[wildsdi5530]

Vigilante behavior is omnipresent.
Reminds me of a joke:
Motorcyclist ( To cop): Why do you collect Rs.100 from me but only Rs.10 from the lorry.
Policeman: I can catch you once in a while only, but the lorry is caught at every intersection.

[prateekm]

My blood boils reading this. These cops need to be thought a lesson. 'You break my windshield? I break your bones!' These truck drivers should move in a group with 4-5 other trucks in the left most lane. I would love to see how a single policeman has the guts to stop the trucks in that case.

[speedsatya]

Updates.

Same time of the night ,same place ...This time cops block both lanes ...While one of them blocks the road with a metal barricade ,3-4 others snatch money from the hapless truckers

Most of the trucks that I saw were TN and KL registered

[dkcrpl]

Why go far off to isolated stretches. I daily commute to Uran (20kms from Navi mumbai ) and see traffic polic collecting the money from HCVs without any issue. Earlier they were doing collections near a major traffic signal post but later on when it was covered up by a news channel, they have simply shifted ther base.
I heard these traffic policement have to pay huge amount to get a posting in such areas and they also have to meet some targets of collections (unoffcial- bribes) which are set by their superioirs.

[xingamazon]

Not that I am a supporter of the police, but I would be interested to know why were the lorries stopped in first place and was the police inspecting something, and was it a bad good that the lorry guy had because of which he wanted to escape.

[svsantosh]

Tricy, early 00's.

My close friend was a witness to a gruesome payback. A sand-trucker (thug's in their own right), got fed-up of being abused by a particular 2-*d Sub-Insp. Chose a good day, and in broad day light, ran him Over (of course!!), went a few meters ahead beserk, brushed a few cars, banged into a lamp post. Walks out claiming brake failed. Goes home happily after a few weeks (his owner got him out,of course!!).

[f1fan]

Originally Posted by xingamazon

Not that I am a supporter of the police, but I would be interested to know why were the lorries stopped in first place and was the police inspecting something, and was it a bad good that the lorry guy had because of which he wanted to escape.

AFAIK the cops would easily be able to book the lorry drivers under some pretext or the other. For e.g. a friend of mine was stopped and asked to cough up 100 bucks. On asking the reason, he was told that he was driving haphazardly which he was not.
I am sure the cops would be able to book the drivers for some reasons like that. So they go ahead and pay up to prevent the hazzle.
Also some of them would surely be overloaded and would be bribing their way out.

[DJANGO]

This is a vicious circle. First off, the owners of the trucks who routinely overload the trucks in order to amass more wealth. Then, the lack of maintenance done on the trucks themselves. You will find many a time a truck broken down in the middle of the road at night, and both the truck and the road have no lights, and this again is a recipe for disaster. The cops dont get paid well, so they take recuse to hafta to supplement their needs. They become defensive when watched or questioned. Remember that to even become a cop, they have paid money and more so pay a lot more to get a plum posting in a good location, therefore they must recover their investment. So, trucks with no lights, bald tires, chassis so long that another axle is required but is not existent on the vehicle, overloaded, out of state licence tags with drivers who dont speak the local language and so are the suckers. Ever seen the set of a truck? Just a fabricated metal square frame on which a wooden board is placed, sometimes with foam. Welded to the floor. A 100 year old design. From the Tatas and others, no less. Those lorry drivers learned driving on the job, no theory, no driving test, just got the licence through bribery. Sorry state of affairs in India, however, the bright side is that things are beginning to change.

[mooza]

Originally Posted by DJANGO

This is a vicious circle. First off, the owners of the trucks who routinely overload the trucks in order to amass more wealth. Then, the lack of maintenance done on the trucks themselves. You will find many a time a truck broken down in the middle of the road at night, and both the truck and the road have no lights, and this again is a recipe for disaster. The cops dont get paid well, so they take recuse to hafta to supplement their needs.

I agree with Django on this

This is actually a reflection of the fact that the vast majority of people in India are in the BPL category, creating these situations.

