In football it’s sometimes said that the best offense is a good defense. The same can be said of navigating a tractor-trailer through traffic and safely delivering freight. In addition to earning a reputation as a safe and reliable driver, having a driving record with no preventable crashes is a valuable asset when it’s time to apply for another job.
But there’s another, very important, benefit: By avoiding crashes you’re helping other drivers get home safely too.
The idea that professional drivers are looking out for each other’s families and loved ones — even when they aren’t the best of drivers — may seem far-fetched. However, with so many truck drivers (more than 3.5 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau) there’s always a chance that the people in any given vehicle have a connection to trucking. That includes folks traveling in those pesky “four-wheelers” that share the roadways with big rigs.
That’s the inherent problem with the term “defensive driving.”
The term can imply that your only purpose is to defend yourself against the actions of other motorists. You’re doing that, of course — but by using techniques that help keep you out of accidents, you’re also helping to safeguard others.
For example, when you adjust your following distance to maintain enough space to stop if the vehicle ahead does, you’re also defending the vehicle ahead, and its occupants, against a rear-end collision. By reducing your risk of a collision you’ve reduced their risk, too.
Be aware of the potential consequences of your decisions.
While it isn’t difficult to imagine the potential consequences of following too closely, we may not consider the consequences of other actions.
For example, any lane changes you make can impact the driving decisions of the motorists around your vehicle. Vehicles behind you may brake, change lanes themselves or accelerate in an attempt to get around your truck.
Each decision made by the drivers of vehicles on the road impacts the decisions of other drivers … until someone makes a mistake that results in a collision. You may not be involved at all, but your actions may have started a chain of events that resulted in someone’s injury or even death.
You can’t control every decision made by every motorist, of course. However, by asking yourself if a lane change is really necessary before you make the maneuver, you might avoid contributing to someone else’s bad decision.
No matter which defensive driving course you attended or strategy you choose to follow, factoring the potential actions of other motorists into your driving decisions can help keep your record incident-free — and it helps keep others safe, too.
Be prepared for other drivers to make bad decisions.
While professional drivers often have the ability to anticipate the actions of other motorists, it’s a mistake to assume those other drivers will always choose a safe option in response to your vehicle.
Left turns are a prime example of a maneuver that can be risky. It can be a long wait for a gap in oncoming traffic that’s large enough to move a loaded 18-wheeler through the intersection. It’s not unusual for impatience to result in a driver making the maneuver without a sufficient gap, assuming that oncoming traffic will see and understand what’s happening — and slow down if necessary.
However, an approaching motorist might be watching the signal light, hoping to beat the next red — or they could be distracted by any of the hundreds of things vying for their attention. Perhaps they’re impaired by alcohol, or fatigued, or inexperienced.
For whatever reason, it’s possible that someone won’t make the right driving decision, resulting in a catastrophic accident.
Strategic preparation is key to safety.
Professional commercial vehicle drivers aren’t surprised that other motorists make improper actions: They see bad driving decisions every day. If you know that bad motorists are out there and that they will make bad decisions, you have the advantage of preparing for those actions.
At the risk of sparking a debate about truck parking options….
Parking your rig on the shoulder of the highway is an example of trusting that other motorists will do the right thing. If your lights are on, you think, other drivers should see that:
- You are not in the driving lane; and
- You are stopped.
Even so, motorists crash into parked trucks all the time.
Again, distraction or impairment on the part of the other may play a part. You may be legally parked and even asleep when the collision occurs — but you also might have prevented the collision and its consequences by parking somewhere else. This is why so many carriers have “sitting duck” rules against parking on highways.
Speaking of rules….
Carriers often have rules against making U-turns, too. It can be frustrating to miss a turn or an exit, especially when you don’t know how long you’ll need to drive to reach the next safe place to turn around. GPS systems may even tell you to make a U-turn.
When schedules are tight, a U-turn seems like the quickest way to get back on your route, but U-turns are fraught with danger. It’s probably safe to say that everyone in the North American trucking industry has heard about the tragic fatal crash on the Florida Turnpike in 2025 caused by a truck driver making an illegal U-turn.
Why are U-turns so dangerous?
On narrow roads, you may need to cross multiple lanes to complete the maneuver, something motorists ahead and behind may not be expecting. In addition, as you’re slowing down and then returning to cruising speed, the rear of your vehicle is exposed to collision. The side of your trailer is exposed for considerable time. At 40 mph, oncoming traffic is approaching at 60 feet per second; this means your vehicle could be vulnerable for 12 to 15 seconds. Put in perspective, that’s a lot of time for something to happen.
In the end, safety is not a game.
It may sometimes seem otherwise, but driving isn’t a competition.
Traffic isn’t always “fair,” and motorists who drive improperly by speeding, ignoring lane closure signs or weaving in and out of traffic often seem to get rewarded by getting ahead.
But when a collision happens, everyone loses.
Winning isn’t finishing first; it’s arriving safely. The fourth habit in Steven Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is “Think Win-Win.” Your larger goal should be that everyone gets home safely, even if it seems that others aren’t working towards the same goal.
By understanding that other motorists don’t always have the same training and skill that you have (or the same attitude about roadway safety) you can make decisions that defend others against hazards as well as yourself.
As an added bonus, you’re defending your professional driving record at the same time. That good driving record helps when you change jobs, and it may also help lower your insurance rates.
Professional drivers have a huge impact on the economy, but their impact on highway safety is huge, too. The good ones know defensive driving means defending themselves and others from collision risks by making safe decisions.
Cliff Abbott is an experienced commercial vehicle driver and owner-operator who still holds a CDL in his home state of Alabama. In nearly 40 years in trucking, he’s been an instructor and trainer and has managed safety and recruiting operations for several carriers. Having never lost his love of the road, Cliff has written a book and hundreds of songs and has been writing for The Trucker for more than a decade.
