Letter to the Editor Thursday September 11, 2014

In defence of truckies

Recently a frustrating matter has come to my attention; The lack of respect small-vehicle drivers have for trucks and their drivers. Yes, the things you see on TV shows such as Road Madness really do happen and they happen numerous times a day all because drivers of smaller vehicles "don't want to be stuck behind a truck". People who drive cars (company cars are the worst!) take some unbelievable risks trying to manoeuvre their way past trucks.

The media portrays truckies in a way that it seems things such as accidents are caused by the truck drivers when, probably around 85 per cent (if not more) of crashes involving trucks are the driver of the car's fault.

Trucks cannot come to a halt in seconds like a car. It takes a lot of skill to be able to stop in a hurry while keeping control of the truck. It's even worse when they are towing a trailer, they have to try and suddenly stop and make sure their trailer doesn't jack-knife. Keep this in mind the next time you cut a truck off or decide to pull out in front of one.

As for those drivers who "refuse to travel behind a truck" and like to pull the fingers and abuse the truckies because they didn't pull over, trucks have every right to the road as do other vehicles.

Do you know how long it takes for a truck to gain enough momentum to be able to climb hills at reasonable speed? A very long time! See a truck crawling up the hill? More often than not a few kilometres back a car would have caused him to have to chop his gears right back down and he has to start again. Don't expect them to pull over for you every time there's a layby on the roadside (and most truckies will pull over when they can). They made passing lanes and slow vehicle bays for a reason.

Our truckies are doing us all a favour. They transport goods such as food, fuel, clothes and medical supplies. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't be able to get these things. Truck drivers are some of the most awesome people to know, some may come off as grumpy but they work long, hard hours so what do you expect? So please have some respect and patience for our truckies. They are in a way doing something for all of us after all.

TRUCKIE'S DAUGHTER

Kaitaia