Truck Driving And Crime

Hello everyone, and I would like to ask, How do you all feel as Professional Drivers, about crime in America right now ? Do you ever feel unsafe when you have to park in areas your not familiar with ? What if your sleeping and someone knocks on the door in the middle of your 10 hour break.Do you just ignore it and continue sleeping ?

The nation was in the middle of a pandemic that saw high unemployment, economic distress, and increased social isolation converge to increase violence.

I’ve been local most of my career but was otr briefly. I can honestly say I’ve never felt unsafe. But I always tried to park in well lit high volume areas. Truck stops obviously or somewhere near a Walmart or a big chain store. I delivered to Dollar Trees and they always let me park there. Never had anybody knock on the door but it would probably be a good idea to address it. Sometimes it can be a driver asking you to move.

Since the Chinese virus that had everybody shut up in their homes, it appears there's more crime of all kinds.

However, I don't feel unsafe where I park which is usually on on-ramps, weigh stations and near shippers and receivers. If somebody were to knock on my door, which has happened a couple times, my little mini Rat Terrier goes to barking like crazy. I will get up to look out from the corner of the curtains. If it isn't law enforcement, then I just ignore the person if they are still around. I seldom park at truck stops because it's usually late at night and there is no room. If I park at a TS earlier, it's usually in the back row so that it's easy to walk my dog and it shouldn't be a truck driver because I wouldn't be blocking anybody.

I felt unsafe only once when parked at a location in Springfield, MA. This location was more gas station than truck stop and I didn't feel safe because there were a couple of cars parked facing the side of my truck (about 100 yards away) with headlights on. It was probably nothing, but it had me feeling uneasy, so I moved to another location that was more traditional truck parking.

The only place I felt unsafe is when I ran out of hours delivering to the Sam’s Club in Secaucus NJ. I had to shut down in a lot between the Sam’s and Walmart. Never again.

I felt unsafe during the George Floyd riots.... And that's what they were.. shooting off guns and firecrackers and setting fire to the freeway. They surrounded my truck and I sat with a hammer in each hand all night while stuck at a rest area and couldn't leave. I also was fortunate enough to be stuck in traffic in Atlanta when they set the Wendy's on fire.

I was so incredibly happy when the media informed me they were just peaceful protesters. Totally changed the fear and stress I suffered.

:::Sarcasm spewing from every pore of my body::::

I’ve been local most of my career but was otr briefly. I can honestly say I’ve never felt unsafe. But I always tried to park in well lit high volume areas. Truck stops obviously or somewhere near a Walmart or a big chain store. I delivered to Dollar Trees and they always let me park there. Never had anybody knock on the door but it would probably be a good idea to address it. Sometimes it can be a driver asking you to move.

When Michael was delivering to Dollar General for CR England he parked behind stores at night much of the time. He said there were sometimes seemingly homeless people hanging around so he didn't feel very safe with that. In one such instance there were a row of houses behind the store and some guy pounded on his door complaining about the noise from the reefer and said he was going to call the police. Michael told him to go ahead and call. After that, he started carrying pepper spray in case things got worse but they never did. He has never commented about similar situations at his current company/fleet.

I’ve had a few beggars bang on my door numerous times in the same night. Had a few get angry that I wouldn’t “help” them. Jackson MS was bad and I forget the name of the town in Georgia where they kept coming out of the woods behind my trailer and making the rounds to every truck. It doesn’t scare me, granted a loud bang on your door in the middle of the night can be startling but it does **** me off… especially if they come back multiple times when I’m trying to sleep.

I’m more afraid of bad backers 😉

Been hit twice now.

I park at hole in the wall old school truck stops most of the time. I never have problems at them. If I'm in LA, I park at our terminal. I don't and won't park in Chicago, Atlanta and a few other cities even though we have a terminal in at Atlanta. I avoid most terminals if I can help it.

I've seen a few guys with mullets drunk and fighting at 11 in the morning in rural Louisiana. I ended up moving from that stop.

I've parked in New Orleans down by the ports and there was a shooting near the truck stop I was at. I can't say I felt safe at that time. But I'd stay there again, plenty of parking at least. But I've also lived in some really rough areas.

I have a CCW permit. I'm not saying that I carry or don't carry. That's a personal decision for one to make and one must consider company policy, state reciprocity laws, current gun laws and their level of of training, and not my business to tell you if you should or shouldn't. But I mind my own business and sleep just fine.