Give us the cheat codes to your industry/place of work!
I’m a truck driver.
- You are far safer behind me than in front of me. It can take me over two US football fields (200 yards or roughly 180 meters) to come to a full stop and it takes more distance if my trailer is empty. The average car can stop in half that distance. Most cars turn into tin cans when hit by a rig at 25 mph.
- If you see a number of trucks all moving into the same lane, might consider getting in the same lane, behind us. Odds are pretty good we either saw something in the lane ahead or we heard about something over the CB.
- I can see you playing on your phone while driving. Cops in some states have been known to hitch rides with truck drivers in order to catch distracted drivers.
- Learn zipper merging!
it takes more distance if my trailer is empty
This seems counterintuitive. I would love to hear why.
Most of a tractor-trailer’s stopping power is split between the trailer brakes and the tractor’s drive tandems. If there is not enough weight on those axles, the tires can’t grip the pavement properly. If I apply too much power to the brakes the wheels can start bouncing or just lock up and start skidding if the ABS system is acting up.
Most tractor-trailers you see on the road in the US are designed to weigh 60,000 to 80,000 lbs (~ 27,000 - 36,000 kg). For comparison, a Honda Civic weighs roughly 3,000 lbs (1360 kg). Every system on the truck is designed around moving that amount of mass safely. With an empty dry van trailer your looking at closer to 30,000 lbs (~ 13,000 kg). Makes a difference in performance. Ride is rougher, takes longer to stop.
Thank you. That’s fascinating.
In the age of computer-controlled ABS and brake assistance systems, that just sounds like poor programming.
There’s no reason why the computer shouldn’t be able to take current weight into account and deliver more braking power to the tractor when the trailer is empty.- https://www.bts.gov/content/average-age-automobiles-and-trucks-operation-united-states
- https://www.bendix.com/en/products/vehicle-dynamics/
Some probably do, tech has advanced quite a bit since I started driving in 2008, but the newer tech tends not to be installed widely when it first comes out due to how unreliable tech becomes under the working conditions that are normal in the trucking industry. Fleet owners want their equipment on the road making money, not in the shop costing money, so they tend to wait till a tech proves itself to be reliable. Plus upgrades costs money, so they tend not to happen till a unit is replaced with a newer model, which can take a while.
Most large companies in the US have an experimental fleet where they try out new tech first, before they roll it out to the rest of their fleets. They are looking for cost effectiveness, reliability and driver response. The smaller owner operators, which make up the bulk of the trucking industry, tend to follow (slowly) after them. And as old as the trucks are, the trailers are often even older. While most trailers in my company’s fleet are less than 3 years old right now, the oldest trailer (now mostly used for hauling pallets back to Chep) was built in 1992 according to it’s data plate. If it’s ABS system is newer then 2008, when it was last active in the fleet I’m a monkey’s uncle, and I’d pay long odds it’s still the original system from 92.
Great insight, thanks!
Is ABS a thing with air brakes?
Sounds like you’re talking about icy or wet roads. I’ve never had a trailer do that on dry pavement and I can definitely stop faster emptying than full.
I really wish that were entirely the case. The distances I quoted came from safety trainings I’ve had to take over the years. Given my personal experiences during that time, I think they were from before ABS was mandated. And I had a lot of ABS failures when I was OTR and few close calls as a result of those failures. That’s one of the reasons I chose to switch to running a yard truck 5 years ago. Far less stress.
When ABS failed on dry pavement and I needed to stop in a hurry, the affected tandem would tend to lock up and bounce along the ground. Nerve racking and scary when there’s traffic in front of you, but not near as bad as on wet or icy roads. The sheer terror of feeling one of my axles start sliding under me.
If I had one word of advice for drivers new to the industry, it would be to drive as if none of the safety systems on the truck and trailer exist because in my experience they will fail exactly when you need them.
But when they do work they are f-ing magical.
I would imagine it has to do with traction and ability to apply braking forces without skidding the wheels.
