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Bullshit, Goldman Sachs is heavily represented in this administration just as in all others. This is just this season's version of hope and change.
I've got $100 right here and now that says initforme has never even stepped foot in an Ohio airport between flights, much less actually visited Ohio...Ohio ranks as one of the ugliest states out there minus Cleveland which is near a great lake. The rest of the state should be moved to the backwards, low educated, slacker south.
Yup. Seeing corporations go down is not a bad feeling.
Bullshit, Goldman Sachs is heavily represented in this administration just as in all others. This is just this season's version of hope and change.
Bullshit. They have all signed agreements that ban lobbying the agency they represented for 5 years and a permanent ban on lobbying for a foreign government. As to Goldman Sachs, you can't swing a dead cat in DC without hitting somebody from GS or Morgan Stanley....so you hire pirates who were trained by pirates.
I've got $100 right here and now that says initforme has never even stepped foot in an Ohio airport between flights, much less actually visited Ohio...Ohio ranks as one of the ugliest states out there minus Cleveland which is near a great lake. The rest of the state should be moved to the backwards, low educated, slacker south.
I think the animals would object....What do you propose we do with you democrats in order to save the world?hat isn't what you have at the EPA...you have left wing environmental religionists...who worship the earth......you guys believe in separation of church and state, right?
Oh the "horror".....of course we have OTHER earths if this one gets royally fucked so that we can increase the bottom line of some right wing donors.
Bronx Zoo???
You poor sod, and Nieto is paying for Don's wall.
Amen brother!!!I've got $100 right here and now that says initforme has never even stepped foot in an Ohio airport between flights, much less actually visited Ohio...Ohio ranks as one of the ugliest states out there minus Cleveland which is near a great lake. The rest of the state should be moved to the backwards, low educated, slacker south.
As a Detroit boy, I'm conflicted about Ohio. On one hand, I appreciate the people of Toledo for hosting our Tigers' AAA Mud Hens. On the other hand if I ever turn terrorist, I'll put a dirty bomb under the Fuckeye's stadium in Columbus. M GO BLUE!
. No you interpreted my post wrong... I'm saying that any potential automobile drivers who seek a license at 16 years old and up, should have to attend a one day class on sharing the roads with big trucks.. There needs to be a mandatory class that all new license seekers should have to take as pertaining to big trucks. A simulator should also be part of the class. If you can't pass the class you don't get your license. These things you speak of are very important.The problem is the EPA started abusing their power it needs to be reined in
The problem is all bureaucracies have.
They made a regulation against us truck drivers a few years ago. We are not allowed to talk on a cell phone while driving unless you are using blue tooth. If you get caught, it's a $2,400 fine for the first offense; $10,000 to your company if they can prove you were talking to them. And both fines increase with the amount of violations.
Eliminate all bureaucracies in my opinion.
I have a bluetooth. Actually, I have 2. One is an aftermarket one that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It cost me about $20. The other one fits in my ear. It cost me less than $40. It certainly makes driving safer, and I only drive a pickup. Now why any truck driver in an 18 wheeler carrying a load of 10s of 1,000s of lbs of cargo would want to risk taking one hand off the wheel to talk on a cell phone when there is a cheap alternative that is so much safer is beyond me. Frankly, it's nonsensical. However, life has shown me that people do stupid stuff all the time. Now, personally I wouldn't care one whit if a truck driver engaged in that kind of risk when the only one at risk was the driver of the truck. However, trucks share the road with other drivers, many of whom are parents with small children. It sounds like the risk of a heavy fine is a hell of a good incentive to not do something stupid which puts so many others at risk.
The law forced my employer to buy new two-way phones that we can't even use unless you are sitting still. Bluetooth doesn't work with two way cell phones like Nextel used to have. So for a while, they just called us instead.
I've been doing this a very long time now, and I can tell you bluetooth is way more disruptive than just talking on the phone itself. You have to fiddle around to find those stupid buttons to answer or make a call, and that's way more distracting.
That's besides the fact we still use our CB radios all the time. When operating a vehicle like that, we have to shift gears, hit buttons like engine brakes, light interrupters, bright lights, use the clutch. We are doing things all the time to drive that vehicle. A stupid cell phone is not going to change anything.
