Truck Drivers Say These Are Your Most Annoying Driving Habits

Sure, big trucks can be plenty annoying when you're driving in a typical light-duty ride. But if you ever feel your blood boiling when you're trapped behind a slow-moving semi, or in front of a fast-moving one bearing down on your bumper, remember: Truck drivers can get equally angry at some of the antics pulled by people in passenger vehicles. Among the worst are when car drivers put trucks into positions where their size is a key disadvantage, making the road more dangerous for both you and them.

For example, one of the most common complaints from truck drivers is that people in cars ride in trucks' huge blind spots — which are indeed pretty big. As a result, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recommends that, if you're traveling in the same lane as a semi, you stay at least 30 feet behind the trailer. Otherwise, it makes tailgating a big truck even more risky than when you do it to a car, since the truck won't even know you're there.

Plus, tall hoods and big grilles aren't just lethal to pedestrians and cyclists. They create dangerous forward blind spots as well. With that in mind, the FMCSA extends the front "no zone" of a semi forward to 20 feet. Additionally, there are sizable blind zones extending sideways by about one lane on the driver's side and two lanes on the truck's passenger side. To gauge whether your vehicle is in the truck's blind spot, the best practice is to look into the truck's sideview mirrors. If you can see the trucker's face, that means they can see your vehicle.

If semi-truck blind spots weren't terrifying enough, you also have to pay particular attention to them when you're trying to pass. Big-rig drivers hate it when you try to get by on the right for exactly that reason: The right-hand-side blind spot for a semi is significantly larger than the one on the driver's side. Nor should you quickly cut in ahead of a big truck, especially if one of the world's largest semis is coming. Beyond the fact that you could end up in the truck's front blind spot, you could easily get rear-ended. A large truck can take 40% longer to stop than a passenger car or light truck. Needless to say, that's not going to help much if you whip over into a truck's lane with only inches to spare.

It's not just your highway habits that irritate truck drivers, either. They'll get vexed if you don't leave them enough room to turn on city streets. Don't forget, their trucks can be so large that they have to either go extra wide to get around a corner or even start their turns from the "wrong" lanes. Stay aware and patient, even if the light is about to change. Creeping forward to anticipate a green can leave you in a position to be clipped by a turning truck.

Avoiding these behaviors isn't just about trying to stay on the good side of a cranky truck driver. When you engage in these risky behaviors, you take on most of the risk. Only about 16% of the people killed in large-truck crashes were riding in the trucks at the time.