Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
The bulk of trucks are governed today. Some run max 55 (UGH), others 65 or so a few will break 70 as a sort of a "Benefit" to those who have performed very well in service. One company I was with advertised the speed governed at 65 and GPS in real time revealed that they actually governed at 63 as a sort of a secret. You can open a Cat 3046 wide up and burn about 20 gallons an hour. You can do it going straight up hill until you get to the top or you can fly at 120 in Lordsburg NM. Your choice. But with the computers placed onto trucks and monitored by satellite, it is nigh impossible for a trucker to break his company's software-imposed speed limit. Split speed limits make the problem even worse stuffing traffic chock full as faster trucks try to pass the slower ones *Swift.. cough cough... The speeds I wrote of reaches back to the day before Satellite monitoring and software managed engines. I speak of engines that were high on horsepower and tourque with the express purpose of getting that load across mountains in a timely manner or.... zipping along the flats. In the day getting that load moved fast was all that mattered. Fuel was "Cheap" compared to the profits to be made if you could execute 3 deliverys in a week instead of just two. An example. One company who I will not name to protect them had R Model Macks. They were extremely fast. The only monitoring was the old speed clocks that recieved circular peices of paper every morning. At the end of the day they were turned in. The problem was most of the devices had a ... extra part that limited thier effectiveness.. literally. Police officers were not permitted to view these speed cards as they were strictly company property. No matter what the offence may be. Way back in the day there was a Cement plant near the Pentagon that had 5 silos ready for 5 bulk tank trucks. 6 would be dispatched there as a initial run. To the driver being able to cross the legion bridge on the Md Va line in the far left lane at 90+ with the first 4 trucks behind you while the 5th and last lags behind. Horsepower was king. The last one to arrive at this plant got to sit for a unproductive hour and half. Each load pays about $65 dollars. The first 5 unloads within 2 hours and by the end of the day the fastest of us would have delivered perhaps 6 loads. The last and the slowest might see 4-5 loads a day. At the end of the week out of the top 5 drivers to that one plant alone the paycheck would reflect the extra load per day... close to 400 dollars gross extra. If you were assigned to this one plant it literally paid to be very fast. Of course the company earned the revenue off the extra loads. The fuel is cheap. These R models will do 5 loads on one small tank of fuel. For a extra load it was a matter of 20 minutes grabbing a second full load that afternoon. (Making it possible to get even more loads in the next day without having to fuel) Those who did not stop ran out of fuel.. those are the ones that dont stay with this one company too long. You especially DONT run out of fuel while blowing concrete powder up to the silo 100 feet above. In time Law Enforcement, New Laws banning trucks from the left two lanes in D.C. beltway, increased traffic, stricter monitoring of speed rules within the company and assorted selective removal of the worst offenders to keep the others in line eventually solved the issue of extremly fast trucks. The commuters that went to work in DC were very fast and unforgiving in thier BMW's but they get kind of nervous when a Mack R model bores down on thier rear bumber with obviously greater power to the wheels than they are willing to go at 80+ mph. In the far left lane to boot. In time they see us coming they automatically moved over to the right. As I said, those times were Happy times. 4 figure paychecks with the prospect of a good year were literally possible with the extra speed and power. The cost? I think we lost three loads, 5 people and perhaps several hundred thousand dollars worth of revenue in one year. That is unacceptable in today's climate of saftey first and so called staying on the line. I think back to that one year. We could easily have supported that one ready mix plant every day that year with just 5 trucks and 5 loads each per day legally in every way. But.. too many people were driven by greed for the profits, good wages and other reasons for any sort of controls to work in the day. Technology as shown in computers, satellite monitoring and cell phone, highway cameras against aggressive driving etc etc etc etc.... has put a stop to the happy time. For that I thank god because we are saving lives and revenue by slowing down. This I speak as a voice of someone who lived thru the early 20's with reckless speed and disregard for anything but horsepower and tire traction. Slow down, ride easy and be safe. You will not be as tired and still make close to the same wages that week.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag