How many pounds is 6 tons?

My wife worked in a fabric store for years and would tell me stories about supposedly educated folks asking "how much is a yard?" (meaning length). I am not surprised that this happened at all.

When I drove my 'C' to Alaska, I noted that the speedometer showed MPH and KPH directly below it. Good to go, right? When I crossed the Canadian border at Sweetgrass, MT. I came to a bridge with a superstructure, and the height was marked at 5 Meters. Luckily, it was early morning and traffic was light. So I pulled over, did the math on my laptop, and I was good to go.
Finally ready. The very next day, I shopped in a grocery store, looking for some lunch meat. The deli had it priced per gram. I didn't have that conversion, so I just ordered 8 slices. When I stopped for the night, I expanded my conversion tables. The next morning I pulled into a gas station. It was priced in Canadian pounds per liter. But the attendant pumped the gas, so I just asked him to fill it up and paid inside with an American Express card. Amex does the conversion for you. When I found Tim Horton's for coffee, I was a happy camper.

Tango, AE7UI wrote:
I doubt she'll be driving big rigs or anything for quite some time after this.
How did she pass the CDL?

She'll probably be back on the road sooner than you would imagine. There's a huge driver shortage in this country, if you turn on a CB radio you will hear all kinds of foreign drivers. Trucking companies all over United States are desperate to hire drivers! Heck some companies have a "if you can fog up a mirror, you can drive for us" policy! Ok, I'm over exagerating but the point is that's how desperate they are, they've lowered the standards for newer drivers just to get (new) drivers in their trucks and deliver their loads.

The reality is it's sad that there are some many under experienced drivers, like someone on RV Net quotes (Mark Twain) "good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement". :B

Dan

Worst I've seen was a semi on i5 in Seattle 8 lanes full of traffic moving fast - driver (male) had his foot out the window and headphones on. If we weren't so scared to get away from him I'd have my wife take a pic but self preservation took over. Semi wrecks are very common on the highway I drive the most so I always keep my distance.

Good to hear wi have so many expert drivers with ther 15 t or is that 30000lb rigs riding the highways ? Why is it that ther are so many pull tru sites. Or my truck can pull that. Or have a look at what I saw at the campground. Not to mention that most of you can only Cary a half ton, or 3/4 ton, or maybe 1 ton, I hope non of you are overloaded.
Frank.

Ouch! Glad I don't drive a truck for a living. Some of the roads are bad enough navigating with a car.

Without knowing all the information (news reports are always sketchy) it was most likely careless inattentiveness. I have been in the trucking business for over 40 years and I have good drivers. From time to time a few of my drivers have admitted that they were not paying attention, fortunately not this serious.

I am not admitting that I have also been guilty.

I know a few women truckers that can run circles around your driving ability. And not knowing your driving ability I realize that's a strong statement. That said this has nothing to do with the sex of the driver and everything to do with lack of education.

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
She told the story of "I didn't know what a ton weighs" because it sounds better than, "I was lazy and didn't feel like backing up."

I like it..and you may be right. She may have also had to lie and say she didn't see the truck with a red line through it. "But that doesn't look like my truck."

I don't know how anybody can get through life, let alone truck driver education, and not know what a ton is.

A lot of rocket scientists driving RVs as well ............ saw a 100K plus motorhome trucking down the interstate with a slide open.