[Mustang Sammy]

Having had the good fortune to have lived in and traveled to a few countries, here are some observations on the trucks plying on Indian roads compared to other countries, many of which have no doubt been highlighted in other threads on this forum:

1. Underpowered: Indian trucks are waaaaaaay underpowered and overloaded compared to other countries. This is not just the West, or developed Asian countries like Japan, Korea and (these days) China and Malaysia. Even Vietnam and Indonesia have more powerful big trucks than we do. Why can't Tata and Ashok Leyland provide more power to their vehicles? Is it the risk of reckless driving, tight budgets and penny-pinching by truck buyers, or something else? I can't imagine running these engines for extended periods under excessive loads is good for their fuel economy or lifetime. Not to mention how these slow trucks end up clogging all the lanes of highways, when you have a truck at 10kmph overtaking one at 5kmph, and a third one speeding (relatively) at 12kmph, taking up all the space on the highway.
Truck drivers have a hard enough job, and these kinds of vehicles just make it much harder.

2. Maintenance: Same as the 1st point. I have yet to see trucks in other countries that are as ill-maintained as those in India. Malfunctioning to non-existent tail lamps and indicators, clouds of black smoke belching from the exhaust, bald(ing) tires are some of the examples that come to mind.
One also often sees broken down trucks parked on the side of the road or in the left lane, with no lighting or hazard indicators to warn incoming traffic. This is a massive hazard, especially at night. I had a colleague and his taxi driver lose their life when their car rammed into such a truck in Bangalore, several years back.

3. Strange driving practices: Why do slow trucks stick to the right lane? Is it to be able to maintain a steady speed, or just poor training and lack of consideration for other drivers? To be fair, other vehicles also indulge in this behavior, just that trucks are the slowest of them all. Lack of indicators is another one, where they just veer into the adjacent lane without warning. Almost never saw these driving practices outside India.

Any other observations?

[GTO]

Agreed with the maintenance, underpowered point (although newer trucks are solving that) and also overloading, but I will disagree on bad driving. In fact, I will go a step further and say that trucks are the best driven vehicles on highways...far, far more well-mannered and disciplined than tourist buses, taxis and even private cars. As the quality of Indian highways has improved, so has the behaviour of Indian truckers. Of course, there are bad apples in every group, yet as a percentage, bad truckers are far less prominent than in other vehicle classes.

I love Indian truckers .

Related Thread: The plight of Indian truckers

[Turbohead]

Trucks stick to the right most lane as it's mostly free from obstacles such as parked vehicles and relatively free from pedestrians, bikes etc. Although, it's not the right practice, it is actually safer because sudden braking and maneuvering in a truck puts it at risk of ploughing into other vehicles, or worse, rolling over.

[Sreesh1009]

From what I've seen, some truck drivers are great on the highway, it's when they enter the city, they get frustrated or are still in, what I call, "Highway Mode" and end up driving recklessly.
Plus the deadlines to deliver and the heavy loads are quite taxing on the driver. These guys driver for hours together and sometimes days together with no breaks at times. Unlike western countries, where they have fixed times of driving per day.
Hope things change for them!

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

3. Strange driving practices: Why do slow trucks stick to the right lane? Is it to be able to maintain a steady speed, or just poor training and lack of consideration for other drivers? To be fair, other vehicles also indulge in this behavior, just that trucks are the slowest of them all. Lack of indicators is another one, where they just veer into the adjacent lane without warning. Almost never saw these driving practices outside India.

Any other observations?

This is completely wrong. Truckers across the country are some of the best drivers, with max adherence to rules of the road when compared to the other idiots on the road. It's the problem due to reason 1 and 2 that they turn out to be a constraint on the road for impatient 4 wheelers.

If one heads to the mountains (Himalayas), the situation turns even more in their favor - not only do they diligently follow the rules but are one of the first to offer help when needed.

[paragsachania]

Except for local truckers ferrying Cement/Concrete, mine, sand and other construction materials both in HTVs and their mini contraptions called Ace and Dost, I have a huge respect for all the highway truckers.

A little bit of patience when on road in your car and just see the respect you "earn" back from them. I still acknowledge a trucker giving way with a short H-O-N-K though only few of them really reciprocate this.

Since last few months, I have been watching a lot of videos of the plight of truckers on a YouTube channel called "Transport TV". This one has loads and loads of videos directly uploaded or shared by the truckers when it comes to their plight and experiences of dealing with cops and RTO authorities and the local population (petty accidents). A few more videos on how they get looted (even today) and the dangerous situations they encounter.