Plus the fact there is much more background noise in a truck than a pickup truck, and in most cases, you can't communicate anyway.
If you want to make truck driving safer, don't worry about us, teach the idiots around us how to drive. There should be a law strictly enforced that states you can't cut in front of a truck less than five car lengths on the highway. These morons cut in front of me less than one car length and hit the brakes. They've even done this when coming to a stop on the highway like an accident.
Another law we need is no pacing a truck. If you want to pass me, fine, get in the next lane, pass, and continue that speed once you get back in front of me. Don't drive next to me because if I have to swerve out of that lane to avoid something in the road, I can't do that because the idiot next to me has been driving there for the last four miles. We also need a law that everybody has to use cruise control on the highway. So many times I get some idiot in a car going slow, and when I go to pass him, the clown speeds up and I can't move back over.
We should have laws against all these things, and heavy fines and points to boot. You could make the roads a lot safer by doing that instead of worrying about a driver using a cell phone.
LOL, would you like to try and take the test for a CDL Class A license?
If you can pass that test, then you're perfectly qualified to drive. Driving isn't about class time, driving is about experience. I don't care if you take a six month class to drive a truck, it's something you actually have to do to get good at.
In my company, my boss got sick of trying to find Class A drivers, so now he's promoting from within. He offers our straight truck drivers the opportunity to upgrade to drive tractor--trailer. So far it's working pretty well. But even though they drive straight trucks now, they have to take the test all over again for tractor-trailer. Everyone of them failed the first time and had to go back to get tested again. One guy that did it is a very good tractor-trailer driver given his experience, and even he failed the first time.
The real problem we have today are foreigners. Some of them can't speak or read English. I have no idea how they find places or get around. They are terrible drivers to boot. Every couple of months, some foreigner runs up to me and says "Mister, mister! Please back in trailer for me, I don't know how!" I have no idea how these people get a license to drive in this country. I suspect we honor CDL"s from Mexico or Canada, and they are driving on our roads today.
Having grown up around lakes and rivers too polluted to fish or swim in, I appreciate what the EPA has done in the past to clean up our environment. Nixon began the EPA after the Cuyahoga River caught fire....still hard to fathom but industry had always sent it's chemicals downstream for somebody else to deal with. DDT was banned after eagle chicks were born with beaks too deformed to eat. Acid rain from coal furnaces without scrubbers almost decimated New England's forests not to mention the paint jobs on cars up there. So a lot had to be done and they did it. But then they turned into something else and considered industry the enemy instead of a partner in cooperation. In the last 10 years they've operated like the IRS....to the point they now conduct armed raids. Nobody intended that to happen but leave an agency with no oversight and that's what can happen. One of their senior management said the other day they would "resist Trump". Really?
About 15 years ago or so, the EPA said they didn't like our pollution levels here in Ohio. Okay, then stay the hell out of Ohio! Nope, they had to stick their nose in our business and force us to use E-Check in some of our counties.
Ten years and tens of millions of dollars later, the EPA tested our air again, and found no change in the pollution levels. So what did they make us do? Extend the program for another ten years.
THIS is one of the many reasons to eliminate bureaucracies like the EPA. Why should they give a damn about wasting money on something that doesn't work. It isn't their money!
Ohio is not forced to use E-check. They can ditch the program, they will just lose millions of dollars in highway funding. And it is only in seven counties who's air did not meet EPA quality standards. Those standards are LAWS passed by an elected legislature. Meet those standards, no more e-check.
Your solution is not to attempt to meet the standards. Not even to pass LAWS that change the standards. Your solution is to just do away with the enforcement mechanism behind the standards. From where I come from we call that being a CHICKEN SHIT.
Correct, they can only FORCE us to do the will of the feds by cutting off federal funding; something you on the left are currently complaining about when Trump plans to do the same with sanctuary cities.
Even if we met those standards, I would be willing to bet that they wouldn't allow us to stop the program anyway. But you know how we can stop it eventually? Get rid of the EPA.
. I know what you mean about foreign drivers that are being hired not to fill badly needed driver positions, but mainly it is because corporations won't have to pay American workers good money to do the job. Every dam excuse in the book has been used to replace Americans with cheap labor from abroad. There should be huge trailer parking facilities on the border, where as goods coming from Mexico are brought to the border, but then the load is transferred at this point to American drivers to finish the trip of the goods to there destination. Vice-a-versa.. There needs to be a mandatory class that all new license seekers should have to take as pertaining to big trucks. A simulator should also be part of the class. If you can't pass the class you don't get your license. These things you speak of are very important.The problem is the EPA started abusing their power it needs to be reined in
The problem is all bureaucracies have.
