I feel your frustration of the way some people treat you by the way they drive. I never understood why if your vehicle is being passed on the interstate, the other driver wants to pull back in front of you within a few feet.
Car or truck, it doesn't make any difference, but too many drivers think that if you can clear the front bumper by a foot, or inches, they can get back over. If you really want to know what ticks me off, just keep reading.
I will be on the interstate highway and be passing a car. My truck will only run 64 miles per hour, so it may take me a little longer to get the job done. Once I get a car length in front of that car, another car will cut between us and start passing me on the right. There is a reason why you have been taught not to pass on the right and it is called a NO ZONE.
It is so simple for a car to get in the NO ZONE and we may never see it and start to change lanes. When I catch one of these drivers doing this, I flip my right turn signal on and hope it scares them. They really go fast when my truck is hugging that centerline.
I will say this, those drivers have never driven a truck. Over the last 12 years, I have been doing Truck Fairs at grade schools. The Kansas Motor Carrier Association has a group of drivers that are make up the Kansas Road Team. These drivers go across the state doing programs and they have the use of the NO ZONE trailer.
There isn't anything special about this trailer but it shows where our blind spots are as we look in our mirrors. I would like to take this time to invite you to the American State Bank community room in St. John on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 3rd. Wal Mart will have one of their Road Team Captains here with the NO ZONE trailer.
We will be showing a short video, Semi Conscious that is filled with a lot of good information.
Last year I was working with two National Road Team Captains and once they saw this video, they kept it. That is how good the video is. If you never been in a semi tractor and you want to get a first hand view of what we see and don't see, come on down. We will start at 5 p.m. and go until dark or later so you can come and go at any time. If you have a driver license, new or used, take a few seconds out of your evening to meet the Kansas Road Team Captain. Wal Mart and many other trucking companies put time and money in them so they able to travel around the state.
One thing I have learned doing the Truck Fairs, someone always says, "I didn't know that".
That is what education is all about, and you can say you learned it on the street.
Ron Moore is a professional truck driver from St. John, his e-mail address is ron_weasel@yahoo.com
