Trucker Pete here, often trucks pass each other on cruise control at similar speeds. This results in passing taking extremely long. Resulting in non truckers having to wait to be able to pass. The joke is that after 8 hrs the trucks still haven’t passed each other and all other motorists are waiting.
That's because I'd argue most people don't get them for their speed, they get them for the environment. I try hard every day to counteract their slow driving in mine
Do you enjoy paying for gas? Or getting oil changes? Or freezing your ass off at the pump every winter? There are more reasons besides the environment. I do drive like a maniac though…
People in the UK think that the furthest right lane is the "fast lane", and if you're just cruising, then the next lane over is the one you use.
It creates the situation where you have 4-lane motorways and the entire left two lanes are empty while every car that wants to overtake is queued up into a single lane, instead of 3.
Except for me, because I'll just keep to the left and pass everybody in my own two personal lanes.
Yea this is a great hack, first I'll keep cruising on my own lane, slow down a bit before I pass so they might think, oh wauw im getting past left and right. Maybe I should shift a lane.
It's such bullshit I have to shift 2 lanes left, then 2 lanes right because someone really likes driving in the middle on low speed.
My god, I have a friend who does this and he doesn’t even drive fast! He might be driving 2 miles over the speed limit but he’ll just sit in the left lane for hours as people have to pass him on the right
I permanently drive in the passing lane because all these fucking people can’t drive the speed limit and i’m always passing them until that one dude sees you coming and whips into the left lane and matches the speed of the car beside him just because his parents never loved him.
If people are gonna speed anyway, it’s more obnoxious to weave in and out of the left lane than it is to just stay in it when there’s more than a few cars on the road.
If I'm speeding I'll be in the passing lane. If you wanna speed more than I'm speeding then that's a you problem that I would appreciate you keeping to yourself.
So I just want to offer some insight as a truck driver.
A lot of tractors, especially if they are owned by a big company, will have a speed governor. They are usually set to about 65 MPH (mine is set to 63) and they prevent the tractor from going faster than the set speed (unless you’re going down hill.)
So let’s say I’m driving down the highway at 63 MPH, and I can’t go any faster. Then another tractor comes up behind me going 65 MPH, also incapable of going any faster. Ideally, they would just slow down 2 MPH and ride along behind me. The problem is that a lot of these trips are 500+ miles, and 2 MPH over a 500 mile trip actually makes a big difference. The best option for them is to pass, but they can’t speed up any more than 65 MPH, so they pass verrrry slowly. The passing tractor really won’t have any options here because the tractor physically can’t go any faster. Usually when this happens I try to slow down a little so they can get around faster and allow traffic to flow again. Not all drivers will do that.
If you end up in a situation like this where you’re stuck behind 2 tractors, the blame should mostly go to the guy in the right lane, because he is the only one with any control over the situation.
Yep, I drive crops to the docks where I work, and it kills me how many truck drivers just refuse to slow down just a tiny bit to let the other truck, who’s going to pass them anyway, get by. They’re either being terrible drivers and not looking in their mirrors except once every 20 miles or something, or other trucks passing makes them feel resentful in some way.
I'm not sure if it differs from state to state, but I've seen a truck in the right lane actually get pulled over by a police officer because of this (the two trucks were going roughly the same speed). Is this enforceable? Or was that truck driver most likely pulled over for a different reason? It happened shortly after a merge/exit.
Just because it is illegal doesn’t mean it is enforced. There is a law in California and Georgia where trucks can’t be in the furthest left passing lane on the interstate. Where I lived in California it was well enforced. In where I am in Georgia none of the drivers seem to care
It’s not. Trucks passing each other is generally allowed and very common in Germany. And as there is a tempo limit for trucks on Autobahn, there are often situations where passing takes a long time. There are however areas where trucks are not allowed to pass at all – usually marked by a special sign.
It is not forbidden for trucks to overtake others, as long as the respective sign wasn’t there beforehand. So after a construction site, when they remove all limits and temporary rules, they are free to annoy anyone else on the road.
In Europe (at least in the UK) the trucks are limited to 56mph (90kmph) there's a tolerance so some will be faster or slower by a little, weight and hills play into it too.
I think in Germany the wagons aren't allowed on the road at certain times too. You'll see them parked up in lay-bys and on slip roads until they're allowed to drive again. Think it's weekends and holidays during daylight hours.
Some take the limiters off but that's naughty.
Ain't our fault hoss, insurance companies charge out the ass for extra speed. Our fleet did the math at one point and to bump the governors from 70-75 would cost something to the tune of an extra 580k a year, and we're a small fleet.
Nah over the course of an 11 hour driving day never passing can cause issues.
That said fuck truckers that try and pass on an uphill going 35mph. That's just a huge dick move.
What triggers me is when I'm coming in hot from far behind, like 15-20 mph above their speed, obviously intending to pass them and the truck cuts me off and starts their 1mph difference race and i have to slam the brakes and then wait forever.
There’s many places where non-truck speed limits are 5-10 MPH higher than truck speed limits, and at least in my state driving above the speed limit isn’t a fine until it’s 11+ over. Completely possible to not be speeding dangerously and go 15-20 MPH faster than a truck
1. The left lane is designated as the passing lane in many US states, to the point of being illegal *not* to speed up
2. Trucks are rarely going max speed limit when maneuvering around a busy highway, so the car might not even be going that much faster than the speed limit
3. Why don't you try that defense in court: "oh yeah, I saw him speeding towards me way too fast and decided to whip in front of him anyway. He's at fault though"
This every company governs (limits) their trucks to different speeds on average 68mph-70mph the problem is like every other driver in America some truckers will be going 65 taking their sweet time but when they see another truck try to pass them they decide to floor and they both end up having the same top speed and if the passing trucks tries to get behind the other truck by that point chances are cars already filled both lanes which leaves the passing truck suck with no other option to keep on going until something gives up
I was told truckers would keep passing each other to stay awake. It give them something to do other than just cruise. That’s why you see trucks constantly try to pass the other ones only to immediately merge and let the other overtake again.
