[morningstar55ny]

mawnin drivers.....
well.... about strangers knocking on ur door......
what brought this up to talk about is that thsi morning just when it started getting day light. i was up front punching in my inspection report on the QC ... and some guy . knocked on my pasanger side window... and i am like?????
he seemd clean lookin , cap , light beard, camo jacket..... but i ignored him.... cause i had NO idea who he was or wanted.
i keep my doors locked at all times.
i do not answer to NO ONE .....
im a single, and solo..... i have a lot of trucker friends out here.... and pretty savy to the rif raf out here and such .. i guess u can call it truck stop smarts..... kinda like street smarts.... LOL
i have had other panther drivers . come by and knock..... i dont know if your a panther driver from the next person..... UNLESS they have something on them indicating so....
one guy asked me if he could come sit in the truck with me..... i am like ??? uhh NOooo
he was wanting help with the QC ..... and then told me he was a panther driver.... a new driver... still in orientation..... ok.... well ur still not getting in my truck.
most strangers knocking on my door... when i tell them no or nod my head or wav my hand .... will leave....
1 guy .. 1 day in Monore MI .. did not leave.. my driver door. still stood there wanting to sell me tapes or something... so o i got on my CB and asked if there was security at the truck stop..... few truckers came over to chase him off....
when i in my bunk .... i hear knocking in the middle of the night..... i do not get up and answer it...
some trucks you can take ur seat belt and put it thru the door handle and then snap it in the seat belt lock..... to keep someone to maybe opening ur door.
i know if another driver wants to talk to me...... or meet for coffee.... they can leave me a note on my door or windshield.... if you do feel the need to knock.... bring something to show me you are a driver..... like ahhhhhhh maybe ur trip pack envolope or something with ur company name..... sometimes i have my cb on but not always.... when i am sitting.
anyways.. this is my vent about strangers knocking......

[terryandrene]

Good comments Morningstar, but don't be fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing. A couple of years ago, there seemed to be a rash of con-men who would snatch a carrier specific hat from driver's lounges or elsewhere and pose as a driver from that carrier. They would walk around the truckstops with their new hat and solicit help from drivers from "their" carrier. They often only wanted money, but who knows what else, in this day and age.

Stay safe

[Doggie Daddy]

morningstar,dont know if you are a o/o or are driving for a fleet owner.One of the things we have added to our truck is the camera system,4 cameras,1 on each mirror facing the rear of the truck,1 on the back of the truck and 1 in the box.

At night we set the viewing monitor to the split screen mode and can see down both sides of the truck.This is helpful in seeing just who is out there,be it a security guard or a panhandler or whatever.But no matter who it is we do not open the door for anyone.DD.

[LDB]

If your door handles are such that you can loop things through them get some bungee cords that you can loop through the handles and hook together. They should be at least a foot short of meeting so you have to stretch them tight to hook them. Anybody standing there to try and open your doors will only be able to open them a few inches at most. Be sure the hooks are in the center of the truck where they can't just unhook them. If you get an assortment of bungees you'll be able to make them as short as possible and still pull them to connect. That will basically eliminate opening the doors.

[Paul56]

Cannot say as I'm a fan of looping the doors together.

In an emergency if you need quick exit the last thing you need is to fumble with a "security system" holding the doors shut.

Get a quick release ratchet strap and practice releasing it until you can do it in the dark with your eyes shut.

[greg334]

A small hole in the door and a cattle prod works good to keep people off the running boards of the truck. So does electrifying the mirror mounts and grab handles with inverter voltage.

until it was snowing heavy here, I had the same guys ask me if I want a home theater system. The first time I said "sure, I have $35 bucks on me, just throw it in the back of the truck". He said, "for $500", I said "$500 from you guys, give me a ******* break, I give you $50 for it". I think one hard hit with the cattle prod, he would not be approaching another truck for a while.

They asked me three times. I called the Pilot and was told that it is not their problem.

You know for all it's negatives in the world of expediting, the COE truck has one great advantage, someone has to climb up to get to the window and one can simply open the door with a kick and down they go.

I know I'm being too unrealistic but I am so so frustrated with the fact I am not not stuck but everyone around me is and I CAN'T move.

