Driving around large trucks on the highway can be dangerous, but it’s not just the truck driver’s responsibility to be safe on the road. Here are a few guidelines a longtime truck driver recommends you follow.
Photo by Danny Canfield.
It’s always important to pay attention to the road while you drive, but even more so when you have a massive semi-truck as a road buddy. In order to stay safe around these big rigs, longtime truck driver shared his best advice with Noah Davis at Popular Mechanics. Here’s some of the big tips:
- Don’t hang around the side: You may have seen stickers that say, “If you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you,” but that’s not always the case.
- Don’t ever pass over multiple lanes: You shouldn’t do this anyway, but it’s even more dangerous when there’s a truck you can’t see around.
- Stay consistent with your speed: Trucks can’t stop or pick up speed as fast as other cars. If your speed is fluctuating all over the place you’re causing problems for the truck driver and the other people around them.
Remember, truck drivers spend a lot of time on the road, so they know what’s safe around them and what isn’t. If you want to read some more tips, check out the link below.
A Trucker Explains What You’re Doing Wrong on the Highway [Popular Mechanics]
Comments
5 responses to “A Trucker’s Best Safety Tips For Driving Around A Big Rig On The Highway”
Don’t race to the red light and pull in front of the truck at the last minute… the 90 tonne truck has judged the braking distance for the upcoming light as per his weight.. you are asking to be run over!
The amount of idiots who speed up and pull in front of a truck then suddenly brake to turn is crazy.
A tip for road trains. If you can see a car in front of you who is obviously towing a couple of tonnes after you come around a corner who is still accelerating. Realise he doesn’t accelerate as fast as you full loaded. So ease back, I will get up to speed in a few minutes and shouldn’t need to prepare to bail off the road because the truck who saw me 5 km away decided to only start slowing down half a k behind me and I’ve only gotten up to 60 because of the steep freaking Hill I’m driving up.
Please make sure the vehicle you are towing with is rated for the weight of the load, and also remember that towing a heavy load that impairs your vehicles abilities you may be breaking the law, and that by going slower than necessary you are obstructing the flow of traffic, which is also illegal.
Everything within load specifications and it’s a case of acceleration, once up to speed maintaining it is no problem but when you’re near gross vehicle payload including towing (weigh bridges are used) you don’t get to speed fast no matter what you got behind you. The going slower than necessary. Applies to intentionally staying below a speed. If we’re accelerating up Hill and do in 40kmph under its obvious it’s not intentional.
We are looking into going up to a light truck with trailer, but all they offer is more capacity really and we wouldn’t be accelerating much faster and for the value of the trips it’s not worth the added cost.
It’s ok recently had to explain to someone that just because they bought a 5 tonne towing hitch for their navara doesn’t mean they can tow 5 tonne.
I’m just over truck drivers acting like they own the road. 9/10 when something goes wrong with a truck and another car it’s the trucks fault around here. Course I don’t live anywhere a city and spend a lot of time on roads where trucks don’t give a fuck because no cops patrol
The point, Stay Consistent with your Speed, has always proved to be very effective. It makes your speed and your driving style more predictable which enables the drivers around to easily judge your next move and this could avoid mess on the road.