They made a regulation against us truck drivers a few years ago. We are not allowed to talk on a cell phone while driving unless you are using blue tooth. If you get caught, it's a $2,400 fine for the first offense; $10,000 to your company if they can prove you were talking to them. And both fines increase with the amount of violations.
Eliminate all bureaucracies in my opinion.
I have a bluetooth. Actually, I have 2. One is an aftermarket one that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It cost me about $20. The other one fits in my ear. It cost me less than $40. It certainly makes driving safer, and I only drive a pickup. Now why any truck driver in an 18 wheeler carrying a load of 10s of 1,000s of lbs of cargo would want to risk taking one hand off the wheel to talk on a cell phone when there is a cheap alternative that is so much safer is beyond me. Frankly, it's nonsensical. However, life has shown me that people do stupid stuff all the time. Now, personally I wouldn't care one whit if a truck driver engaged in that kind of risk when the only one at risk was the driver of the truck. However, trucks share the road with other drivers, many of whom are parents with small children. It sounds like the risk of a heavy fine is a hell of a good incentive to not do something stupid which puts so many others at risk.
The law forced my employer to buy new two-way phones that we can't even use unless you are sitting still. Bluetooth doesn't work with two way cell phones like Nextel used to have. So for a while, they just called us instead.
I've been doing this a very long time now, and I can tell you bluetooth is way more disruptive than just talking on the phone itself. You have to fiddle around to find those stupid buttons to answer or make a call, and that's way more distracting.
That's besides the fact we still use our CB radios all the time. When operating a vehicle like that, we have to shift gears, hit buttons like engine brakes, light interrupters, bright lights, use the clutch. We are doing things all the time to drive that vehicle. A stupid cell phone is not going to change anything.
Plus the fact there is much more background noise in a truck than a pickup truck, and in most cases, you can't communicate anyway.
If you want to make truck driving safer, don't worry about us, teach the idiots around us how to drive. There should be a law strictly enforced that states you can't cut in front of a truck less than five car lengths on the highway. These morons cut in front of me less than one car length and hit the brakes. They've even done this when coming to a stop on the highway like an accident.
Another law we need is no pacing a truck. If you want to pass me, fine, get in the next lane, pass, and continue that speed once you get back in front of me. Don't drive next to me because if I have to swerve out of that lane to avoid something in the road, I can't do that because the idiot next to me has been driving there for the last four miles. We also need a law that everybody has to use cruise control on the highway. So many times I get some idiot in a car going slow, and when I go to pass him, the clown speeds up and I can't move back over.
We should have laws against all these things, and heavy fines and points to boot. You could make the roads a lot safer by doing that instead of worrying about a driver using a cell phone.
LOL, would you like to try and take the test for a CDL Class A license?
If you can pass that test, then you're perfectly qualified to drive. Driving isn't about class time, driving is about experience. I don't care if you take a six month class to drive a truck, it's something you actually have to do to get good at.
In my company, my boss got sick of trying to find Class A drivers, so now he's promoting from within. He offers our straight truck drivers the opportunity to upgrade to drive tractor--trailer. So far it's working pretty well. But even though they drive straight trucks now, they have to take the test all over again for tractor-trailer. Everyone of them failed the first time and had to go back to get tested again. One guy that did it is a very good tractor-trailer driver given his experience, and even he failed the first time.
The real problem we have today are foreigners. Some of them can't speak or read English. I have no idea how they find places or get around. They are terrible drivers to boot. Every couple of months, some foreigner runs up to me and says "Mister, mister! Please back in trailer for me, I don't know how!" I have no idea how these people get a license to drive in this country. I suspect we honor CDL"s from Mexico or Canada, and they are driving on our roads today.