Even in a pickup truck, it’s easy to skid the rear wheels (antilock brakes aside) with the bed empty because the brakes can easily overcome the traction of the tires. This is why pickups have height sensing proportioning valves.
That makes sense.
ZIPPER MERGE, PEOPLE!!
Additional hot take, merge near the end of the merge lane rather than slowly try to force yourself into traffic further back. Keep it moving and respect the zipper merge at the end.
And when you get to the end, start looking for the opening and merge, don’t slow down or gun it and try to get ahead of five more cars.
🙏
Yeah it looks just like that but with cars
😂😂😂😂😂
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Plus your probably save on gas too.
It takes more distance to stop with an empty trailer? I would have thought the opposite. How come?
NM, saw your reply below. Thanks.
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IT - if you have an issue with an application, give us step by step instructions on how we can repeat your issue like we are five years old. We’ll get it fixed more quickly that way.
I have great service with IT people because I do this by default. I’ll have already tried some steps myself, so I’ll give them info about what exactly works, doesn’t work, and things that I can or can’t do that might be related to the main issue.
They really appreciate the detail.
I feel bad that my old job’s IT department would never trust me when I listed this amount of detail, so I stopped putting in the extra effort.
My ticket: I am not able to login using the standard portal. The error I recieve is X. I have already tried rebooting. I have confirmed that everything was fully plugged in and that I am on the correct network. I also already went through the normal recovery process which did not work. Here is the result, [X].
The first response from IT: Why don’t you try rebooting and then let me know if it’s working. If not, go through the normal recovery process.
Like, I get it, you’re being thorough and don’t want to just blindly trust the user, but I’m only talking to you because I already tried your quick fixes. Please understand.
Reasoning: For everyone one You, we have a 1000 not-You. But the other 1000 say almost the same as you.
Once you experience that you become jaded and assume they are either lying or tell or miss some details. But we know our usuals and if we notice the name we might assume you know x and y more than the usual.Please dont stop putting in the last mile :)
Yeah, I get that. I think it’s partially to do with how rarely I’ll have an actual issue. Also with their turnover rate, I rarely interact with the same tech twice.
I still do all the legwork to figure out if it’s something I can fix myself and always put specifics (Repro steps, Error Codes, etc.), but pulled back on listing every other step I’ve already tried.
As an IT director, I encourage my techs first action to be to connect to the clients machine and ask them to “show me what’s happening.” Then they aren’t to interrupt the user until they complete their explanation except to ask for clarification.
You can see all the steps leading up to the error, the users workflow, typically the desired end result, and the error message.
You also are building rapport with the user making them feel listened to. Far too often I see techs assume something else is the issue, “fix” that, call it done and the user gets frustrated.
Even if you can’t fix it, like so many user issues, at the very least the support experience is a positive one for the end users. Sometimes it’s just that a specific preference isn’t in an applications options or they need to change a step in their workflow. But at least the end users was listened to and their experience and frustration was validated.
If you have metrics or surveys, it’s always interesting to hear a user write in that the issue was not resolved, but they were extremely satisfied.
I’m doing that and generally the next step after that is : “OK, can you do it again and this time DO NOT CLOSE THE ERROR POPUP so we can get information on what is happening”
Also a restart really does fix a big chunk of problems. An app not working right? Force quit & reopen the app. Problem solved. Phone or computer bugging out? Reboot. Problem solved.
Software Engineer:
Make a junk email for junk signups and accounts, if you can. Don’t accept the cookies. If the product you’re using is free, the information you enter is what’s being sold to someone else.
Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the tab you just accidentally closed.
If the product you’re using is free, the information you enter is what’s being sold to someone else.
Even paid services can and usually will sell your information, so just assume that everything that you enter is considered public information from that moment on
Looking at you, Adobe
I just started using Proton mail’s aliases for that and love it. If I see a bunch of spam coming to one particular alias, I’ll just delete it and make a new one. So far, it’s been great
That’s how I started as well, I’m at 418 aliases now. 99.9% of my online account use an alias with my custom domain.