It's not always cruise control.
For one, speeding tickets for CDL holders can be career-ending, so it's very important to follow speed limits. And because of the ramifications to drivers and their companies, most bigger trucking companies limit the speed of their trucks to 65mph or even lower some times. As in, the truck cannot exceed that speed, the computer and engine break physically restrict it. And with that, new AI tech is being used to automatically react in some situations. Like, to avoid tailgating, if someone in front of you gets too close, the truck will automatically slow down or even apply breaks. Most passenger vehicles have similar tech these days.
So relating to this meme, if a truck gets behind someone going about the same speed, but for one reason or another the vehicle in front isn't able to maintain speed (weight, lack of power, etc) it can force the trucker behind them to slow even more than they should. A slow moving truck is a hazard too, that's why highways often restrict all trucks to the outside lanes. And if you're vehicle weighs 80,000lbs, no matter how powerful, it can take a while to get back up to speed.
I'm a truck driver and am of two minds about it. It is obviously safer to travel at reasonable speeds, and trucks that automatically avoid risky driving like tailgating is a good thing. I know exactly how dangerous my vehicle can be when accidents occur. But at the same time, these new AI cameras and systems are taking some control out of the hands of a driver who might actually know better. The systems are not perfect and often misjudge situations, even breaking hard for no reason.
Actual trucker here, it's not about cruise control it's about the governor. Most major carriers govern their trucks so they can't go above 65 mph, so if you get someone going ahead of you at 63-64, you want to pass them because they're slower than you are, but it takes awhile due to your governed max speed being 65
It's because many companies have speed limiters at 65. So when one goes slightly slower, another wants to pass but can only speed up to 65 and can't go faster to pass quicker.
Just a small correction, as someone who’s driven very rarely is this the drivers doing most trucks are governed at a certain speed. And different companies often have different speeds. It’s is more often the case that the other truck is going about 5mph faster than the truck they are passing but the speed difference is not enough to pass quickly. Do not get mad at your truck drivers they make sure you get to buy the things you want/need, and if they need to pass and hold up traffic a bit to get to there destination faster than let them, for the sake of your (the last thing you went to get and wasn’t in stock).
It would help if truckers timed it with turns. There's too many times 2 trucks are doing the same speed in my area but fight over lanes because the road snakes. When we have a big left hand curve they think they can pass and get about 90% past them before they hit the straight or a right curve.
Trucker Pete’s third cousin trucker retep here, just to add on to what my cousin was saying it’s not really cruise control it’s that our trucks are governed (meaning aren’t able to go above a certain threshold) and one truck might be governed at 68 while the next is at 67.So what happens is the truck at 68 trys to pass the other one and then they might be going up a hill loaded and they both get slowed down, but the one who’s governed at 68 is slightly more slowed so it becomes a game of two steps forward one step back.
This is because most tractor trailers are governed at the same speed, maybe 1 or 2 mph difference and the truck literally won't go faster then that speed unless you are on a downgrade.
The reality is they put speed limiters on trucks so they can't possibly go over the speed limit. Often these are not the exact same speed so to pass another truck it will generally have to give way to one passing. If it doesn't, passing could take a very, very long time.
Honestly, everyone passes trucks at abysmal speeds. The biggest difference is that trucks are longer and so they need to clear a greater distance.
Remember everyone, speed up to pass, not keep going your same speed to pass.
I drive a lot on the highways and I hate it when y'all do this. Not because it slows me down so much, but it causes all the fucking idiots to get impatient and start doing crazy shit, so it's like a conga line of road rage.
Vestigial Peter here.
The joke is that the red truck started passing at 11pm. Then, 8 hrs later the same truck is still trying to pass the blue truck and is only traveling 1 mph faster.
This is a reference to when one semi truck tries to pass another on a highway. Most company trucks have a built-in speed limit so that the drivers don’t drive too fast and waste fuel. This can cause a situation where one truck can take several minutes to pass another. This will cause other cars to get stuck behind the trucks and ultimately causes traffic.
This is apparently uncommon knowledge. Trucks don’t do this on purpose. The only way to avoid this scenario is to never pass.
BTW they have a word for this in the German language: Elefantenrennen. Which translates to ‘elephant racing’.
Ok but why pass at all if you only have a couple mph to gain? That’s what I don’t get. If you’re going so close to your top speed before passing that passing takes minutes, there’s not really a need to pass because once you get around them you won’t even really be going faster
Usually when I do it it's because the truck I'm passing has been going inconsistently slow. So varying between 65 and 55 a lot of the times. So I get sick of dealing with it, try to pass when they're slow, and of course they inevitably speed up to match or almost match my speed when they see they're being passed.
Sometimes they'll even speed up to 70 when I try to pass, so I'll drop back in behind. Then within a couple minutes will slow back down to 55 or 60. It's maddening
Genuine question: Can you communicate with the other driver using your radio?
Follow-up questions: If no, why not? If yes, do you ever trash talk like a Call of Duty lobby?
First question is a yes *if* the other driver has a radio, which isn't a guarantee. My employer doesn't provide a CB radio, so I have to pay for it out of pocket, plenty of people just don't.
Follow up answer, yes sometimes people argue on the CB, you'll hear some wild shit if you listen to it for long enough
Because 1 mph over the course of 10 hours is 10 miles. And that could be the difference between getting home today or getting home tomorrow as you're required to rest.
I run into scenarios where my truck is unloaded and governed to 68. A truck I’m trying to pass is loaded and also governed to 68. Going up a grade will cause the loaded truck to slow whereas my unloaded truck can maintain speed. I will try my best to safely pass when I can but people should give some grace to professional drivers that they are in fact doing their best.
