Remember courtesy goes both ways on the highway.
Driving up to Cach Creek in BC Canada along hwy 1 it use to be real windy and hilly, lots of people get impatient behind the Semi trucks, then the semi trucks get impatient behind the people. I have witnessed some very bold moves on both parties ands seen a few very nasty accidents.

I have blocked for the rigs and helped them pass vehciles to which the good old light flash and thumbs up from them. They have helped me pass others also after this. On the same token I have slowed rigs down who were excesivily tailgating and other wise making ***'e of them selves and others in the industry. Plus posing a very dangerous sitation for others on the highway.
I think we all understand the need for timely deliverys and such, but the one fact is safety is paramount, safety is not tail gating some car doing the speed limit. If their is a problem with it just get on the phone and call the police, they normally will come give assistance with this.

The number one thing is be safe obey the laws and be courtious. We all need to come home at the end of the shift.

 

I haven't driven otr now for about 15 years but did rack up 1.5 million miles accident free, and, all of it (except in town) was in excess of posted speed limits. Some of it was at "excessive speed". It was my experience then that the drivers that whined the most about "excessive speed" had underpowered trucks with speed limitations (either engine speed governors or gearing that naturally limited speed) and were the ones who generally were less experienced drivers. Anecdotally, I would say that I cannot agree that speed, in and of itself, is a CAUSE of wrecks. It may be a factor in some wrecks but generally the CAUSE is inattentive driving, poor driving skills, or poorly maintained or malfunctioning equipment. There were many owner operators at that time with BIG trucks that hauled butt. They would do turns from LA to NYC and back each week and generally pulled reefers. I personally saw BIG trucks that ran well in excess of 100 mph and others that were geared for much faster than 100 mph. These were not the guys I saw wrecking. And I can tell you that they ran, FAST. It was nothing to get my doors blown off on I-80 in Wyoming, for example, while I was running 75-80 mph. My Pete would run about 96 mph at 2200 rpm. It goes without saying that these BIG trucks had substantially tuned motors that put out oodles of hp and tq. It is somewhat unique to the USA to be so obsessed with speed limits, as opposed focusing on skillful, attentive, and courteous driving, as is the case in Germany on the Autobahn where there is no speed limit.

 

With regard to the comment on this thread that trucks and cars going different speeds is dangerous: Couldn't agree more. It is utterly insane that certain states impose substantially faster speed limits for cars than for trucks. This creates a starting point for an inherently unsafe situation if there is any volume of traffic. The speed limit, if there has to be one, should be the same for cars and trucks and enforced the same. Back in the 80s when we finally got off the 55 limit many states came up with the differing limits for cars/trucks. In addition, there seems to be a tolerance for cars running 10 to 15 mile and hour over an already faster limit. No tolerance for trucks at all over their slower limit. This often results in a 20 to 30 mile an hour or more differential between the cars and trucks. Now that's dangerous. But I sing to the choir. It has always been my opinion that Montana, California, Oregon, Ohio, Indiana, and all the others with different limits and selective enforcement of existing limits, are far more interested in ticket revenue than they are in actual safety which is supposed to be the whole premise for speed limits.

 

With regard to your comment on "the 11th hour" and fatigue: I cry Bull----! If a driver is to only drive 10 hours a day and spends, say, 3 hours a day fueling and eating, etc., then what is he supposed to do the other 13 hours a day. Sleep? I have always advocated for 15 hours of on-duty time daily and a maximum of 96 on duty hours in any 8 consecutive days. I do realize that this will never happen for political and emotional, as opposed to rational, reasons. Seriously, the job is to move freight from point A to point B. It is not meant to mimic a vacation. People are wired up to sleep around 8 hours a day. I ask you again, what is a driver supposed to do the other 13 hours a day if he is only allowed to drive 10 hours a day? Sit in a scuzzy truck stop? Park in a rest area? Socialize for 2 or 3 hours every couple hundred miles. I am sorry but that type of schedule would make the job very boring and make land transport of freight in this country very inefficient. Get real. I drove otr up until 15 years ago or so and regularly drove an average of 600 to 800 miles a day. I got around 6 hours of sleep a night and ran about 1.5 million accident free miles. About half of those miles were when the speed limit was the ludicrous 55 mile an hour. Long haul truckers need to have the latitude to cover ground. It is the whole purpose of putting a load on a truck in the first place. You can't cover ground while parked obeying some ridiculous rule of hours of service. The log book was, and still is, according to my still trucking friends, a joke. It has to be a joke with the rules of hours of service. Why not just park all the trucks in climate controlled shops with armed guards. Then there would never be an insurance claim, never be a wreck, and everyone would be happy. Right? Come on? Get real.

 

Well... Here trucks speedlimiter is set little over 50mph. But the max speed is 50mph for trucks, including CTD Dodge Rams, anything with a total weight over 3500kg are set to 50mph.

Every 2001 and newer trucks has a speedlimiter to 50-53mph here...

Mine don't have speedlimiter...

 

If they had a limiter like that most of those folks would keep on dragging it until the tires failed.

Interesting (I thought) story about the speed limiters.

One of my friends is an OTR driver who owns his own company. He has 4 trucks and always keeps them busy. Not bad for a 27 yr old. Anyway all his are, of course, ungovernored. Once he was at a stop and a guy backed into him damaging one of his trailers. He ran out, made eye contact with the other driver and tried to get him to stop. The guy didn't stop and tried to run.

