Obnoxious trucks

[tigertoy]

A few years ago, there seemed to be a growing trend for commercial trucks to have an 800 number in large print on the back of the truck that you could call to complain about bad driving. Sadly, it seems that this trend has reversed, and fewer and fewer trucks now have complaint numbers. This is unfortunate, because in my observation, the trucks that do have the numbers on them do seem to be less likely to engage in really egregious behavior like cutting off other drivers in traffic or driving really slow in the passing lane when they could get back into the slow lane.

Do other people around the country observe the same things?

Wouldn't it be a good idea to mandate that all trucks have an identifying number that could be tied both to the company that owns them and the person driving them at the time, in large visible print on the trailer, and a toll free phone number to call to complain?

Comments

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

I think that the advent of cell phones was the demise of this. It is one thing to jot down the number and call later - that usually means the offence was enough that you remember it later. With cell phones people want something to happen RIGHT NOW - to the point of "Tell your truck to let me pass him"

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I think both the rise and fall of this have been since cell phones started to be somewhat common. Without cell phones, it's meaningless to have the number there at all; by the time you get honked off enough to write down the number and call it later, you're honked off enough to write down the license plate number and call the cops.