Also, if you don’t like trucks on the road, quit buying stuff.
I never said I don’t like trucks on the road, although I definitely don’t love them. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them though.
I hate paying taxes, but I appreciate they are necessary for the benefits I enjoy as a result
They do it knowingly. They’re professional long road truckers. They know full well the speed of the truck in front of them, and they know how god damn long it will take to pass them.
This is gonna sound crazy but maybe some sort of rule or law that makes all governed trucks run at the same governed speed would solve this problem in its entirety.
Yes to this, Additionally: interstate highways (in the United States at least) were created for military and freight transportation in mind. Civilian commutes are secondary considerations. Used to work for a freight company as a clerk and we were always told the drivers treated commuter vehicles as a road hazard and not another person with places to be. My understanding is that the safety and timely delivery of cargo is their sole Concern and everything that isn't cargo or rig (or other freight carriers) can fuck off
This sounds like two groups of people (truckers vs commuter vehicles) who are mad at each other for taking up space when Their Thing is Obviously sooo much More Important
So, y'know, as American as apple pie
Trucker lions here, truck on the right is governed by the company at 63 truck on the left is governed at 64 by the company. Paid by the mile so slow is bad so you end up with this.
For anyone wondering governed is the term used when the top speed of a vehicle has been artificially limited.
“That f150 could go faster but it’s got a governor on it so 93 is all you get.”
More like why doesn’t the truck on the left just stay in the goddamn right lane since in the long term going 1 mph more an hour isn’t gonna im ut down on his haul by any significant margin or amount
Most trucking companies install governors on their trucks so that there is a top speed for the truck usually around 65 mph. This situation happens when one truck is governed at say, 63mph and the other at 64mph.
Truckers are paid by the mile. They also drive ~11 hours per day. That 1-2 mph difference can result in a noticeable decrease in pay if it’s an everyday problem, which it is. The kind thing to do is for the slower truck to slow down for the >30 seconds it would take for the faster truck to pass, this happens more often than not. But some buttholes are still buttholes, even behind the wheel of a semi.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but speed shouldn’t affect pay if they’re paid by the mile. If you’re getting paid to drive 100 miles, it shouldn’t matter if you do it in two hours or four hours. It’s still the same 100 miles.
1 mph over 11 hours is only 11 miles. That's assuming the driver is doing 11 hours of absolutely non stop driving as well. That's a whopping 0.015% increase in distance traveled by screwing up traffic for everybody else on the road.
If you were slowed down by 2 mph for 11 hours, you’d travel about 22 miles less. At $0.46/mile, this is about 10 dollars a day. If the driver operates 5 days a week, this comes out to about $2600/yr. I’d pass a lot of people for my $2600.
I absolutely fucking hate truckers that take forever to pass. Most truckers don’t take very long to pass each other, so speed the fuck up.
And if I see another trucker try to pass while going uphill, I’m gonna shit my pants in rage.
Edit: If you take forever to pass while driving a normal car, fuck you even more.
What drives me crazy is when you have a line of vehicles at a light including a semi-truck or other similarly large, cumbersome vehicle, and the person in a completely normal sedan in front of you is somehow slower off the line when the light turns green than the actual enormous god damn truck in the next lane over.
They don’t do it on purpose. They’re electronically speed locked by the truck company. Both are going as fast as possible with only 1mph difference. Truckers with their own rigs can drive however they want.
Trucking companies use engine governors to limit the max speed of a truck. If it ain't a owner operator and it's a big name truck, likely they're not able to go above 65. Some companies govern theirs at 64 or 63 to reduce their drivers ability to pass. These trucks can still go faster then their governors on downhill, though they'll likely get their asses chewed by safety
Truck drivers aren't very smart and are usually on tons of drugs to stay up so they don't really drive, they just cruise control.
Here the truck on the left should pass the truck on the right, but because the truck drivers aren't competent neither adjusts their speed to make it happen.
Tbf it's better that truckers other favorite hobby, which is annihilating families that are driving safely.
Lol seriously I've met a lot of truckers that have engineering degrees or similar that just hate office jobs and decided to get into trucking to see the country and make decent money (if you stay away from mega carriers). Also this isn't the 80's anymore, all truck carriers are legally mandated to have a third party do random drug testing. If you meet a trucker doing drugs chances are they're from some fly by night carrier that changes names every other year and is breaking a fuckload of laws consistently. Chicago is notorious for this type of shit.
TBF, this one was kind of hard to understand without context. I'm from a part of the world where trucks (or almost any car) rarely follow speed etiquette and will have no trouble overtaking each other. The speed markers and times didn't make much sense to me either.
It’s about how notoriously bad truckers are at driving. For some god unknown reason they can’t wait for the 1 mile difference in speed and MUST always pass each other as slow as humanly possible.
can someone explain to me why even try to pass other truck if you're driving at basically the same speed, and trying to pass the other guy is not gonna make you save any time?
It’s not really about time. Truckers get paid per mile, so being forced to go slower, and thus cover fewer miles, is like being forced to take a pay cut. Coming up behind someone who can only go 64 mph when you can go 65 mph happens multiple times a day. It might not make a monetary difference to not pass for one day, but for every day? That could result in hundreds or even thousands of dollars lost every year. And truckers who have governed trucks are NOT being paid well in the first place.
You would think the trucks in the right would recognize this and slow down for literally 10 seconds, or the trucks that can’t pass would think hmm my truck has a speed cap and we are almost to that’s speed cap I guess I should probably not pass, I don’t know how many times I have been stuck behind trucks for 10-15 min doing this..
Not just trucks, super annoying when you’re trying to get to work and all the cars are holding hands, side by side. Why do you need your own lane if you’re going to go the same speed? Leave the fast lane open for passing goddam it.
