Quote:
Originally Posted by Clev
Depends on whether he has a blowout at 55 or 75, or if the vehicle in front of him slams on the brakes when he's going 55 or 75.
The correct statement is, "I have 500 miles to go until I reach my destination and sack out, or 8 hours until I reach my time limit and sack out, because that's the law. In fact, if I'm tired already, I should stop sooner, rather than crank it up to 75 to try to beat falling asleep behind the wheel."
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No one should be standing on their brakes on the highway. Period. Deer and moose are the exception.
Usually when a Truck driver has a blowout, he's still got fifteen tires to go on, that's a lot more stability than a passenger car or truck when they lose a quarter of their tires when one blows out, they are designed for that, so that we don't see too to many trucks pulled to the side of the highway, but we sure do see the leftovers of the blowouts. They have enough tires to get to the truck stop and get fitted back up.
Second statement is incorrect if the truck driver is hauling a load of sea scallops that have a timed delivery. They go bad if he doesn't get to the destination in 10 hours, and his company is stuck with the tab. I have trucker friends that will disagree up and down if the speed limit changes. I AM NOT SAYING IT IS SAFER, I am saying it is the way it will be until the attitude of MOST drivers changes.
The other note here is if I get paid by the mile, the more miles I can go, the more I get paid. Most truck drivers get about 15-25 cents an hour. Let's say the truck driver drives ten hours a day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year. That's being conservative, they often drive much more. If the speed traveled is 55 MPH , they will drive 137500 miles in a year (that's about $20625-$34375). If the speed traveled is 75 MPH, they will drive 187500 miles in a year ($28125-$46875,) a $7500-$12500 difference. Which way are do you think they are going to drive? I know that if I was being paid by the mile, I would want to log as many miles in a day as possible. There are only two ways to do that, increase you rate of travel, or increase you time traveled, rate is the easier. *rant over*