I wish we had industry.....Having grown up around lakes and rivers too polluted to fish or swim in, I appreciate what the EPA has done in the past to clean up our environment. Nixon began the EPA after the Cuyahoga River caught fire....still hard to fathom but industry had always sent it's chemicals downstream for somebody else to deal with. DDT was banned after eagle chicks were born with beaks too deformed to eat. Acid rain from coal furnaces without scrubbers almost decimated New England's forests not to mention the paint jobs on cars up there. So a lot had to be done and they did it. But then they turned into something else and considered industry the enemy instead of a partner in cooperation. In the last 10 years they've operated like the IRS....to the point they now conduct armed raids. Nobody intended that to happen but leave an agency with no oversight and that's what can happen. One of their senior management said the other day they would "resist Trump". Really?
About 15 years ago or so, the EPA said they didn't like our pollution levels here in Ohio. Okay, then stay the hell out of Ohio! Nope, they had to stick their nose in our business and force us to use E-Check in some of our counties.
Ten years and tens of millions of dollars later, the EPA tested our air again, and found no change in the pollution levels. So what did they make us do? Extend the program for another ten years.
THIS is one of the many reasons to eliminate bureaucracies like the EPA. Why should they give a damn about wasting money on something that doesn't work. It isn't their money!
Ohio is not forced to use E-check. They can ditch the program, they will just lose millions of dollars in highway funding. And it is only in seven counties who's air did not meet EPA quality standards. Those standards are LAWS passed by an elected legislature. Meet those standards, no more e-check.
Your solution is not to attempt to meet the standards. Not even to pass LAWS that change the standards. Your solution is to just do away with the enforcement mechanism behind the standards. From where I come from we call that being a CHICKEN SHIT.
Correct, they can only FORCE us to do the will of the feds by cutting off federal funding; something you on the left are currently complaining about when Trump plans to do the same with sanctuary cities.
Even if we met those standards, I would be willing to bet that they wouldn't allow us to stop the program anyway. But you know how we can stop it eventually? Get rid of the EPA.
Look. If you don't like it you can move to one of the counties that is not subject to E-check. OK, couldn't resist throwing out the old conservative "just move" meme.
But tell me. Is the problem the standards? From the brief little looking I did to get the details, well E-check is credited with removing over 72 tons of toxic materials from the air. But maybe you prefer this,
That was in Cleveland, 1973. And if that is what you prefer. Fine, then do away with the standards. But refusing to enforce them, that is the action of tyrants and despots, the action of cowards.
. The American worker was reduced to this, because they were systematically replaced for foreign cheap labor. I was there back in the 80's when it all got to going, and I remember it all to well.We have a truck driving hauler company about 40 miles away. Always have adds in the paper looking for workers or drivers. They must be a very bad place to work as they can't find workers.
No, all trucking companies can't find drivers. In fact, we are going to need another 60,000 this year.
The problem is you can't get Americans to work today. The ones that are willing to work smoke pot and can't pass a drug tests. Smoking pot became more important than securing a career or job. So they get their Obama phone, their SNAP's cards, their free Obama Care, and sit back and watch life go by.
. I know what your mean about foreigner drivers that are being hired not to fill badly needed driver positions, but mainly it is because corporations won't have to pay American workers good money to do the job. Every dam excuse in the book has been used to replace Americans with cheap labor from abroad. There should be huge trailer parking facilities on the border, where as goods coming from Mexico are brought to the border, but then the load is transferred at this point to American drivers to finish the trip of the goods destination. Vice-a-versa.. There needs to be a mandatory class that all new license seekers should have to take as pertaining to big trucks. A simulator should also be part of the class. If you can't pass the class you don't get your license. These things you speak of are very important.The problem is all bureaucracies have.
They made a regulation against us truck drivers a few years ago. We are not allowed to talk on a cell phone while driving unless you are using blue tooth. If you get caught, it's a $2,400 fine for the first offense; $10,000 to your company if they can prove you were talking to them. And both fines increase with the amount of violations.
Eliminate all bureaucracies in my opinion.
I have a bluetooth. Actually, I have 2. One is an aftermarket one that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It cost me about $20. The other one fits in my ear. It cost me less than $40. It certainly makes driving safer, and I only drive a pickup. Now why any truck driver in an 18 wheeler carrying a load of 10s of 1,000s of lbs of cargo would want to risk taking one hand off the wheel to talk on a cell phone when there is a cheap alternative that is so much safer is beyond me. Frankly, it's nonsensical. However, life has shown me that people do stupid stuff all the time. Now, personally I wouldn't care one whit if a truck driver engaged in that kind of risk when the only one at risk was the driver of the truck. However, trucks share the road with other drivers, many of whom are parents with small children. It sounds like the risk of a heavy fine is a hell of a good incentive to not do something stupid which puts so many others at risk.
