If you, like most people, rely on Hollywood movies to teach you everything you know about trucks and how they work – you are in for a major surprise!
We see semi-trucks every day of our lives when we’re travelling to and from work, but have you ever wondered about what makes them so unique? These massive vehicles weigh thousands of pounds and keep our economy going.
Instead of boring you with the basics, this article will teach you seven things that you probably didn’t know about these big, beautiful beasts!
1.Origins
The first semi-truck was engineered in the late 18oo’s. It was designed to be the first vehicle to transport cars from the manufacturer to the dealership. Soon after that, people realised that they could be used to transport more than just cars.
Modern car transporters still use the same kind of truck cab at the front, the only difference is that over the years they can transport a much larger number of cars in one trip.
A semi-truck is known by many names including:
18-wheeler, referring to the number of wheels it has
Big Rig – referring to its mammoth size
2. They Have Incredibly Durable Engines
The average car engine has a lifespan of around 200 000 miles before it will likely need replacing. That works out to around ten years of driving. Semi-trucks, on the other hand, have engines that can do up to one million miles – which is an impressive amount of mileage!
As you may know, these vehicles can have up to 18 gears, which means that it will take a lot of practice for you to be comfortable behind the wheel of one of these big boys. New trucks come with all kinds of impressive tech advances. All semi-trucks are manual, so don’t think you can get around that gear system.
3. Truckers Are Mostly Male
This one might not come as a surprise to you, but female drivers are severely underrepresented in the trucking world. While there has been an encouraging rise in the number of female drivers on the roads in the United States, the numbers are still low.
According to the Women In Trucking Association, women drivers make up around 10% of all truck drivers on American roads. Just because the number of men in this profession outweighs the number of women, does not mean that trucking is a man’s job – this isn’t the ‘50’s anymore.
If you’ve dreamed of driving a truck down a lonely stretch of highway, you need to know that the trucking profession has opened its doors to female drivers. It’s not easy to become a truck driver, but it’s worth it if it’s what you want to do with your life.
4. Staggering Mileage
With 140 million trucks on American roads, that leads to staggering mileage amounts being done each year – 140 billion miles to be more precise. That is just the mileage for US semi-trucks alone, doing domestic deliveries.
The next time you pass one of the behemoths on the road, I’m sure you’ll be wondering how far it has driven in the last year. These beauties are all over America’s highways and roads, riding through our towns and cities.
If your trucking company needs new trucks because they are tired, you should choose a reputable company like Beltway to assist.
5. Truck Registrations
Semi-trucks drive from border to border and coast to coast, which means that you could expect them to come from all over the United States. That is simply not true, most registered Big Rigs are from just three states: Texas, Florida, and California.
These three states account for around 40 million of the 140 million trucks on the road. At the least, this means that those three states are the legal homes for the majority of the trucks in the country. That is handy to know when starting a trucking company.
6. Trucks Are Becoming More Efficient
If you’ve ever wondered about the fuel economy of an 18-wheeler, here it is. The average mileage of a semi-truck is roughly 6 miles per gallon(mpg). That may not seem very efficient when comparing it to a small city car, but it is has improved on what it used to be.
In 1973, reports say that a semi’s fuel economy was around 5.5 mpg.
7. Semi-Trucks Are Going Electric
Elon Musk, the head honcho at Tesla, has made a debut in the trucking industry. Limited volumes were planned to be engineered at the end of 2020, but the pandemic probably changed those timelines somewhat. Either way, the Tesla Semi is here, and it is quite a beauty.
Trucks are the most impressive vehicles on the road; take the time to greet the next one that passes you – being a trucker can be a lonely life.
