Campaign offers tips on sharing the road with heavy trucks

July 7, 2017 / 2 min read

The weekend leading up to July 4th saw record-breaking travel for Americans. According to AAA, more than 44 million of us traveled at least 50 miles from our homes—a nearly 3 percent jump in travelers from 2016. More than 37 million of those travelers hit the road.

The Independence Day holiday travel period is defined as Friday, June 30, to Tuesday, July 4, and on that Friday, the Tennessee Trucking Association set-up “Safety Breaks” across Tennessee to do three things:

Encourage drivers—of all vehicles—to take a rest from long trips
Hand out free drinks and snacks
Educate everyone on how to safely co-exist with 80,000-pound, fully-loaded vehicles traveling at highway speeds

One father just repeated 'I didn’t know that' over and over as he learned that his car is invisible for 20 feet past the hood of a big truck.

At a rest stop west of Nashville, we had a steady flow of truckers, families, and individuals stop by to take a break, grab their favorite Little Debbie snack, and peek into the brightly painted truck illustrating the “No Zones” where truck drivers can’t see the vehicles around them. Kids loved honking the air horn on the truck, as you’d expect, but as a volunteer, the best part for me was watching the reaction of adults learn about No Zones.

One father, traveling with his wife and kids south from Cleveland, Ohio, just repeated “I didn’t know that” over and over as he learned that his car is invisible for 20 feet past the hood of a big truck, nearly 200 feet behind it, and in large blind spots on both sides. He took a hard look at the informational postcards we were handing out, grabbed one for his soon-to-be driving oldest son, and thanked us for being there

And “being there” is why iiX, the Tennessee Trucking Foundation, and motor carriers across the country are all committed to safety. Wherever you are going, we want you and your family to get there safely.

Learn more about trucking safety

For more information on No Zones and how cars and trucks can safely co-exist, visit the Tennessee Trucking Foundation’s website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or Instagram.

iiX, the leader in employee screening and driver monitoring solutions, and our partners at Verisk’s Engineering and Safety Service (E&S™) created SAFETY MATTERS, a campaign to help fleet operators enhance their operational safety efforts.