The law forced my employer to buy new two-way phones that we can't even use unless you are sitting still. Bluetooth doesn't work with two way cell phones like Nextel used to have. So for a while, they just called us instead.
I've been doing this a very long time now, and I can tell you bluetooth is way more disruptive than just talking on the phone itself. You have to fiddle around to find those stupid buttons to answer or make a call, and that's way more distracting.
That's besides the fact we still use our CB radios all the time. When operating a vehicle like that, we have to shift gears, hit buttons like engine brakes, light interrupters, bright lights, use the clutch. We are doing things all the time to drive that vehicle. A stupid cell phone is not going to change anything.
Plus the fact there is much more background noise in a truck than a pickup truck, and in most cases, you can't communicate anyway.
If you want to make truck driving safer, don't worry about us, teach the idiots around us how to drive. There should be a law strictly enforced that states you can't cut in front of a truck less than five car lengths on the highway. These morons cut in front of me less than one car length and hit the brakes. They've even done this when coming to a stop on the highway like an accident.
Another law we need is no pacing a truck. If you want to pass me, fine, get in the next lane, pass, and continue that speed once you get back in front of me. Don't drive next to me because if I have to swerve out of that lane to avoid something in the road, I can't do that because the idiot next to me has been driving there for the last four miles. We also need a law that everybody has to use cruise control on the highway. So many times I get some idiot in a car going slow, and when I go to pass him, the clown speeds up and I can't move back over.
We should have laws against all these things, and heavy fines and points to boot. You could make the roads a lot safer by doing that instead of worrying about a driver using a cell phone.
LOL, would you like to try and take the test for a CDL Class A license?
If you can pass that test, then you're perfectly qualified to drive. Driving isn't about class time, driving is about experience. I don't care if you take a six month class to drive a truck, it's something you actually have to do to get good at.
In my company, my boss got sick of trying to find Class A drivers, so now he's promoting from within. He offers our straight truck drivers the opportunity to upgrade to drive tractor--trailer. So far it's working pretty well. But even though they drive straight trucks now, they have to take the test all over again for tractor-trailer. Everyone of them failed the first time and had to go back to get tested again. One guy that did it is a very good tractor-trailer driver given his experience, and even he failed the first time.
The real problem we have today are foreigners. Some of them can't speak or read English. I have no idea how they find places or get around. They are terrible drivers to boot. Every couple of months, some foreigner runs up to me and says "Mister, mister! Please back in trailer for me, I don't know how!" I have no idea how these people get a license to drive in this country. I suspect we honor CDL"s from Mexico or Canada, and they are driving on our roads today.
Trump said he is in favor of clean air etc. Why do you not hear what the man is saying ?? Just more Trump hatred maybe ??Having grown up around lakes and rivers too polluted to fish or swim in, I appreciate what the EPA has done in the past to clean up our environment. Nixon began the EPA after the Cuyahoga River caught fire....still hard to fathom but industry had always sent it's chemicals downstream for somebody else to deal with. DDT was banned after eagle chicks were born with beaks too deformed to eat. Acid rain from coal furnaces without scrubbers almost decimated New England's forests not to mention the paint jobs on cars up there. So a lot had to be done and they did it. But then they turned into something else and considered industry the enemy instead of a partner in cooperation. In the last 10 years they've operated like the IRS....to the point they now conduct armed raids. Nobody intended that to happen but leave an agency with no oversight and that's what can happen. One of their senior management said the other day they would "resist Trump". Really?
About 15 years ago or so, the EPA said they didn't like our pollution levels here in Ohio. Okay, then stay the hell out of Ohio! Nope, they had to stick their nose in our business and force us to use E-Check in some of our counties.
Ten years and tens of millions of dollars later, the EPA tested our air again, and found no change in the pollution levels. So what did they make us do? Extend the program for another ten years.
THIS is one of the many reasons to eliminate bureaucracies like the EPA. Why should they give a damn about wasting money on something that doesn't work. It isn't their money!