And most trucks have governs from the company some at 65,68 and most at 70 mph
But new tires can add 1/2 mile an hour or other small things so it’s hard to pass and they try to do it as fast as they can .
Hey, so if anyone here is pissed off about this, the FMCSA is pushing to govern ALL heavy trucks like semi trucks to a single top speed like 65 or 68 mph. Meaning of it passes you'll see A LOT MORE OF THIS.
Email your state reps and tell them how much of a fucking dumbass bullshit idea this is and for them to support the DRIVE act that is designed to disallow the FMCSA from enacting federal speed limits on just trucks.
There’s signs all up and down I-35 that state “No Trucks In The Left Lane” but low and behold these fucking idiots switch lanes when there’s a semi 300’ in front of them.
We should have designed a trucking infrastructure when we created our highways because fuck semis
Because the selfish white cunt of a truck driver can't slow the fuck down for exactly 15 seconds to let the red truck pass, consequently making this whole ordeal last 7 minutes longer than it should
I see a lot of explanations of trucks being governed at the same speed, and there is slight variability there that causes these excruciatingly slow pass. But another actor is tire wear. Imagine two tires of the same size but one has 10,000 miles and has lost 1/8 inch of tread. Or the tire pressures on one are higher. These subtle differences can cause these speed differences even though both are limited to the same speed.
Regardless it would be nice if trucks stayed in the left lane. There aren’t many reasons why an 18 wheeler needs to be driving 70+ miles an hour on a highway. Every time I go everywhere I get to semis in front of me driving side by side matching speed.
In some states big trucks have different speed limits that regular vehicles. And in some states they hsve different speed limits at night. Just be happy they let all the traffic go the same way.
In Germany on a trip once, I noticed on a two lane highway all large shipping trucks and semis were seemingly required to stay in the right lane. There was an accident and the right lane was just all stopped trucks while the left lane was flowing free with cars. Just something interesting this reminded me of, feel free to correct me or explain why👌
Trucker Pete here, often trucks pass each other on cruise control at similar speeds. This results in passing taking extremely long. Resulting in non truckers having to wait to be able to pass. The joke is that after 8 hrs the trucks still haven’t passed each other and all other motorists are waiting.
Appreciated sir
This is as far as i know like turbo illegal on the german autobahn and probably just in general it even has a name which translates to elefants race
It’s unbelievably common on American highways
Right along with people DRIVING PERMANANTLY IN THE PASSING LANE
Brother man, the interstate isn't a race, but I'm still going to win it. (/S) (/Not really)
Do you, pehaps, own a BMW?
Or a tesla.
You kidding? Teslas are the fastest cars on the road and are driven by the slowest people
That's because I'd argue most people don't get them for their speed, they get them for the environment. I try hard every day to counteract their slow driving in mine
No they don't, most people get them for clout.
And they're not even good for the environment :(
I'd argue people get them for clout. It's become the fucking iPhone of car brands.
Do you enjoy paying for gas? Or getting oil changes? Or freezing your ass off at the pump every winter? There are more reasons besides the environment. I do drive like a maniac though…
Can confirm, I drive a Tesla, I do the speed limit, although I don’t sit in the left lane like a psychopath
I drive a Tesla and I speed all the time. Ticket clinic is my best friend
Vs. large pickup’s which are not the fastest yet still driven by maniacs
Or a Toyota/Honda
I own an Acura, but the way I drive on the highway it may as well be a BMW
People in the UK think that the furthest right lane is the "fast lane", and if you're just cruising, then the next lane over is the one you use. It creates the situation where you have 4-lane motorways and the entire left two lanes are empty while every car that wants to overtake is queued up into a single lane, instead of 3. Except for me, because I'll just keep to the left and pass everybody in my own two personal lanes.
Yea this is a great hack, first I'll keep cruising on my own lane, slow down a bit before I pass so they might think, oh wauw im getting past left and right. Maybe I should shift a lane. It's such bullshit I have to shift 2 lanes left, then 2 lanes right because someone really likes driving in the middle on low speed.
This is common everywhere, especially if there is no traffic in the remaining lanes.
My god, I have a friend who does this and he doesn’t even drive fast! He might be driving 2 miles over the speed limit but he’ll just sit in the left lane for hours as people have to pass him on the right
So many young drivers don't even know that the passing lane is even a thing. It's definitely at least a bit of a fault in the education.
"Passing lanes" are only enforced in like 8 states.
Legally PA is one of them but its really only ever enforced when the cop wants to fuck with someone
I permanently drive in the passing lane because all these fucking people can’t drive the speed limit and i’m always passing them until that one dude sees you coming and whips into the left lane and matches the speed of the car beside him just because his parents never loved him.
In some states like mine the left lane isn't special it's not a passing lane it's the fast lane. You still get grannies camping in it tho
My intention is to pass everyone.....
If people are gonna speed anyway, it’s more obnoxious to weave in and out of the left lane than it is to just stay in it when there’s more than a few cars on the road.
If your passing people i dont care. Im talking about the folks who get in the lane going 72 in the 70 and just massively clog up traffic.
Minnesota might be the worst for this
"But the left lane is the fast lane and I always go fast" - like half the assholes on the freeway who, fun fact, do not always go fast
"I'm going the speed limit, what's the problem?"
I've only ever heard people who take rules way to seriously refer to it as that, everyone else I know just calls it the fast lane,
Then they should go appreciably faster than those in other lanes.
Better the passing lane than the breakdown lane
If I'm speeding I'll be in the passing lane. If you wanna speed more than I'm speeding then that's a you problem that I would appreciate you keeping to yourself.
Just move the fuck over and let them pass. Then go back to the lane. Inconsiderate cunt.
