What you are referring to is conjecture based on an educated guess, not fact.

All three of them are wrong.

I’m done here Ryan… I prefaced my answer to Brett’s question using common sense and experience as a guide and never stated my reply as fact. It’s impossible to factually answer your question… and you knew that.

I’m now a local driver and like others who replied to you, I still use my CB religiously for a variety of reasons, tge least of which is safety. And it’s not a distraction.

So by all means don’t listen to me…or PJ, or PackRat, or Bird-One … or Brett we have absolutely nothing to gain by misleading you and the message is clear and consistent.

Wow Ryan… you are a tough one. Amazing how you’d listen to a trainer no questions asked… but not us. The trainer who stated that to you is totally mistakin’. I’d be happy for him to come onto this forum and support his feckless claim… that said:

During inclement weather, best practice is to turn the CB on and monitor transmissions.

Period.

Although there is no way to answer the question you posed to Brett, common sense and experience suggests that most of these trucks careening out of control either had no operating CB on board, or if they did, it was turned off.

Some things to correct for the sake of accuracy:

It wasn't simply my trainer, a driver with 30 years of experience (29 at that time). It was 4 veteran drivers, all of whom have decades of experience. My trainer was the one with the least among them. One of the drivers has been driving tractor-trailers for 50+ years.

I never said no questions asked. Yeah I would trust my trainer over you. My company has vouched for his credentials. I don't care that there have been bad trainers. Mine is not among them. I don't care that drivers shouldn't be trainers. Mine isn't one of them. If I had been hired by Swift and you trained me, I would feel the same about you because Swift has a proven training program and vouches for the credentials of each of its trainers. It's nothing personal that I would trust my trainer over you and you shouldn't take it that way.

You are right. There is no way to answer that question, just as there is no way to know whether or not any of those drivers had CBs and whether or not any of them were turned on, at least not without an extensive investigation. What you are referring to is conjecture based on an educated guess, not fact.

Wow Ryan… you are a tough one.

I had my reservations when Ryan introduced himself with this comment...

I have a year of OTR under my belt, and in that year I have experienced just about everything a driver may expect to experience, both good and bad.

I have a bad habit of keeping a little distance from "experienced" drivers who join our forum. They are almost always jaded or opinionated in ways that are contrary to our goals here. In speaking against the need for a C.B., I find it absolutely hard to believe this statement...

It wasn't simply my trainer, a driver with 30 years of experience (29 at that time). It was 4 veteran drivers, all of whom have decades of experience. My trainer was the one with the least among them. One of the drivers has been driving tractor-trailers for 50+ years.

I have NEVER met drivers with the credentials, or year's of experience that Ryan claims advise others to not use the C.B. radio. It seems contrary to every sense of self preservation that a driver of that many years has.

Ryan seems sincere, but he sure hasn't experienced the level of exposure to trucking he'd like to think he has.

there is no way to know whether or not any of those drivers had CBs and whether or not any of them were turned on, at least not without an extensive investigation. What you are referring to is conjecture based on an educated guess, not fact.

You're correct, Ryan. I can't prove who had a CB and who didn't. So I can not rule out the possibility that some of these drivers had CB radios, had them turned on, heard the warnings, but made the conscious decision to drive full speed into the wreck anyhow.