Berm Notes

I have been driving since 1983 and have heard quite a bit of what I call “truckerisms” over the years. Many are useful and some are not. Many fall under the category of comical and most I would not consider grammatically correct. It’s fun to hear these so called sayings from drivers across our country. I thought it would be fun to share some with you. All of the sayings are from real world experiences from various drivers in the trucking industry.

“You can go down a mountain hundreds of time too slow, but only once too fast.”

“There is not a load too hot that won’t cool off in the ditch.”

“If you cannot see another driver’s eyes, they can’t see you.”

“No load is worth your life or anyone else.”

“There is more to driving a truck than just holding a steering wheel.”

“When there is another vehicle aggravating you on the highway, get off at the next exit, walk around the truck once, get back on the highway and you’ll never see them again.”

“If you have a lot of stone chips on the front of your truck, you are following too close.”

“Chrome does not get you home.”

“Never put yourself into a situation that you can’t back out of.”

“Use one gear lower to descend a mountain than you used to go up it.” (Other version)… “Go slower down the mountain that you did up the mountain.”

“It’s better to have gotten out and looked than to have not gotten out to look and needed to.” This also falls under the acronym G.O.A.L. which means Get out and Look.” Pride can often get in the way of this practice.

“You can’t stop a truck faster than the load.” (other)…”It doesn’t matter how fast you can stop the truck, what matters is how fast you can stop the load.”

“Don’t drive faster than the distance you can see to stop in.”

The last “truckerism” is important because you must always make sure that you can see properly in front of you during fog, smoke, cresting a hill or around a corner. I have written the above sayings exactly as I’ve heard them over the years. For some reason, these have stuck in my mind. I am sure there are many more and I would like for you to share some that you may have heard and found useful in your driving career.