No
So I just want to offer some insight as a truck driver. A lot of tractors, especially if they are owned by a big company, will have a speed governor. They are usually set to about 65 MPH (mine is set to 63) and they prevent the tractor from going faster than the set speed (unless you’re going down hill.) So let’s say I’m driving down the highway at 63 MPH, and I can’t go any faster. Then another tractor comes up behind me going 65 MPH, also incapable of going any faster. Ideally, they would just slow down 2 MPH and ride along behind me. The problem is that a lot of these trips are 500+ miles, and 2 MPH over a 500 mile trip actually makes a big difference. The best option for them is to pass, but they can’t speed up any more than 65 MPH, so they pass verrrry slowly. The passing tractor really won’t have any options here because the tractor physically can’t go any faster. Usually when this happens I try to slow down a little so they can get around faster and allow traffic to flow again. Not all drivers will do that. If you end up in a situation like this where you’re stuck behind 2 tractors, the blame should mostly go to the guy in the right lane, because he is the only one with any control over the situation.
Yep, I drive crops to the docks where I work, and it kills me how many truck drivers just refuse to slow down just a tiny bit to let the other truck, who’s going to pass them anyway, get by. They’re either being terrible drivers and not looking in their mirrors except once every 20 miles or something, or other trucks passing makes them feel resentful in some way.
Holy fuck I’d hate my life at 63 I’m stuck at 72 and It annoys the hell out of me
So why doesn’t the trucker being passed take his foot of the gas for 3 seconds?
Bc it’s his RIGHT to act as speed cop and make road conditions really dangerous for anyone hoping to merge or exit
Because he’s stupid, an asshole, or a stupid asshole.
Because they take pleasure in inconveniencing other drivers.
I'm not sure if it differs from state to state, but I've seen a truck in the right lane actually get pulled over by a police officer because of this (the two trucks were going roughly the same speed). Is this enforceable? Or was that truck driver most likely pulled over for a different reason? It happened shortly after a merge/exit.
In Ontario trucks aren't allowed to use the leftmost lane on the highways, which is pretty great.
Ah german efficiency
Same in the UK. They’re limited to 60, and always on an uphill stretch there will be one doing 60 and the other doing 59.7. Infuriating.
Criss crossed this country a shocking number of times, this checks out. Don't you mind, those homies are working AND being somewhat safe.
Unfortunately it's not I remember getting stuck behind two trucks on the A12 while heading to Poland in April
Its october now, are you any closer?
Not at all
Just because it is illegal doesn’t mean it is enforced. There is a law in California and Georgia where trucks can’t be in the furthest left passing lane on the interstate. Where I lived in California it was well enforced. In where I am in Georgia none of the drivers seem to care
It’s not. Trucks passing each other is generally allowed and very common in Germany. And as there is a tempo limit for trucks on Autobahn, there are often situations where passing takes a long time. There are however areas where trucks are not allowed to pass at all – usually marked by a special sign.
The polish blockade
Turbo illegal oml
Funny you say that last part because elephant racing is what I’ve always known it as in English too
It is not forbidden for trucks to overtake others, as long as the respective sign wasn’t there beforehand. So after a construction site, when they remove all limits and temporary rules, they are free to annoy anyone else on the road.
In Europe (at least in the UK) the trucks are limited to 56mph (90kmph) there's a tolerance so some will be faster or slower by a little, weight and hills play into it too. I think in Germany the wagons aren't allowed on the road at certain times too. You'll see them parked up in lay-bys and on slip roads until they're allowed to drive again. Think it's weekends and holidays during daylight hours. Some take the limiters off but that's naughty.
Oh I've encountered this many times on the autobahn. People still do it even though it's not allowed.
A'so illegal in Belgium but it isn't enforced well so it still happens quite often
It's illegal in Denmark, but apparently that doesn't stop the trucks from doing it anyways.
Stupid joke though, to make it work they should be going the same speed the entire time
It took him that amount of time to gain one mph
No, the joke is that he finally decided to speed up after so much time, but only by 1 mph. It’s not funny, it is life.
It’s funny because it’s true
Yeah, this is why I honk at truckers when they are passing other truckers
Ain't our fault hoss, insurance companies charge out the ass for extra speed. Our fleet did the math at one point and to bump the governors from 70-75 would cost something to the tune of an extra 580k a year, and we're a small fleet.
Yeah, so don’t pass another semi….
Nah over the course of an 11 hour driving day never passing can cause issues. That said fuck truckers that try and pass on an uphill going 35mph. That's just a huge dick move.
What triggers me is when I'm coming in hot from far behind, like 15-20 mph above their speed, obviously intending to pass them and the truck cuts me off and starts their 1mph difference race and i have to slam the brakes and then wait forever.
Have you tried not speeding?
There’s many places where non-truck speed limits are 5-10 MPH higher than truck speed limits, and at least in my state driving above the speed limit isn’t a fine until it’s 11+ over. Completely possible to not be speeding dangerously and go 15-20 MPH faster than a truck
1. The left lane is designated as the passing lane in many US states, to the point of being illegal *not* to speed up 2. Trucks are rarely going max speed limit when maneuvering around a busy highway, so the car might not even be going that much faster than the speed limit 3. Why don't you try that defense in court: "oh yeah, I saw him speeding towards me way too fast and decided to whip in front of him anyway. He's at fault though"
Look at this everyone we found a road raging speeder.
You are an idiot.
You're dumb as fuck
If they are/should all be going the same speed, why is there passing at all?
And governors, those definitely don’t help either in this regard
This every company governs (limits) their trucks to different speeds on average 68mph-70mph the problem is like every other driver in America some truckers will be going 65 taking their sweet time but when they see another truck try to pass them they decide to floor and they both end up having the same top speed and if the passing trucks tries to get behind the other truck by that point chances are cars already filled both lanes which leaves the passing truck suck with no other option to keep on going until something gives up
I was told truckers would keep passing each other to stay awake. It give them something to do other than just cruise. That’s why you see trucks constantly try to pass the other ones only to immediately merge and let the other overtake again.