Well my buddy jumped in his truck and was able to catch up to him because the guy was driving a truck that was governed at 68 mph. He stayed on his tail and called the cops. They finally caught the guy and got everything straightened out.

 

Yeah, we need another shot from the nanny.................

Sorry, not for me.

 

I think that this is the best idea. That way, there is enough speed for passing but no one can go ridiculously fast.

Something to keep in mind about speeding is that on congested roads, it actually slows everyone down. The large speed differentials cause accidents which cause traffic jams. If everyone would drive reasonably, then everyone would get there faster on average. I know that this doesn't apply to non congested roads where many of us drive our trucks but it is something to consider.

The other thing to think about is fuel mileage. We would reduce our fuel consumption by a staggering amount if people weren't driving 90+. Not only would there be less fuel burned because of slowing down, there would be a smoother flow of traffic(less fuel burned again) and less time waiting in traffic jams in congested areas which again means less fuel burned.

There are speed limits for a reason. They are there because the average Joe isn't able to decide what a good speed to drive is.

 

What if a crazy axe murderer is chasing you?

 

Personally I feel the dual speed limits on highways here in California are dangerous. A 80,000 lbs truck that is doing 55 mph while the rest of the traffic is doing 65 mph is just down right stupid. I've seen so many accidents contributed to some fourwheeler driving up the assend of a slow moving semi. Now don't get me wrong, there is a time and place for a faster running truck. Becuase of insurance resons, our fleet has also adopted speed limits. The trucks that spend 90% of there time running up and down the I-5 corridor between San Diego and Los Angeles are set at 62 mph. There is just too much traffic of anything faster. The trucks that spent time out in the desert and going back and forth in to Arizona and Nevada are set at 70 mph. It's pretty much wide open out there.

 

there's another member that has a sig here that states, basically "no one will tell me where and when I can defend myself"

Frankly, I'm sick of being overregulated and over patrolled and limited in almost anything I do ...

Having big rigs run slower than everyone else makes people drive like idiots trying to get around them... big rig drivers are the most experienced and the safest on the roads (no I'm not one), they shouldn't be punished for morons who don't know how to properly space themselves in traffic or for the idiots who don't understand the handling limitations of a 5000lb SUV.

Frankly, most speed limits in the U.S. are a flat out joke ... I would continue writing but I need to calm down before I blow a gasket.

And to the people that say we all should have limiters on our vehicles, thank you for breeding communism.

 

The bigger and heavier it is, the faster it should go!!! The reason there are more wrecks with cars and trucks is cause there are more of them now days sharing the road together! I cant help but think the fact that a lot of companys have adopted this "if your 21 and have two weeks to train we will make you a truck driver" program! Just my opinion and I know it means nothing. Of all accidents involving truckvs car, how many are trucks fault and how many are cars????? I bet more cars than trucks are at fault??????

 

Lane changes are one of the biggest causes of accidents careless, improper, someone racing up to cut you off and wrecking, or whatever they're one of the biggest factors in accidents. When all trucks and cars are flowing at the same speed there's less need for lane changes. Trucks running 5 and 10mph slower creates hazzards. I run in a governed truck and see it all the time. Somebody coming down the ramp to merge onto the interstate and I'm in the right lane needing to move over to alloow them on. Sometimes though you get these yahoo's in the left lane way back but excessively speeding that see what is about to happen and see you are about to come over and they SPEED UP to cut you off. If traffic was flowing at the same speed it wouldn't be so big of a deal but when I'm running 68 and a wreckless yahoo running 85 does the above that's when problems happen. Split speed limits all that crap has been studied and proven over and over again that all traffic moving at the same speed is far safer. But the ATA American Trucking Asssoc is an association of large carriers mostly governed at 64, 65 mph like JB Hunt, Schnieder etc who as a matter of routine have a 110% driver turnover rate. Some guys chosse not to drive for companies with governed trucks nothing wrong with that. Some companies think faster trucks equal better more timely service. The ATA boys want to eliminate that kind of competition. Limiting the speeds has zilch to do with saftey and everything to do with big trucking interests trying to cut the throats of smaller companies.

 

Actually, most of the OTR companies who train like as you described above are excellent ways to get your license. They have their own internal driving school programs that are quite exstensive. DOT has stiff requirements when it comes to "New Entry Drivers". One of those requirements says any driver who has his/her license less than one year must have additional training over and above the training recieved to obtain a CDL. That training includes general and defensive driving, DOT requirements, log book knowledge, drug and alcohol abuse training, personal health knowledge. This additional training certification must be on file if any company hires any driver who fits the one year "New Entry Driver" catagory. And most of those OTR comapnies don't let "New Entry Drivers" lose by themselfs after said training. They ussually run teams with an experianced driver.

Here at my company, I wont even look at an applicant unless they have at least one year experiance driving as close to 80,000 lbs. on average and be at least 25 years old. We are a HazMat carrier, so 25 is the minimum age. No more than 1 point on the record and zero alcohol offenses are allowed.

 

then you pull over and kill him.

I drive a truck for a living (06' International w/ a caterpillar in it) and if I could only go 68mph.... I'd go to sleep