[Fat Charlie]

Truckers are just like everybody else: they don't like being tailgated. Sounds reasonable to me. Having a buffer gives you reasonable freedom of movement to react to things without expecting to get hit every time you back off the gas, much less hit the brakes. Truckers like that just like we do.

The funny thing about trucks and drafting is that you don't need to be that close to the big trucks to get a benefit. You can get more benefit by being dangerously close but then you give up the benefits of having reasonable spacing and have long since given up the benefits of having a buffer.

Where I am the roads are pretty crowded, so simply being the car that happens to be behind the truck gives you a drafting effect. It's not like the road is empty except for you and the truck and you insist on being right behind it.