I want my piece of the highway

by Carroll McCormick

MONTREAL, Que. – Maybe it is the security of working for a big carrier like Groupe Robert, or perhaps the pleasure of sleeping in his own bed most nights, but veteran Quebec driver Maurice Marcoux would give his job about an eight out of 10.

That is, unless you ask him about sharing the road with car drivers.

“Robert is Number One, but on the road the car drivers still have no idea how trucking works,” says Marcoux. It annoys him when motorists suggest that truckers should pull off the road during rush hour and let them race in to work. He doesn’t appreciate it one bit when someone gives him the finger when he claims his share of the road.

The ‘Angle Mort’ (blind spot) program initiated by Transports Quebec and the Societe de l’assurance automobile du Quebec (SAAQ) just over a year ago, is something he’s familiar with, too.

“Just recently I was driving on a stretch of highway that narrowed to one lane because of construction. A car moved up into my blind spot. I couldn’t see him. He didn’t run into me but he ended up on the median. He was going too fast,” he says. He insists that all too often truckers get the ticket and demerit points in incidents involving motorists who act the fool around big rigs.


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