Talk:Truck driver

Im 14 teen and i sit in school all day thinkin about trucking.when i get home i go turn on my cobra 29 Ltd and help fellow truck drivers find stores in winchester,TN.I read all of trucking books in your libary.Both of my pops are truck drivers,so i go with them on the road when im out of school.I respect all of our truckers.i love trick my truck.I wont to buy a big kenworth with a studio sleeper.If you come down 64 in wincher tn ask for rubber duck and Ill help you with what i can.Im goin to sign off now,god bess all of the hard working truckers — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.59.203.126 (talk • contribs)

Unreadable sentence

Does anyone else find this an unreadable sentence too?:

"The nighttime signal of one truck driver to another, when a truck in front is attempting a lane change, of briefly turning the headlights off and then on, or of briefly flashing the high beams to indicate that the rear of the trailer has cleared the vehicle being passed, after which the truck passing flashes the tail lights one or more times in any of various rhythms to signify “thank you,” remains in common use, and is usually also understood by the public; drivers of smaller vehicles often use it to signal truck drivers in this way as well."

Whoever is better at English than me, pleeeease chop it up a bit ;) MosquitoNL 14:11, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

It is a bit of a run on sentence isnt it? If you pause for each comma it helps in the reading. Its basically when one truck passes another and the trailer clears and we flash the lights to alert them that they can get over safely. However the use of this is technically against the law and you can be ticketed for it if you have no been trained as a signal person. No cop really enforces this. There are instances when i have signaled a truck over and then have a four wheeler (passenger car) try to pass and almost get killed. Worldgate 01:23, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm changing it, and I'll come back and sign this when I get home ;) Important notes; Not limited to nighttime, there is no taillight switch, and high beams are not cool (Seriously). It can't be too illegal, because I've used it so the guy could get over and the law man behind him could put the hammer down. Instead of "to indicate gratitude," I was real tempted to put, "to say '`Preciate it.`" I like to flash the OK just before the passer's tailgater lines up with my bumper. Phaedrus420 17:13, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Higher Resolution Picture

Can we get a higher resolution picture of a truck driver please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.27.196.35 (talk) 06:50, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Chicken Coup...

...does refer to a weigh station, but I've never heard this explanation. --Phaedrus420 (talk) 04:46, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

I've never heard it either. The story I heard was that they called it a chicken coop because a lot of weigh stations have small shacks for the office building that look like tiny chicken coups (is it coop or coup?). ErgoSum88 (talk) 05:20, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Expand this page?

Ok I'm new to this editing pages stuff, and there are so MANY rules and formatting codes I'm a little overwhelmed. I made a few changes but then I realized there was already a page for CDL info so I was wondering if we should just delete the whole section and put a link to the CDL article? Also I added a section about "trucker lifestyle" but I haven't had a chance to say much about it. I've been driving for two years so I know a few things but I was wondering if anyone else out there would like to collaborate with me on this section? Thanks! ErgoSum88 (talk) 05:25, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Worldwide view help please...

I've made vast improvements to this article. I've more than doubled it's size and added many important refs. I just need someone to help me add a worldview to some parts. I only know about the U.S. aspect and I don't think I can make many more improvements without someone's help. Thanks. ErgoSum88 (talk) 09:58, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Truck drivers in the United States

I'm thinking of taking most of my additions to this article, and moving them over to a new one devoted only to American truckers. I've already started new article on the US trucking industry and articles on US trucking regulations. I'm thinking of building a template/infobox to naviagte between all the asepcts of the trucking industry specific to the United States. Its obvious this page is going to take forever to wait for additions from other countries. NOT that I have anything against reading about trucking info in other countries, in fact I kind of enjoy reading about the differences. But until we can get some more cooperation, I'm going to have to stick with what I know... and I know America. I'm also thinking of starting a WikiProject about the Trucking Industry in the U.S. or something...... so if anybody wants to join my efforts, please hit me up on my talk page. I've only been editing for about a month now, but I have html experience and I am not afraid to be bold. Whaddya think? ErgoSum88 (talk) 08:18, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Australian trucking.

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I'm sorta new to wikipedia but can provide a lot of info on Truck driving in Australia. The first big thing that could be added is that Australia is facing a huge driver shortage too, due largely to the image of the industry. This is troublesome, given the often spoken about "doubling of the road freight task by 2020".

Also I can give info on some of the regulations:

Axle and axle group weights in Australia are as follows -

Single Steer - 6000kg Single Steer with "Super Single tyres (tread width greater than 375mm)" - 6500kg Twin steer w/o load sharing suspension - 10000kg Twin steer with load sharing suspension - 11000kg Single drive or trailer axle - 9000kg (Super single or dual) Tandem drive or trailer axle - 16500kg (Super single or dual) Triple drive or trailer axle - 20000kg (Super single or dual)

Also a modified triple axle combination (such as having a blown tyre) is automatically dropped to 15000kg.

Heights. Standard maximum height nationally is 4.3m. Car-carrying trucks or livestock trucks are allowed to go to 4.6m.

All these figures are standard nationally but enforced by state based organisations (RTA, TransportSA etc.). All these rules are enforced by persons of the relevant agency stationed in "checking stations" on most highway routes. They also enforce the filling out of log book information, and although they are not police officers are permitted to fine drivers for breaches.

Also the road access for multi trailer combinations is restricted to those routes listed in a "gazette" published annually, available from the state agency relevant to the area. Double road trains, triple road trains, b-doubles and b-triples all have seperate gazettes.

Quad axle groups have recently been approved for use in South Australia but Im unsure as to their weight allowance etc.

There are various rules regarding the transport of "oversize" loads but I dont think i need to go into them for this article. Also the licensing for Dangerous goods transport in australia is common nationally but im not really sure about it. You have do a course and get a DG licence, and hold an "AIP passport" but I dont know much about that.

Lengths: Standard semi trailer length is 19m. B double is 25m or 26m with a FUPS system and some other modifications. roadtrains go up to 54m or so but we can jsut refer to the page for road trains for that.

If you want any more info just ask. :-)

Whitfan (talk) 00:47, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm not the OP, but the part on Australian driving hours is also incorrect. It says you're allowed 14 hours driving in a 24 hour period. That's not entirely true. In my copy of the National driver log book, it's 14 hours WORKING, (includes loading/unloading, cleaning and maintaing truck etc), and a maximum of 12 hours of actual driving. So, the 14 hour thing includes pretty much all truck related activities, and you have to spend the remaining 10 hours not doing work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.187.200.67 (talk) 07:35, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Done. "Driving" has been changed to "working". Thanks for the info. --ErgoSum88 (talk) 07:40, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Killers

Why are truck drivers often portrayed as killers and rapists? In movies, many killers are truck drivers. Why is that?