For me, traffic on the highway means truck traffic and nothing else. They make our highways look so lively and safe.

However, we still have quite a few who drive rash and are negligent and end up causing a lot of fatal accidents but the overall percentage of these drivers is miniscule in reality. Overloading and hogging the fast or all the lanes is another irritant that I have had many impatient moments dealing with them few years back. All that I do now is patiently wait for a gap and pass them and it really helps no one else but me. It's a fact that I have started to accept instead of expecting them to change their driving behaviour. Many such practices like these that have ended up becoming a practice only due to a lot of reasons. Our highways have left lane used a service lane for local populace and buses and ricks to stop at their wish or even cars with Hazards to buy fruits from a vendor. They are simply forced to follow these practices by circumstances and now more so because they are trained that way by their gurus too.

Have spent some good time talking to these truckers and here are some random clicks from the a decade earlier:

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by GTO

that trucks are the best driven vehicles on highways...far, far more well-mannered and disciplined than tourist buses, taxis and even private cars.

Absolutely true; I have just one grouse against them - some move in the fast lane (next to the median), while some move in the center lane, and that makes weaving in and out quite a pain on crowded highways eg. Mumbai - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru - Coimbatore.

Originally Posted by Turbohead

Trucks stick to the right most lane as it's mostly free from obstacles such as parked vehicles

True; plus they lose momentum everything they brake and picking up speed is quite a task given the load that these trucks carry.

Originally Posted by Sreesh1009

From what I've seen, some truck drivers are great on the highway, it's when they enter the city, they get frustrated or are still in, what I call, "Highway Mode" and end up driving recklessly.

The worst trucks I've encountered so far are the empty ones, which can go real fast. The local mafia run trucks are the ones that indulge in dadagiri.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

[b]they turn out to be a constraint on the road for impatient 4 wheelers

Absolutely; 4 wheeler drivers need to learn to be more patient.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

A little bit of patience when on road in your car and just see the respect you "earn" back from them. I still acknowledge a trucker giving way with a short H-O-N-K though only few of them really reciprocate this.

In my recent adventures in a Nano, I encountered countless such truckers whom I acknowledged by waving to as a way of acknowledgment. I also encountered some rogue truckers - one empty TN registered one on the Coimbatore bypass, another loaded TN59 one on the Attibele - Krishnagiri sector, and the third HR registered truck that made an abrupt left rurn from the right most somewhere after Hosur on the Hosur - Attibele sector. This created an emergency braking for a Grand i10 that was ahead of me, and I thought he was gone, but managed to avert a serious collision.

It is very important to be alert and drop speeds when entering junctions.

[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

1. Underpowered:
2. Maintenance:
3. Strange driving practices:

You’ll find that it’s equally applicable to 4,3 and 2 wheelers too.

[V.Narayan]

I started my career with what is now called Tata Motors, then TELCO. My job used to be selling trucks for cash or finance and visiting truckers in their offices and travelling with them short distances to build relations. Just like some car owners curse truckers, trust me, in India truckers equally talk about car owners and the biggest curse of them all, the two-wheeler chap. They were doing this in 1982. I imagine the situation is a lot worse now. You need to sit in a big truck to realize the blind spots especially on your left front corner. I welcome the new proposal that truck cabs be air-conditioned. Much needed.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

2. Maintenance: Same as the 1st point. I have yet to see trucks in other countries that are as ill-maintained as those in India. Malfunctioning to non-existent tail lamps and indicators, clouds of black smoke belching from the exhaust, bald(ing) tires are some of the examples that come to mind.

This is due to the lack of vehicle inspections by law enforcement. In the US, passing police cruisers routinely pull over B-trains (prime mover + 2 trailers) which have one busted light on the side out of 50 or so lights all over the train. They pull over trucks (and cars) that have balding tyres or if they've been flinging their treads off of worn tyres.

Heck, in the winter, Connecticut even has what is called as the "missile law"; accumulated snow and ice on the top of trucks and trailers can be flung by winds onto smaller traffic with devastating effect ("missiles") and the truck drivers are liable - again to clean off all the snow and ice up there before they hit the highway.

In Australia, cops lounge around near provincial borders and stop even road trains (prime mover + infinite trailers ) and inspect every light, tyre and chain which holds down their freight.

Huge fines are slapped for infringements. There is no way to inveigle one's way out of them if one's truck is not maintained properly. The underlying principle is that with huge power comes huge responsibility and they shouldn't be on the road if they can't bear them.