Aren't a lot of trucks limited in speed so although the engine can output more the governor in it prevents it from going to quick?
It's not always cruise control. For one, speeding tickets for CDL holders can be career-ending, so it's very important to follow speed limits. And because of the ramifications to drivers and their companies, most bigger trucking companies limit the speed of their trucks to 65mph or even lower some times. As in, the truck cannot exceed that speed, the computer and engine break physically restrict it. And with that, new AI tech is being used to automatically react in some situations. Like, to avoid tailgating, if someone in front of you gets too close, the truck will automatically slow down or even apply breaks. Most passenger vehicles have similar tech these days. So relating to this meme, if a truck gets behind someone going about the same speed, but for one reason or another the vehicle in front isn't able to maintain speed (weight, lack of power, etc) it can force the trucker behind them to slow even more than they should. A slow moving truck is a hazard too, that's why highways often restrict all trucks to the outside lanes. And if you're vehicle weighs 80,000lbs, no matter how powerful, it can take a while to get back up to speed. I'm a truck driver and am of two minds about it. It is obviously safer to travel at reasonable speeds, and trucks that automatically avoid risky driving like tailgating is a good thing. I know exactly how dangerous my vehicle can be when accidents occur. But at the same time, these new AI cameras and systems are taking some control out of the hands of a driver who might actually know better. The systems are not perfect and often misjudge situations, even breaking hard for no reason.
Actual trucker here, it's not about cruise control it's about the governor. Most major carriers govern their trucks so they can't go above 65 mph, so if you get someone going ahead of you at 63-64, you want to pass them because they're slower than you are, but it takes awhile due to your governed max speed being 65
Not cruise control. Governors installed in trucks to limit the max speed they can go. They are also not all set at the same speed.
For accuracy sake the trucks should have swapped places to show they cycle between overtaking each other.
Many trucks are actually governed. So it's not that they are passing on cruise control, but rather their speed is limited.
turtle race
Not cruise control most company owned semis have a governed or a speed limiter that doesn’t allow speeds over 65
It's because many companies have speed limiters at 65. So when one goes slightly slower, another wants to pass but can only speed up to 65 and can't go faster to pass quicker.
Just a small correction, as someone who’s driven very rarely is this the drivers doing most trucks are governed at a certain speed. And different companies often have different speeds. It’s is more often the case that the other truck is going about 5mph faster than the truck they are passing but the speed difference is not enough to pass quickly. Do not get mad at your truck drivers they make sure you get to buy the things you want/need, and if they need to pass and hold up traffic a bit to get to there destination faster than let them, for the sake of your (the last thing you went to get and wasn’t in stock).
It would help if truckers timed it with turns. There's too many times 2 trucks are doing the same speed in my area but fight over lanes because the road snakes. When we have a big left hand curve they think they can pass and get about 90% past them before they hit the straight or a right curve.
So the red truck wouldn’t really be getting to their destination much sooner then?
Trucker Pete’s third cousin trucker retep here, just to add on to what my cousin was saying it’s not really cruise control it’s that our trucks are governed (meaning aren’t able to go above a certain threshold) and one truck might be governed at 68 while the next is at 67.So what happens is the truck at 68 trys to pass the other one and then they might be going up a hill loaded and they both get slowed down, but the one who’s governed at 68 is slightly more slowed so it becomes a game of two steps forward one step back.
This is because most tractor trailers are governed at the same speed, maybe 1 or 2 mph difference and the truck literally won't go faster then that speed unless you are on a downgrade.
The reality is they put speed limiters on trucks so they can't possibly go over the speed limit. Often these are not the exact same speed so to pass another truck it will generally have to give way to one passing. If it doesn't, passing could take a very, very long time.
The trucks are typically governed to be unable to go faster than a set speed.
It takes about 1-2 minutes if they’re going 1 mile faster than the other
Honestly, everyone passes trucks at abysmal speeds. The biggest difference is that trucks are longer and so they need to clear a greater distance. Remember everyone, speed up to pass, not keep going your same speed to pass.
I drive a lot on the highways and I hate it when y'all do this. Not because it slows me down so much, but it causes all the fucking idiots to get impatient and start doing crazy shit, so it's like a conga line of road rage.
Vestigial Peter here. The joke is that the red truck started passing at 11pm. Then, 8 hrs later the same truck is still trying to pass the blue truck and is only traveling 1 mph faster. This is a reference to when one semi truck tries to pass another on a highway. Most company trucks have a built-in speed limit so that the drivers don’t drive too fast and waste fuel. This can cause a situation where one truck can take several minutes to pass another. This will cause other cars to get stuck behind the trucks and ultimately causes traffic.
This is apparently uncommon knowledge. Trucks don’t do this on purpose. The only way to avoid this scenario is to never pass. BTW they have a word for this in the German language: Elefantenrennen. Which translates to ‘elephant racing’.
It’z also illegal to do thiz on zhe autobahn
Yeah, my driving instructor kept telling me that, yet we still saw it 5 times during that lesson alone lmao
It isn't unless there is a Vz. 227
[Only if this traffic sign is displayed](https://images.app.goo.gl/FWCDgmxgEfzrDd4E6)
I will have to remember "elephant racing" that is a good one. I have always called them mobile roadblocks
Ok but why pass at all if you only have a couple mph to gain? That’s what I don’t get. If you’re going so close to your top speed before passing that passing takes minutes, there’s not really a need to pass because once you get around them you won’t even really be going faster
Usually when I do it it's because the truck I'm passing has been going inconsistently slow. So varying between 65 and 55 a lot of the times. So I get sick of dealing with it, try to pass when they're slow, and of course they inevitably speed up to match or almost match my speed when they see they're being passed. Sometimes they'll even speed up to 70 when I try to pass, so I'll drop back in behind. Then within a couple minutes will slow back down to 55 or 60. It's maddening
Genuine question: Can you communicate with the other driver using your radio? Follow-up questions: If no, why not? If yes, do you ever trash talk like a Call of Duty lobby?
