Share the
Road Safely
Safety is Priority Number
One for Trucking
What it Takes to Become a
Professional Driver
You may not realize just how much trucking operations invest in safety. Equipment and drivers perform services while encountering and interacting with a mix of traffic and conditions and variables which are largely unpredictable and uncontrollable. Earnest pro-active measures and programs, and compliance with laws, rules, and regulations – often different between states – is a full-time concern for them.
The most recent data shows $14 billion in safety-related expenditures like safety programs, policies, compliance, monitoring, technology.
We've all experienced that adrenaline rush of being amongst big trucks, or any other situation where you feel intimidated or nervous regardless of your best efforts or what’s out there.
With trucks, it’s often a matter of simply moving away from them or just making sure you position yourself so they can see you. If you are in a blind spot, tailgating them, or shift abruptly, often they might not.
Just like with any other vehicle on the road, the two most fundamental rules are simple: give them space; don’t cut in front of them. It takes awareness, attention, diligence, and vigilance – but try your best. Think how challenging it must be for a professional driver to do all that all day, every day, every mile.
Know that truckers undergo rigorous training, especially to get and maintain a CDL. Equipment must be maintained, and pre-and-post trip inspections are required by the owner and the operator. They are both monitored by not just owners but also state and federal governments. But as a highway user that shares the road with them, it's your responsibility to do that yourself as a driver and as a passenger. Safety is most assured when all view it as a shared responsibility.