How is my driving?

Good idea! One of the things that I noticed on my last long trip, was that the truck drivers, in general, have become much more discourteous recently. Two of them will drive side by side, not allowing anyone to pass, for one thing. I almost called the cops on my cell phone, because of a driver who was making dangerous moves.

Yeah, I've also noticed truckers seem to be driving less courteously and more dangerously. That side by side maneuver just makes me crazy. If you're going 57 mph, is it really necessary to pass the guy going 55 mph, meanwhile lining cars up for miles behind you?

I don't think they're seeking out positive feedback, that would be a waste of everyone's time.

I almost called once but didn't. Guy was driving like an asshat....forget whether I just couldn't get the number, or decided not to call.

I remember long distance driving in the '50's when truckers were some of the nicest people you'd ever meet.

If you had a flat tire, a trucker would stop and change it for you.

My grandfather was one of them. He retired after 30 years as a truckdriver without a single accident. He was very proud of that record to the end of his days.

I've called before....got a guy fired because he was trying to play games with me like in the movie "Duel"

It was either fire him or I was gonna sue the whole damn company.






Like Joan Crawford said "DON"T F*CK WITH ME FELLAS!!!!"

I wondered why they fired me!

Oooh - I didn't know this could be so powerful. I think we should all use it. I figured it was purely just to make the company appear as if it cared about safety. Figured they listened and then just poo-pooed it. Perhaps this guy got lots of complaints.

don't get too excited. This didn't happen in one phone call.

In call # 1 I got blown off, leading to call #2, etc.

I had to work my way up the ladder, making it clear I wasn't going to go away.


God - you know, I can still remember that guy....I was on IH95 going North, trying to get back to Okeechoobee. Not exactly a traffic jam area of highway.

3 lanes of traffic, empty road. I was driving in the middle lane because frankly, the road was empty and it seemed the safest lane. Was driving 65...I know it wasn't any faster because the POS I drove at the time would've fallen apart. I'll admit I zoned out the way you do, and I glanced up in my rear view to see an 18 wheeler right on my ass. He hadn't honked or anything.

Whoa. I got over quickly, because seeing the grillwork of an 18 wheeler in my mirror freaked me out. so as far as that goes, I shouldn't have been in the middle lane.

BUT THEN, for the next 30 miles he played cat and mouse with me. Getting in front of me and slowing to 35mph, making me pass him and getting back on my ass. Really scary stuff. I felt like if I pulled over, he would have too.

Up there the exits are far apart, so it took time to get to one and pull off. Then I sat there 20 minutes until I knew he was really gone.

Jeez, Tea, what an experience. That guy's lucky he only got fired. If you had called the police, things might have gotten much worse for him.

You know, I never even thought of the police....this was before cell phones were everywhere.

Honestly, I felt like I was on a mission. Like I was stopping a rapist or something.

Really funny, at first, it was implied that maybe I was endangering him, maybe I was the one cutting him off and hindering him.

my response was basically "I drive a 1987 toyota corolla that weighs 2500 pounds....I can't make the car go over 65 miles per hour. I'm a woman alone driving in a more or less deserted stretch of road. He's driving 18 wheels that God knows how much it weighs. He can take it up to 100 or slam it down. Does it seem like I would even be capable of endangering him without killing myself in the process?"

I started out scared, but became really pissed.

Well, good for you. I'm glad you didn't back down when you got accused of doing the endangering. Even if you were driving a tank, those truckers are supposed to behave a certain way on the road, and that includes not endangering the other vehicles. He had no cause for doing what he did, and I hope that landed him a record that followed him to all his job interviews from there. That's the kind of person that has no business being behind the wheel of a vehicle like that.
It's just too bad you had to call multiple times to get taken seriously. But at least you came out of it alright.
I've had to call the police a time or two for drivers myself, but never because of a semi driver that decided he owned the road.

It reminds me of a couple of movies I saw.

Old movie starring Dennis Weaver - he tries to pass a truck and the trucker isn't happy about it. He ends up playing a sort of cat and mouse game for two hours. I believe the movie was called Dual.

Another even older movie - I saw when I was a little girl that terrified me. This woman was driving and cut off a truck - he followed and terrorized her throughout the movie - similar to Dual, but with a woman.

This is normally where I'd put up an image of the movie poster for Duel, but I caused enough distress for Tea over in the Foot Licking thread, so I'll refrain.
Except to say I saw that movie, too. In there, I think the truck drives over a cliff and explodes in the end. Odd little film from Mr. Speilberg. The other one doesn't sound familiar.

I can't remember the name of it - I was probably around 13 when I saw it. Could have been one of those bad made for TV movies.

ummmm.....that's not the only time I've called a how's my driving line....

My mission in life is to ensure the roadways of america are safe from soda can throwing, tailgating in the rain troglodytes.

Sounds like you've found your calling in life. Soon, bad drivers will learn to stay the hell out of Austin, Texas. Then, I'll have to talk you into coming up by me and doing the same thing to the idiots around here.

What state are you in?

Or, are you in Canada?

Wisconsin. Come on up. We've plenty of bad drivers around here.