Would you drive a garbage truck to work?

Let me start by saying that if you need a truck to do some kind of "cowboy work" or construction work then more power to you! I'm not talking about people, who more than a few times a year, actually do work with their truck.

Most people realize that it would be silly to use a garbage truck as daily transportation, but most people don't realize that using a "heavy duty" pickup is just as silly. A so called "heavy duty" pickup truck is nothing more than a tow truck chassis turned into a luxury pickup truck with leather seats, fancy rims, and pretty paint.

I'm sick of hearing some guy at work who drives his big "mega cab" pickup to work every day rationalize about why he needs a truck. I see him drive into the parking lot every morning. It's just him and his big massive, 4x4, empty, truck and then he climbs down from the big rig and he's wearing his suit and tie like he does every day. Then I start to wonder, why does he drive that all terrain monster truck? He drives on the same roads I do in my little Corolla and I do just fine even when it snows (front wheel drive does very good in snow). Then one day he complains that he just dropped $120 at the gas pump. I ask him why he drives a gas guzzler. And he looks at me with a strange look and says, "I don't drive a gas guzzler, I drive a truck!" and then he starts telling me how he needs his truck to pull his RV. Then I ask him how often he pulls his RV. He struggles to remember the last time he pulled his RV and says, "well, I haven't pulled it recently, but when I first got the RV I must have pulled 2 or 3 times that summer . . . Although, I haven't pulled it much since then . . . But I need my truck".

Ok, I'm not saying he shouldn't be able to buy a heavy duty truck to pull his RV, but he should buy a used economy car for daily transportation. It just doesn't make sense to see him all by himself with that big truck and an empty load. To me it's as dumb as driving a garbage truck to work everyday.

My co-worker was one example of a "heavy duty" driver, but then their are others who actually need a truck, but not a heavy duty truck. For example, I have two friends who both have general construction businesses. One friend drives a little S-10 and the other friend drives a giant red super duty with a super long antennae protruding from the cab. They both typically carry about the same amount of construction stuff in the back of their trucks. I noticed that the beds of the trucks were about the same size. Although the super duty is a much bigger truck, it doesn't have much of a bed because the larger super cab protrudes into the bed and the truck is left with more of a "square" little box. Now when I ask my friend with the super duty why he needs such a big truck he gets all passionate about how he needs it to pull trailers and that he needs it to go hunting. I just drop the subject, but I know that 99 percent of the time he is simply using his truck as daily transportation and not performing any super duty tasks like pulling a heavy trailer. It's kind of like using a semi-tractor rig as daily transportation, just in case you might have to pull a trailer some day.

Lastly, I have another friend who drives a garbage truck during the day. The garbage truck is a wonderful machine. It probably gets worse gas mileage than any super duty or mega cab pickup truck, but it is efficient at what it does. So my friend drives around in his garbage truck all day, but when he gets off work, he climbs into his corolla (he drives a corolla like me) and drives home. The moral of the story is just because you drive a big truck for work doesn't mean you should use it as daily transportation. I know this sounds elementary, but from my observations, most Americans either don't realize it or just don't care.

Click here to Digg this article

WE DON'T CARE ABOUT GAS MILEAGE

In Texas they say that a photo is worth a thousand words and the photo above tells the whole story. It's a photo of a typical "new car" sticker that you will find on the so called, "heavy duty" or "super duty" pickup trucks. Basically, a heavy duty truck is the chassis for a tow truck, but somehow people got brainwashed into buying them for daily transportation. Now the sticker explains how during the mist of high gasoline prices ($3-$4 per gal) you still see herds of those big jumbo trucks driving around the city looking tough and stylish or maybe they're super duty moms delivering their kids to soccer practice. You see because of this sticker these folks just don't realize that there's such thing as good fuel economy. Sure they hear that economy cars get good mileage, but they don't really think it will save them much money. Besides what's more important a tough, macho image or saving a few pennies. You see these guys have always driven a big heavy duty pickup truck ever since they was in high school. And every time they fork out $50,000 to buy a fancy new pickup they still don't know the gas mileage, because it's not printed on the sales sticker, so they still don't know how much (or little) gas mileage they're getting. All they know is that when gas is $1 per gal gallon it takes $40 to fill up the tank. (many of those big heavy duty trucks come with a big heavy duty gas tank (40 gal), to give the impression of good gas mileage) And when the price goes up to $4 a gallon it takes $160 to fill up the tank. Now don't be feeling sorry for these poor urban cowboys, because they are loaded with plenty of cash (that's how come they could afford the 50 grand to buy the truck in the first place). Now, the only thing I can't figure out is why them darn truck makers don't tell them poor folks about the gas mileage. Oh, never mind. It says it right there in the photo. THEY AIN'T REQUIRED TO. So they don't. I guess it would hurt sales if them macho truck owners would figure out that their pretty truck gets about the same gas mileage as that school bus over yonder. (heavy duty trucks get anywhere from 8 mpg to 14 mpg, but shh, it's supposed to be a secret)

PS: I know these "heavy duty" drivers don't know or don't care about gas mileage, but why is it that they drive with their tailgates down (to try to save gas) and why do they travel from all corners of the city to wait in line at the one gas station that sells gas for 5 cents cheaper. Maybe they do care about gas mileage after all.