[butterfly610]

That would totally freak me out if some guy asked if he could sit in the truck with me. Good thing you had the sense to say no. Some people don't! We always have the truck doors locked, even in the daytime. There are some strange people out there these days, and you cant be too careful. If someone does happen to knock, I get my husband to deal with it. He never opens the door for them though, just cracks the window or says no looking out the window and stuff. Unless I'm just running in the truck stop to get the reciept after fueling or we're parked up front and he watches me walk in when it's daytime, I have him go with me everywhere. Women especially seem to get "harrassed" when their male counterpart is absent, so I try and make sure he's not. Being that you're alone, you really have to be watching!

[LDB]

All you have to do is release one hook and the doors are free to open but there are other ways I'm sure.

[greg334]

Butterfly,
I was at a truck stop in Arizona and there was one guy going around asking for money. One nice lady (I met here in the truck stop a few hours earlier) sat across from me and he came up to her window, knocked on it, scaring her and she turn on her CB set it to PA and told him to 'go away' and then started to announce that he was harassing her. I never seen so many truckers get out of their truck that fast. She didn't even say help.

How many of us have a PA speaker mounted on our truck?

[dieseldiva]

Originally Posted by greg334

How many of us have a PA speaker mounted on our truck?

Now wouldn't that be quite the temptation when you're driving down the road and come upon someone driving goofy because they were on their cell phone!!!!

[terryandrene]

Unless you're driving a bull hauler, Greg's tongue-in-cheek comment about a cattle prod as a weapon, defensive or otherwise, in a commercial vehicle, should not be taken seriously, particularly if you stand a chance of getting a load to Canada. Electifying your vehicle handles or handholds could also get you into a courtroom if someone got hurt because of it, even a crook or other neer-do-well could sue you.

[RichM]

Instead of using Bungee cords I used a dog type restraining chain with a clasp on the end. I would loop it through the door arm rests and clasp the two ends in the middle right in front of the sleeper exit. Neither door can be opened from the outside and in order for someone to reach the clasp they would have to break a window. In an emergency it would only take about 1 second to unclasp the chain and open a door. My wife felt very confident with this setup as she slept in the bottom bunk and I was always exiled to the top.

[greg334]

Yes Terry, it was not to be taken seriously, thanks for the disclaimer.

[morningstar55ny]

wow . a lot of repsonses .. ha.... and great tips on different ways of securing the doors.. ty
i feel ok out here for the most part......
my partner traveled /teamed with me for a lil while last summer..... and while we were down to sleep for the night....it was late.. we heard a knock at the door..... me beinga driver a lot longer and knowing what goes on at the truck stops...... and i did warn her.... about the rif raf......
it did make her jump..lol ..... and I whispered......to ignor the knock .... and IT will go away.
anothr time.......
there was some guy whom climbed on my driver side steps ... i was doing some paper work and had my window cracked a inch or so.. and this guy was starting his needing money story.... i firmly told him to get off my truck...... and he goes ..... what???
so i said it real loud.... GET OFF MY TRUCK.!!!
so he hoped off and started calling me the F word........ can u believe that.... the nerve... heh.
I am not a O/O
and i do travel solo.....
my truck no is 4962
i have windshield covers.. with 2 wolves howling on them and a straw cowboy hat and small plush toy panther on the dash board.. oh and flowers on my passanger side door.
i have a pic of my truck on here in my photo section somewhere.

terryandrene Re: strange people knocking on your door

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quoted by terryandrene ...........
Good comments Morningstar, but don't be fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing. A couple of years ago, there seemed to be a rash of con-men who would snatch a carrier specific hat from driver's lounges or elsewhere and pose as a driver from that carrier. They would walk around the truckstops with their new hat and solicit help from drivers from "their" carrier. They often only wanted money, but who knows what else, in this day and age.

Stay safe

ahh yes i heard about that.... and had a guy come up once wearing a UPS employee looking ball cap.... i did not answer my door.

stay safe out there..... everyone... i have a myspace site.....

[dieseldiva]

The nightmare stories we read in this thread and others would NORMALLY be some of our reasons for NOT parking at truck stops. But when I think about you out there solo it would seem that you're safer among truck drivers than you would be at the local Wally World, mall, etc. At least this way if you call for help on the CB there's a good chance that someone will hear and come to help. You're sure not gonna get that at Wally World!

The only thing that I would try if I were you would be to try to get to a Flying J as often as I could and park up front with the RV-ers. Seems a little more quiet and safe up there. Other than that, if I were a solo driver, I couldn't see me parking anywhere but at the truck stop with the "big guys".