CB

I just thought of this last night.

I was a child of the sixties and seventies and remember the whole "keep on truckin' " phase...

are CB's still the communication device of choice by truckers

While there are cell phones a d thee like in trucks now the main thing to talk from truck to truck is still the CB.

Yea we still use dust collectors

For the most part drivers still have CBs. However I suspect the percentage of drivers carrying a CB is shrinking. I was shocked to discover that the CB is steadily becoming more uncommon. At one point, it was nearly impossible to have a conversation due to all the chaos on channel 19. (use to be called Sesame Street BTW) You can now drive from St Louis, Mo to Amarillo and not hear one squawk of RF BS up on 19. I say that although that does have some advantages, it is still a stark reminder that somewhere and somehow between the time I left the road in 2005 and my returning in 2012, someone came along and sucked the soul of trucking nearly dry. Trucking use to have a whole lot more networking than it does today. Drivers seem to mostly stick to themselves and interaction and camaraderie are nearly all gone from the industry.

My grandpa use to say, "The only thing that changes is everything, and the only thing that stays the same is nothing".

That's sad to hear. That's why I was wondering.

With the advent of Cell Phones, we, as a nation, have pulled back inside.

IT's not just the trucking industry.

Yea I gotta agree with the above poster... I can drive most of my day on the west coast and not hear a peep out of anyone.... It does seam like there is more chatter on the east coast... I spent an entire day having conversations with other drivers when I was in Delaware.... Started to head west and it died down.. The only real time I hear anyone is when there is an accident, construction or some random driver burping......

Yea I gotta agree with the above poster... I can drive most of my day on the west coast and not hear a peep out of anyone.... It does seam like there is more chatter on the east coast... I spent an entire day having conversations with other drivers when I was in Delaware.... Started to head west and it died down.. The only real time I hear anyone is when there is an accident, construction or some random driver burping......

Well someone beat me to the punch, but I ment to agree with Rex M....

Technology is to blame. Why entertain yourself on the radio now when when you can listen to the same radio station all the way across the country? Cell phones have better reception so drivers can make more calls without loosing signal. Ipods carry over 10,000 songs and all of them can be exactly what the driver wants to here so he listens to it.

Thing is its not that people don't have cb's. Almost every truck has one except maybe a small percentage. They just don't have them turned on because they don't feel they need to know anything about what is going on around them so they keep it turned off.

Ever been running down the interstate and people are talking for over an hour about a wreck that has your side of the road shut down and you get up to the wreck and stop then you have a bunch of people key up the mic and ask "What's going on?". You tell them that the road is shutdown due to a wreck and that people have been talking about it for over a hour and they say they just turned on the radio. OMG this is irritating! Or they ask is there a way to get around the wreck and you say yes. Everyone was told 10 miles back to get off at a certain exit cause the road will be shutdown for a few hours and they say I did not have my radio on.

I do run my radio all the time. Even through big cities. I keep the squelch turned up 3/4 of the way and the RF gain turned down about a 1/4 of the way. That way they have to be within 3 miles of me before they break my squelch threshold. Sometimes I run my radio wide open and can here everything within 15 miles of me. The point is I run my radio cause I WANT to know what is going on around me. I hate surprises in trucking. Very few of them are good.

Most drivers that have been out here for a number of years are like me. They want to know BEFORE hand what is going to effect they. Mostly newer drivers keep their radios turned off for one reason or another. Alot keep them turned off because their radios don't "get out" very far. Mostly a mile or two at the most. Thats due to the truck and the crappy antenna system they have.10 minutes at a good CB shop will fix the problem. So rather than fixing the problem they just don't turn their radio on and they get to join the hundreds of drivers asking the same thing...."Whats the hold up? or Whats going on in front of us? or Why are we going slow?". After telling people for the last 20 minutes whats is happening I finally get tired of repeating myself and start telling them "It does not concern them they can go back to sleep....or WE have already said whats going on for the last hour so you should know so you tell me.". Ok I know this is the wrong way to respond but its not my fault they don't know by now. Its not my fault they refuse to use every available tool to do their job and make sure they are well informed about the road in front of them.

Guyjax, are you and Rexm twins???

Guyjax, are you and Rexm twins???

Who? Not sure o what you are referring to.