Ohio is not forced to use E-check. They can ditch the program, they will just lose millions of dollars in highway funding. And it is only in seven counties who's air did not meet EPA quality standards. Those standards are LAWS passed by an elected legislature. Meet those standards, no more e-check.
Your solution is not to attempt to meet the standards. Not even to pass LAWS that change the standards. Your solution is to just do away with the enforcement mechanism behind the standards. From where I come from we call that being a CHICKEN SHIT.
Correct, they can only FORCE us to do the will of the feds by cutting off federal funding; something you on the left are currently complaining about when Trump plans to do the same with sanctuary cities.
Even if we met those standards, I would be willing to bet that they wouldn't allow us to stop the program anyway. But you know how we can stop it eventually? Get rid of the EPA.
Look. If you don't like it you can move to one of the counties that is not subject to E-check. OK, couldn't resist throwing out the old conservative "just move" meme.
But tell me. Is the problem the standards? From the brief little looking I did to get the details, well E-check is credited with removing over 72 tons of toxic materials from the air. But maybe you prefer this,
That was in Cleveland, 1973. And if that is what you prefer. Fine, then do away with the standards. But refusing to enforce them, that is the action of tyrants and despots, the action of cowards.
. The American worker was reduced to this, because they were systematically replaced for foreign cheap labor. I was there back in the 80's when it all got to going, and I remember it all to well.We have a truck driving hauler company about 40 miles away. Always have adds in the paper looking for workers or drivers. They must be a very bad place to work as they can't find workers.
No, all trucking companies can't find drivers. In fact, we are going to need another 60,000 this year.
The problem is you can't get Americans to work today. The ones that are willing to work smoke pot and can't pass a drug tests. Smoking pot became more important than securing a career or job. So they get their Obama phone, their SNAP's cards, their free Obama Care, and sit back and watch life go by.
Having grown up around lakes and rivers too polluted to fish or swim in, I appreciate what the EPA has done in the past to clean up our environment. Nixon began the EPA after the Cuyahoga River caught fire....still hard to fathom but industry had always sent it's chemicals downstream for somebody else to deal with. DDT was banned after eagle chicks were born with beaks too deformed to eat. Acid rain from coal furnaces without scrubbers almost decimated New England's forests not to mention the paint jobs on cars up there. So a lot had to be done and they did it. But then they turned into something else and considered industry the enemy instead of a partner in cooperation. In the last 10 years they've operated like the IRS....to the point they now conduct armed raids. Nobody intended that to happen but leave an agency with no oversight and that's what can happen. One of their senior management said the other day they would "resist Trump". Really?
About 15 years ago or so, the EPA said they didn't like our pollution levels here in Ohio. Okay, then stay the hell out of Ohio! Nope, they had to stick their nose in our business and force us to use E-Check in some of our counties.
Ten years and tens of millions of dollars later, the EPA tested our air again, and found no change in the pollution levels. So what did they make us do? Extend the program for another ten years.
THIS is one of the many reasons to eliminate bureaucracies like the EPA. Why should they give a damn about wasting money on something that doesn't work. It isn't their money!
Ohio is not forced to use E-check. They can ditch the program, they will just lose millions of dollars in highway funding. And it is only in seven counties who's air did not meet EPA quality standards. Those standards are LAWS passed by an elected legislature. Meet those standards, no more e-check.
Your solution is not to attempt to meet the standards. Not even to pass LAWS that change the standards. Your solution is to just do away with the enforcement mechanism behind the standards. From where I come from we call that being a CHICKEN SHIT.
Correct, they can only FORCE us to do the will of the feds by cutting off federal funding; something you on the left are currently complaining about when Trump plans to do the same with sanctuary cities.
Even if we met those standards, I would be willing to bet that they wouldn't allow us to stop the program anyway. But you know how we can stop it eventually? Get rid of the EPA.
Look. If you don't like it you can move to one of the counties that is not subject to E-check. OK, couldn't resist throwing out the old conservative "just move" meme.
But tell me. Is the problem the standards? From the brief little looking I did to get the details, well E-check is credited with removing over 72 tons of toxic materials from the air. But maybe you prefer this,
That was in Cleveland, 1973. And if that is what you prefer. Fine, then do away with the standards. But refusing to enforce them, that is the action of tyrants and despots, the action of cowards.
