Over the last few months if you have paid attention to the news, we have seen quite a few of stories of road rage and truckers. Some like last week have been trucker on trucker crimes, and some have been truck againest 4-wheelers. What is causing the increase in road rage incidents?
Just this week in our Married 2 The Road Podcast we spoke with Matt Neef, where he found himself the victim of a road rage incident with another truck driver. You can listen to the entire story here, but a truck driver thought Matt was cutting him off during bad weather conditions. In the end he wound up pulling a gun on Matt, and threatening his life.
And also this week on CDLlife there’s was a story of two truck drivers getting into a verbal altercation. When one of the drivers climbed into the other driver’s cab of his truck, and wound up shooting him in the head. Then just yesterday another story of two brothers who were intimidating a delivery truck driver in Utah. Trying to get the delivery driver to pull over to engage in a fight.
With so many people feeling a financial crunch in their personal lives, and everyday stressors increasing. Road Rage seems to be on the rise. Combine this with truck drivers all across the country struggling with low freight rates, too many truck drivers in the industry and not enough runs. This can turn out to be a deadly situation.
As trucker we are held to a higher standard of being professional drivers. With all the stresses we deal with on a daily basis, from construction, being cut off, brake checked, bad weather and more. It is easy to see how one could lose their cool during a difficult day. Here are some simple tips we could all practice to help curb our tempers.
- Take deep breath and try to bring your blood pressure down and try to relax in difficult situations.
- Turn up the music and concentrate on music rather than the stresses outside your window.
- Avoid engaging when others cut you off or brake check you.
- Try to occupy your mind when things become stressful.