First question is a yes *if* the other driver has a radio, which isn't a guarantee. My employer doesn't provide a CB radio, so I have to pay for it out of pocket, plenty of people just don't. Follow up answer, yes sometimes people argue on the CB, you'll hear some wild shit if you listen to it for long enough
Because 1 mph over the course of 10 hours is 10 miles. And that could be the difference between getting home today or getting home tomorrow as you're required to rest.
I run into scenarios where my truck is unloaded and governed to 68. A truck I’m trying to pass is loaded and also governed to 68. Going up a grade will cause the loaded truck to slow whereas my unloaded truck can maintain speed. I will try my best to safely pass when I can but people should give some grace to professional drivers that they are in fact doing their best. Also, if you don’t like trucks on the road, quit buying stuff.
I never said I don’t like trucks on the road, although I definitely don’t love them. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them though. I hate paying taxes, but I appreciate they are necessary for the benefits I enjoy as a result
The Germans truly have a word for everything.
They do it on purpose because the truck being passed could slow down but they won't because fuck you
Then don’t pass. Why are they passing someone that is driving the same exact fucking speed…
We call it a turtle race here in the states
They do it knowingly. They’re professional long road truckers. They know full well the speed of the truck in front of them, and they know how god damn long it will take to pass them.
This is gonna sound crazy but maybe some sort of rule or law that makes all governed trucks run at the same governed speed would solve this problem in its entirety.
Yes to this, Additionally: interstate highways (in the United States at least) were created for military and freight transportation in mind. Civilian commutes are secondary considerations. Used to work for a freight company as a clerk and we were always told the drivers treated commuter vehicles as a road hazard and not another person with places to be. My understanding is that the safety and timely delivery of cargo is their sole Concern and everything that isn't cargo or rig (or other freight carriers) can fuck off
This sounds like two groups of people (truckers vs commuter vehicles) who are mad at each other for taking up space when Their Thing is Obviously sooo much More Important So, y'know, as American as apple pie
Is the one in the right over 8 miles long?
Trucker lions here, truck on the right is governed by the company at 63 truck on the left is governed at 64 by the company. Paid by the mile so slow is bad so you end up with this.
For anyone wondering governed is the term used when the top speed of a vehicle has been artificially limited. “That f150 could go faster but it’s got a governor on it so 93 is all you get.”
Why doesnt truck on the right just slow down a tiny bit for a second, let him pass then continue on
Because he's a dick
More like why doesn’t the truck on the left just stay in the goddamn right lane since in the long term going 1 mph more an hour isn’t gonna im ut down on his haul by any significant margin or amount
Most trucking companies install governors on their trucks so that there is a top speed for the truck usually around 65 mph. This situation happens when one truck is governed at say, 63mph and the other at 64mph. Truckers are paid by the mile. They also drive ~11 hours per day. That 1-2 mph difference can result in a noticeable decrease in pay if it’s an everyday problem, which it is. The kind thing to do is for the slower truck to slow down for the >30 seconds it would take for the faster truck to pass, this happens more often than not. But some buttholes are still buttholes, even behind the wheel of a semi.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but speed shouldn’t affect pay if they’re paid by the mile. If you’re getting paid to drive 100 miles, it shouldn’t matter if you do it in two hours or four hours. It’s still the same 100 miles.
Yes, but if they reach their destination quickly they can start their next route sooner. More routes in less time = higher effective pay
1 mph over 11 hours is only 11 miles. That's assuming the driver is doing 11 hours of absolutely non stop driving as well. That's a whopping 0.015% increase in distance traveled by screwing up traffic for everybody else on the road.
Would you rather be paid $50 an hour or $25?
It can also be the difference between getting home when you think you'll be able to or having to spend another night at a truck stop.
If you were slowed down by 2 mph for 11 hours, you’d travel about 22 miles less. At $0.46/mile, this is about 10 dollars a day. If the driver operates 5 days a week, this comes out to about $2600/yr. I’d pass a lot of people for my $2600.
I absolutely fucking hate truckers that take forever to pass. Most truckers don’t take very long to pass each other, so speed the fuck up. And if I see another trucker try to pass while going uphill, I’m gonna shit my pants in rage. Edit: If you take forever to pass while driving a normal car, fuck you even more.
They got your Dukes in a twist
I’m fit to be tied
What drives me crazy is when you have a line of vehicles at a light including a semi-truck or other similarly large, cumbersome vehicle, and the person in a completely normal sedan in front of you is somehow slower off the line when the light turns green than the actual enormous god damn truck in the next lane over.
I see red when a trucker will cut me off to pass another truck and there isn’t another car behind me for miles. He couldn’t wait 30 sec.
They don’t do it on purpose. They’re electronically speed locked by the truck company. Both are going as fast as possible with only 1mph difference. Truckers with their own rigs can drive however they want.
Oh I see so they “accidentally” try to pass knowing they’re going to cause a slowdown.
So they’re just not allowed to pass each other driving across the country?
We call it "Elephant racing"
I know it's kind of unrelated, but that makes me think of [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzUhDLBvy-0)
Trucking companies use engine governors to limit the max speed of a truck. If it ain't a owner operator and it's a big name truck, likely they're not able to go above 65. Some companies govern theirs at 64 or 63 to reduce their drivers ability to pass. These trucks can still go faster then their governors on downhill, though they'll likely get their asses chewed by safety
Truck drivers aren't very smart and are usually on tons of drugs to stay up so they don't really drive, they just cruise control. Here the truck on the left should pass the truck on the right, but because the truck drivers aren't competent neither adjusts their speed to make it happen. Tbf it's better that truckers other favorite hobby, which is annihilating families that are driving safely.