[Maverick1977]

Truck drivers used to be a disciplined lot a few years back and also very helpful especially when highways were single carriage with no median. Since they were perched high, we would actually drive behind them and wait for their signal to overtake. Most of the overtaking like this used to be safe.
However, in the recent times and as traffic has increased I have seen them getting less discipline. Some times it's frustrating when you are cruising on a near empty highway in the middle lane and the truck is right there driving at his own sweet pace. In other Asian countries I have seen them drive only in the left/ right most lane leaving the faster lane for cars only.
The problem is this particular segment has seen the least improvement in terms of features or even creature comforts. Most trucks still lack a basic thing like air-conditioning and I don't think the manufacturer or the owners are interested in getting one in the trucks.

[RedTerrano]

Agree on the speed part. Even today, one sees numerous trucks with "Speed King" and 40 KMPH written on it at the same time !! Don't know if the painter is stuck in old times or there is a speed governor.

From my driving experience of the last 30 years I find truckers to be the most disciplined and helpful lot. If you do see a truck hogging the right hand lane you can be assured the road condition is bad / road repairs / or unruly traffic merging into the left lane.

Originally Posted by locusjag

Heck, in the winter, Connecticut even has what is called as the "missile law"; accumulated snow and ice on the top of trucks and trailers can be flung by winds onto smaller traffic with devastating effect ("missiles") and the truck drivers are liable - again to clean off all the snow and ice up there before they hit the highway.

And here is one way to clear off the snow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5o3lWnF9v0

[Mustang Sammy]

I misspoke on the safety part. Agree that truck drivers are among the safer ones on average in terms of sticking to lanes and maintaining a steady (if ultra slow) speed, while the trucks are loaded. They are very helpful too, having been the recipient of their concern when I have been standing by a parked car with the hood open.
Bus and car drivers indulge in far more antics on average.
Give many of the same guys an empty truck and see their behavior change for the worse though. End of the day, these practices of hogging the fast lane create hazardous conditions by causing other drivers to take chances on the road to get ahead.

What will it take to give truck drivers better vehicles with decent power, braking capacity and some creature comforts?

[anandhsub]

I love the inter state truckers, how they follow lane discipline on tight curves when driving those 16 wheelers is a sight to watch.

It is also why I love driving at night. Very predictable to overtake these truckers, unlike the unruly local traffic during the day.

As Parag mentioned, it is only the short distance cement/ sand lorries that are a big pain, always fear the sand flying off at decent speeds would scratch the paint or the windshield.

I dont think they are underpowered anymore, most do maintain 40-50 km/hr easily and some trucks can easily cruise even at ~70 km/hr. It is just that when u are touching triple digits one trucker overtaking another at ~5 km/hr relative speed difference, makes it feel like they are driving a lot slower.

It just requires a little bit of patience. It would barely take ~30 seconds for the overtaking to complete, and more often than not the truck will quietly give way to overtake once it has finished its own maneuver.

[jigar1791@gmail]

Originally Posted by GTO

Agreed with the maintenance, underpowered point (although newer trucks are solving that) and also overloading, but I will disagree on bad driving. In fact, I will go a step further and say that trucks are the best-driven vehicles on highways...far, far more well-mannered and disciplined than tourist buses, taxis and even private cars. As the quality of Indian highways has improved, so has the behaviour of Indian truckers. Of course, there are bad apples in every group, yet as a percentage, bad truckers are far less prominent than in other vehicle classes.

I love Indian truckers .

On point. We, as private car owners revving up on our highways, need to be considerate towards these long haul trucks. It’s only about time we realise we all/many of us need to develop empathy with these truckers.

Enough has been written about how difficult life can be for these long haul trucks, and a bit of compassion and understanding towards them will their life a bit easy on the roads.

I always use this relative theory to not get angry on trucks not giving us the right-of-way :
If you’re driving a small car, imagine an Audi/Merc/more powerful car flashing dipper/honking at you to give them the pass, would we do it? Many times, we will not !!

That’s the problem with many of us - we feel truckers DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to drive in the rightmost lane, but they still do. I understand, by law, it’s not allowed, but looking at their justification, we may just about feel a bit for them (small villages en-route, rouge bikers, tippers etc make left lane driving difficult).

I had made a resolution 2 years back, while returning from Mahabaleshwar, on 2nd January ‘19 - whenever a truck is found driving in the rightmost lane, and even after honk/dipper he doesn’t give you the pass, put myself in his shoes and think - would I have given a more fast/powerful car the pass? Answer that you’ll get when you will question this to yourself!

Regards,
Jigar Shah