The Best Truck Drivers Are Calm Under Pressure

Want to understand what professional truck drivers deal with on a regular basis? 

Check out this video clip.

The best truck drivers know that the ONLY way to deal with these kinds of situations is to keep your cool, as KANE driver Dan Labert did here. And to constantly be on the defensive because, as this clip clearly shows, you never know. Truck driver safety is always top of mind for us.

Here’s another incident we spotted on The Trucker’s Report website.

Unfortunately, incidents like this are all too common, especially in highly congested areas like New York City. Drivers of four-wheel vehicles get frustrated – maybe they’re late for an appointment, maybe someone cut them off a half-mile back – and sometimes they take out that frustration on the big rigs that are taking up most of the shared highway space.

Motorists can have a bad day, as these videos attest. But professional truck drivers do not have that luxury – even after driving many hours in stop and go traffic. 

From a truck driver’s point of view, here’s why this “stopping short” situation is more distressing than the car drivers imagined.

• An 80,000 pound vehicle can’t stop as fast as a car, so there’s a real danger of a rear-end collision and someone getting hurt.
• A rear-end accident, even a fender bender, puts a blemish on the truck driver’s record that follows him throughout his career, and may even prevent him from getting a job in the future. The car driver won’t admit to being at fault and there is a tendency in society, right or wrong, to side with the motorist and not the CDL driver.
• Hitting the brakes hard can cause dysfunction in truck braking systems and may shift the truck’s load out of balance, and even damage products. Obviously, you brake when you need to brake, but the consequences of emergency braking for the trucker may be far more serious than motorists imagine.

For Truck Drivers and Motorists, Courtesy is Contagious

Obviously, the more motorists understand the unique challenges of driving a tractor-trailer, the less likely these incidents will happen. But, until that time, the best truck drivers understand that safety trumps all. 

Here’s to Dan Labert and all the other professional truck drivers who keep their cool in some pretty tough circumstances. Thank you.

And here’s a suggestion, the next time you pass a big rig on the highway and the trucker flashes his lights to let you know it’s safe to merge back in front of him, stick your hand out the window and give him a thumbs-up.

Guaranteed, that driver will appreciate it. And as a bonus, courtesy is contagious.