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Zippers are great if everything meshes together correctly. |
I met an interesting young man this week who was a driver from one of the major trucking companies in the United States. He mentioned that his preferred route of transport is to the northeast basically due to the fact that many other drivers within the company don’t want to deliver to this area. My ears perked up as I wondered why he “wanted” to deliver to this location. For me, I spent many years transporting freight in and out of the northeast and it’s not the preferred route for many drivers.
The young man began driving a semi truck in the Virgin Islands. Having visited the islands several years ago on vacation in the Caribbean, I remember those twisted, tight and narrow roads as they are etched in my memory. An interesting fact is that the vehicles are driven on the left side of the road and the driver sits on the left side as well. This puts the driver on the shoulder side of the road. This means that most traffic interaction is done on the blind side of the vehicle. Having never driven in such situations, my wife felt it necessary that I not drive while on vacation and that it would be best left to taxi service around the islands. In short…they were using vehicles which were designed to operate on the right hand side of the road in a country where you are required to drive on the left side of the road.
I was quite impressed that this young man received his early driving experience in such an area. I then said to him “I guess the northeast routes would not bother you.” He said “I don’t find it to be a problem at all.” I can imagine going from the Virgin Islands to the northeast corridor would be a pretty easy transition. He and I began to share road stories of the northeast. He told me that he wishes more old time drivers would share their experiences and knowledge of the road with the younger generation. I thought to myself…wait a minute; I’m not an “old timer.” However, I guess to a twenty something…I appear to be an old timer.
The young man discussed with me how he became more patient in traffic by listening to an older driver who had some good advice. The older driver told him to leave plenty of space between the front of his truck and the vehicle ahead of him. Don’t be concerned if the “zippers” cut in front of you. His recommendation was to relax, take your time and you’ll get there safely. Also, the effect on your arrival time will be negligible. The young man said to the old time driver “but what about all the cars that just cut in front of me?” his reply was “judging by how upset the look is on your face right now…it’s not worth the little amount of time you’ll gain.” Also, he explained that the small amount of time wasn’t worth taking a chance of getting into an incident on the road.
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The screwdriver here is helpful unlike the screwdriver in the old Shell Gasoline advertisement |
My conversation with this young man reminded me of some antique advertisements from Shell Gasoline dated from the late 1930’s-1940’s on how they were going to stamp out the practice of being a zipper, screwdriver or screwjay. Here is something for you to do on your own as these are some really neat ads relating to this subject which still plagues our highways today. Use Google to see if you can find any of these ads.