Every other Friday for This Is Nashville, I hop out of my host chair and into the passenger seat to ride shotgun with fellow Middle Tennesseans. For this edition, I hopped in the cab of a semi-truck to take a ride with Shawn Davis, owner of Tennessee CDL School Inc. We hit the road to do our best Smokey and the Bandit impersonations. Buckle up!
There is one thing that frustrates long time truck driver Shawn Davis when he’s on the road. Impatience. In fact, it is the impatience of car drivers that upsets him because car drivers don’t really understand the physics of driving a big rig truck.
“Everyone that’s driving around us needs to understand that we’re slow-moving vehicles,” says Davis.
It takes a semi-truck a while to get up to speed. Conversely, it also takes them a long time to stop. This can create dangerous situations when approaching intersections or merging onto the highway.
MORE: Keep on truckin’ in Middle Tennessee
He says that when drivers see an opening in front of a semi on the freeway they move quickly to cut into the lane. That, according to Davis, is dangerous because truck drivers are taught to account for space that they’ll need to stop. When drivers (like myself) cut in front of trucks that takes away much needed braking distance and can lead to crashes.
When someone is driving an 18-wheeler they have to be super alert, like a zebra at the watering hole surrounded by lions alert. At any moment, they may have to react quickly to avoid calamity.
Khalil Ekulona WPLN NewsShawn Davis takes a semi-truck through the course at the Tennessee CDL School’s practice lot.
But his job isn’t all about frustration. Davis finds joy in being able to help people fulfill their dream of becoming a truck driver, or folks who are embarking on a new career.
After spending time in the armed forces, Davis found his way to trucking. He started as a driver. A few years later, he saw the need to help more people break into the industry. That is when he decided to start his own school to teach people how to handle these very large machines.
According to him, driving is quite easy once you get used to how a truck with a payload moves on the road. He approaches the job with a zen mindset.
“I’m not rushing. I’m not sitting here going ‘hurry, hurry, hurry and run hard.’”
He continues, “How hard is it really to sit back and just be safe and make money?”
The open road is peace for Davis and many of the drivers he’s trained over the years. He loves the appreciation he occasionally experiences when he’s on the freeway. However, he sees it less frequently these days.
That appreciation? It’s when other drivers signal for him to honk the truck’s horn.
“Oh, we love that. Please, let’s bring it back. We don’t see it enough.”
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