50 10-4 Magazine / April 2025 familiarity with changing technologies. This is not happening often enough, and the end result is being recorded as an unavoidable accident on a driver’s safety record! Just the transition from a manual transmission to an automatic can (and will) cause a delay in the reaction time, thereby affecting the distance required to stop when in a panic situation. I know there are people who claim it’s for safety’s sake, but who’s safety are we talking about? I spend a fair amount of time researching the cause of these massive multiple vehicle pileups, and they are not all caused by new and/or inexperienced drivers. To be fair, they are not all caused by foreigners, either. I have had the misfortune to be behind the wheel of one of these death traps. To the new driver who has never known anything different, these trucks feel “normal” to them. They are comfortable operating within the confines of modern technology. However, to an old hand like me, I’m scared senseless! While out on the road, my actions or reactions are based on 50 years of hands-on driving experience. That’s a lot of driver generated, driver controlled, miles. In most cases, I will overreact when the truck takes over, which causes the brakes to apply or the engine to slow. Not to mention when driving in less than ideal conditions – whether it’s heavy traffic or just tooling across some wind-swept region of the Midwest in a snowstorm, too much of anything, that is presented too rapidly, can and probably will disrupt your workforce. This is where the second part of this month’s lesson can be put into play where “new is the thing to do.” This is not a mandatory process. However, if these older dedicated professionals want to keep working, they are going to be required to interact with both the new ideas and the most modern equipment. I’m still not a big fan of this new age of trucking, but given my age (68), I have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines. Yes, for me, retirement is still an option. Not everyone can or wants to give up the wheel, so for them, learning these new things is the best way for them to keep working or remain being employed. There are many drivers still on the road who will retire before they knuckle under to this technologically advanced equipment. These are the last of a dying breed, the true Concrete Cowboys. The idea of Big Brother watching their every move and making even the most basic decisions for them will be enough to squeeze them out of the industry. The same thing happened in the last days of the Wild West – some of them moved on or set out for untamed regions in uncharted places. Civilization moved in and, fortunately for the ones who stayed, cities sprang up offering a new way. Some hung their guns up and learned to farm or tend store, and others moved into law enforcement, retaining their years of experience, but channeling it in a more productive direction. To the old drivers like me, you may need to dig deep inside yourselves and channel the Wyatt Earp or the Teddy Roosevelt hidden within you. Look at technology as the next challenge by realizing the possibilities, embracing the next generation, and learning to control it. This progression doesn’t have to be a day and night switch. It is possible to transition to it in slow, calculated steps. Like I mentioned earlier, it scares the stuffings out of me, but I’m still trying to embrace it in measured increments, just in case this owner operator thing doesn’t actually work out, 10-4! n T R U C K E R T O O N By Vic Vasselin Dang it! Not another one!! Just keep them Peterbilt drivers over to their own side. You Kenworth drivers think you're the best - you probably can't even back that thing up! At the Truckers Retirement Home
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