Truck Roadeo .. who knew

Yesterday I competed in a YRC company truck roadeo. A sort of exposition of skills. I placed second in my category. The event amounts to 1) a written test of knowledge of rules and regulations. 2) a pre-trip inspection where a unit has been thouroughly checked by D.O.T. personell and then a set number of items are manipulated tobe wrong or illegal, to be found by the participant and 3) a driving test through a course of several possible road/traffic hazards one migh find during the course of their job driving a truck.
I had not participated in such an event since 1990. It was fun, though there weren't as many as I would have thought participating. The next step is a regiona competition in May. Then providing I do any good at all, I may have the opportunity to go to Naionals. It would be a great honor to even go since this is my final year of driving a truck. I am planning on retiring on November 1 this year.
At the event yesterday, after all the company drivers completed their skills test, the wives and office ladies were allowed to take a hand at driving the course, in a bobtail truck (12ft. box). It was fun and each of the told me how they could not believe the limited visibility for close quarters driving from the drivers seat. Then after the ladies, the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Officers that were present to judge were taking their turn at driving the course. This little experiment surely gave these people, women and officers a better appreciation of what a blind spot is and hoe easily an automobile can disappear even though within feet of a truck. There are blind zones around a truck that people should be aware of. There are many trucks on the highway with the "skins" advertising the "No Zone" displaying pictures of the positions onear a truck which make it impossible for the truck driver to see you. THe old signs that many trucks used to have on the back of their trailers didn't seem to help much. The signs said "IF YOU CAN'T SEE MY MIRRORS, I CAN'T SEE YOU.".  To this day, I still have vehicles get along side of my trailer in thjat no zone and just hang there. Sadly, now these are too often people that ate texting or driving distracted. They are keeping my trailer in their peripheral vision as a marker so they can pay more attention to their handheld device. THe reason I know this to be true, I have on occasion, hit hte brakes hard, when traffic was not near me except the texter and as soon as I did, they did as well. Then they look all around like "What happened?". It is infuriating to see how manyb people think their texting is far more important than my life or the lives of others around them in traffic.