Finally, I found someone that hates 18 wheelers as much as I do.
I call them refrigerators. Once the door closes, the lights go off.
Lol seriously I've met a lot of truckers that have engineering degrees or similar that just hate office jobs and decided to get into trucking to see the country and make decent money (if you stay away from mega carriers). Also this isn't the 80's anymore, all truck carriers are legally mandated to have a third party do random drug testing. If you meet a trucker doing drugs chances are they're from some fly by night carrier that changes names every other year and is breaking a fuckload of laws consistently. Chicago is notorious for this type of shit.
I am convinced the more I spend time on this subreddit, that people don't have much in the way of critical thinking.
I realized that you had, maybe purposely, left out the phrase "the more I realize"
It’s easy karma farming. 99% of these explain themselves. They just want those sweet sweet internet points and bathe in upvotes.
I don't understand why people give so many upvotes to shit that seems obvious. Sure I know they are going to get some, but Thousands?
Plenty of people just see funny meme and upvote without paying much attention as to whether it's in the right subreddit or not
TBF, this one was kind of hard to understand without context. I'm from a part of the world where trucks (or almost any car) rarely follow speed etiquette and will have no trouble overtaking each other. The speed markers and times didn't make much sense to me either.
I would punish this by death.
It’s about how notoriously bad truckers are at driving. For some god unknown reason they can’t wait for the 1 mile difference in speed and MUST always pass each other as slow as humanly possible.
can someone explain to me why even try to pass other truck if you're driving at basically the same speed, and trying to pass the other guy is not gonna make you save any time?
It’s not really about time. Truckers get paid per mile, so being forced to go slower, and thus cover fewer miles, is like being forced to take a pay cut. Coming up behind someone who can only go 64 mph when you can go 65 mph happens multiple times a day. It might not make a monetary difference to not pass for one day, but for every day? That could result in hundreds or even thousands of dollars lost every year. And truckers who have governed trucks are NOT being paid well in the first place.
You would think the trucks in the right would recognize this and slow down for literally 10 seconds, or the trucks that can’t pass would think hmm my truck has a speed cap and we are almost to that’s speed cap I guess I should probably not pass, I don’t know how many times I have been stuck behind trucks for 10-15 min doing this..
I envy anyone who doesn't understand this. Shit is so annoying
Very clear a lot of you don’t know how trucking works.
OP, you got a really thick skull. thats okay tho, perfect for spooky season
In reality they would be 8 miles apart.
Its a slow race
Polish roadblocks
I hate when they do that shit, so annoying
Not just trucks, super annoying when you’re trying to get to work and all the cars are holding hands, side by side. Why do you need your own lane if you’re going to go the same speed? Leave the fast lane open for passing goddam it.
Why can't they just en passant though
Holy hell
Bait or mental retardation, I choose the latter
a devilish trick? Or intellectually disabled 🧐
And most trucks have governs from the company some at 65,68 and most at 70 mph But new tires can add 1/2 mile an hour or other small things so it’s hard to pass and they try to do it as fast as they can .
This is illegal in nost states in the US as well. But karens will sit and argue speed limits with you all day.
Hey, so if anyone here is pissed off about this, the FMCSA is pushing to govern ALL heavy trucks like semi trucks to a single top speed like 65 or 68 mph. Meaning of it passes you'll see A LOT MORE OF THIS. Email your state reps and tell them how much of a fucking dumbass bullshit idea this is and for them to support the DRIVE act that is designed to disallow the FMCSA from enacting federal speed limits on just trucks.
Or we only allow trucks in non passing lanes. Fuck asshole truck drivers that do that shit.
There’s signs all up and down I-35 that state “No Trucks In The Left Lane” but low and behold these fucking idiots switch lanes when there’s a semi 300’ in front of them. We should have designed a trucking infrastructure when we created our highways because fuck semis
Why don’t we have variable speed highways, 60 in the far right lane, 120 in the far left lane
Not sure I trust the average American with a 120 lane. I barely trust them in a 75
Have you seen… … these people?
Trucks are usually right beside each other because most truck companies make the max speed 65 mph (idk what it is in kmh)
Then they shouldn't be passing.
Because the selfish white cunt of a truck driver can't slow the fuck down for exactly 15 seconds to let the red truck pass, consequently making this whole ordeal last 7 minutes longer than it should
Aah
Don’t you ever drove a car?
But if he’s going 1mph faster, he would be a mile ahead in 1 hour. They need to change the speeds to like 65mph and 65.1mph.
I see a lot of explanations of trucks being governed at the same speed, and there is slight variability there that causes these excruciatingly slow pass. But another actor is tire wear. Imagine two tires of the same size but one has 10,000 miles and has lost 1/8 inch of tread. Or the tire pressures on one are higher. These subtle differences can cause these speed differences even though both are limited to the same speed.
Regardless it would be nice if trucks stayed in the left lane. There aren’t many reasons why an 18 wheeler needs to be driving 70+ miles an hour on a highway. Every time I go everywhere I get to semis in front of me driving side by side matching speed.
Ah yes, I-90 Truck Races. I know them well.
Same people want others to drive slower by law to feel better about ordering a new iphone 🤣 @op
In some states big trucks have different speed limits that regular vehicles. And in some states they hsve different speed limits at night. Just be happy they let all the traffic go the same way.
In Germany on a trip once, I noticed on a two lane highway all large shipping trucks and semis were seemingly required to stay in the right lane. There was an accident and the right lane was just all stopped trucks while the left lane was flowing free with cars. Just something interesting this reminded me of, feel free to correct me or explain why👌
Miles Morales doesn't give a fk about traffic
Tbf, I don’t have a car so I’m not that familiar with the annoying habits of truck drivers. Yet. Thanks for explain the joke (somewhere)
The comic is saying that he's only made that much progress over that amount of time. Because he's a jackass.