. No you interpreted my post wrong... I'm saying that any potential automobile drivers who seek a license at 16 years old and up, should have to attend a one day class on sharing the roads with big trucks.. There needs to be a mandatory class that all new license seekers should have to take as pertaining to big trucks. A simulator should also be part of the class. If you can't pass the class you don't get your license. These things you speak of are very important.The problem is all bureaucracies have.
They made a regulation against us truck drivers a few years ago. We are not allowed to talk on a cell phone while driving unless you are using blue tooth. If you get caught, it's a $2,400 fine for the first offense; $10,000 to your company if they can prove you were talking to them. And both fines increase with the amount of violations.
Eliminate all bureaucracies in my opinion.
I have a bluetooth. Actually, I have 2. One is an aftermarket one that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It cost me about $20. The other one fits in my ear. It cost me less than $40. It certainly makes driving safer, and I only drive a pickup. Now why any truck driver in an 18 wheeler carrying a load of 10s of 1,000s of lbs of cargo would want to risk taking one hand off the wheel to talk on a cell phone when there is a cheap alternative that is so much safer is beyond me. Frankly, it's nonsensical. However, life has shown me that people do stupid stuff all the time. Now, personally I wouldn't care one whit if a truck driver engaged in that kind of risk when the only one at risk was the driver of the truck. However, trucks share the road with other drivers, many of whom are parents with small children. It sounds like the risk of a heavy fine is a hell of a good incentive to not do something stupid which puts so many others at risk.
The law forced my employer to buy new two-way phones that we can't even use unless you are sitting still. Bluetooth doesn't work with two way cell phones like Nextel used to have. So for a while, they just called us instead.
I've been doing this a very long time now, and I can tell you bluetooth is way more disruptive than just talking on the phone itself. You have to fiddle around to find those stupid buttons to answer or make a call, and that's way more distracting.
That's besides the fact we still use our CB radios all the time. When operating a vehicle like that, we have to shift gears, hit buttons like engine brakes, light interrupters, bright lights, use the clutch. We are doing things all the time to drive that vehicle. A stupid cell phone is not going to change anything.
Plus the fact there is much more background noise in a truck than a pickup truck, and in most cases, you can't communicate anyway.
If you want to make truck driving safer, don't worry about us, teach the idiots around us how to drive. There should be a law strictly enforced that states you can't cut in front of a truck less than five car lengths on the highway. These morons cut in front of me less than one car length and hit the brakes. They've even done this when coming to a stop on the highway like an accident.
Another law we need is no pacing a truck. If you want to pass me, fine, get in the next lane, pass, and continue that speed once you get back in front of me. Don't drive next to me because if I have to swerve out of that lane to avoid something in the road, I can't do that because the idiot next to me has been driving there for the last four miles. We also need a law that everybody has to use cruise control on the highway. So many times I get some idiot in a car going slow, and when I go to pass him, the clown speeds up and I can't move back over.
We should have laws against all these things, and heavy fines and points to boot. You could make the roads a lot safer by doing that instead of worrying about a driver using a cell phone.
LOL, would you like to try and take the test for a CDL Class A license?
If you can pass that test, then you're perfectly qualified to drive. Driving isn't about class time, driving is about experience. I don't care if you take a six month class to drive a truck, it's something you actually have to do to get good at.
In my company, my boss got sick of trying to find Class A drivers, so now he's promoting from within. He offers our straight truck drivers the opportunity to upgrade to drive tractor--trailer. So far it's working pretty well. But even though they drive straight trucks now, they have to take the test all over again for tractor-trailer. Everyone of them failed the first time and had to go back to get tested again. One guy that did it is a very good tractor-trailer driver given his experience, and even he failed the first time.
The real problem we have today are foreigners. Some of them can't speak or read English. I have no idea how they find places or get around. They are terrible drivers to boot. Every couple of months, some foreigner runs up to me and says "Mister, mister! Please back in trailer for me, I don't know how!" I have no idea how these people get a license to drive in this country. I suspect we honor CDL"s from Mexico or Canada, and they are driving on our roads today.
Ohio ranks as one of the ugliest states out there minus Cleveland which is near a great lake. The rest of the state should be moved to the backwards, low educated, slacker south.