I just googled last week on the internet that the average annual salary of a traffic cop in the USA is 54,000 USD ! Now, this salary compares favourably with the salary that a well placed executive can earn in the USA. If this was the situation in India, I am sure that a traffic cop's job (or any well paying government job) would be sought more by the best brains of our country, to get better results for the common man. But again, how to get the job will be another story, of course. Somewhere we have to make a start, I guess, by joining active politics, to effect these changes.

[speedsatya]

Its not that I was shocked to see cops collecting money .That happens everywhere in India..and yeah,thats because we have truckers who regularly overload their vehicles.

I was shocked to see this cop throw that rock and break the windshield!!!!

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by DJANGO

The cops dont get paid well, so they take recuse to hafta to supplement their needs. They become defensive when watched or questioned. Remember that to even become a cop, they have paid money and more so pay a lot more to get a plum posting in a good location, therefore they must recover their investment.

These are not excuses for misconduct by a public servant. If you don't find the remuneration attractive, why take up the job of a cop in the first place? And you will pay money for a badly-paid job? The real fact is that money is paid because the position allows you to make more money, and this is how. And not the other way around.

So, trucks with no lights, bald tires, chassis so long that another axle is required but is not existent on the vehicle, overloaded, out of state licence tags with drivers who dont speak the local language and so are the suckers.

Every such truck is stopped and the cop makes money for such things. But then the cop is happy that the situation continues so that he can extort more money next time. And the trucker finds it cheaper to pay the cop than do the repairs of the fittings. And as many of us know, cops extort money from you even if everything is OK, so what is the incentive for the trucker to do the right things?

Those lorry drivers learned driving on the job, no theory, no driving test, just got the licence through bribery. Sorry state of affairs in India, however, the bright side is that things are beginning to change.

I don't agree, I find most long-distance highway truckers drive more responsibly than the M800s and Mercs driven by supposedly educated people with culture and etiquette. The truckers dip headlights, give way to overtake and generally drive in a more orderly - and safe fashion - compared to buses and private cars. I hope that with my long record of highway driving, I am at liberty to give this opinion. I believe the truckers' job is one of the most difficult and challenging in India, I feel sorry for their plight.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

I don't agree, I find most long-distance highway truckers drive more responsibly than the M800s and Mercs driven by supposedly educated people with culture and etiquette. The truckers dip headlights, give way to overtake and generally drive in a more orderly - and safe fashion - compared to buses and private cars. I hope that with my long record of highway driving, I am at liberty to give this opinion. I believe the truckers' job is one of the most difficult and challenging in India, I feel sorry for their plight.

I completely agree with you on this one. It is Indeed the long distance highway truckers who drive safelty and are responsible too. Mine trucks, Sand lorries and intra state trucks are always an exception and since they have never experienced the demographies of the Indian highways, their habits will die hard.

Even the MWKRTC and KSRTC buses on Chitradurga - Bangalore stretch are a menace and same is the case with the Bangalore-Mysore highway. They always flout rules and stick to the fast lane and overtake from left without a signal and pay no heed to the honking and singalling for overtaking from cars behind and force them to overtake from left.

My occasional but frequent driving experience in Gujarat too made me realise that they heed to your dipper signal and lower their beams contrary to the drivers of the trucks mentioned above.

[hvkumar]

There is one other angle to highway economics. I believe that most trucker operate on a fixed fee basis - i.e. they get paid a fixed pre-determined sum by the fleet owner for a particular route which is to cover diesel, tolls, food and maintenance, which means that the truck driver has to manage within that sum else he will lose money from his pocket. That is why you will see many truckers avoiding toll roads (e.g. Baroda-A'bad expressway) or cutting down on costs of maintenance.

[hellstar]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

I don't agree, I find most long-distance highway truckers drive more responsibly than the M800s and Mercs driven by supposedly educated people with culture and etiquette. The truckers dip headlights, give way to overtake and generally drive in a more orderly - and safe fashion - compared to buses and private cars. I hope that with my long record of highway driving, I am at liberty to give this opinion. I believe the truckers' job is one of the most difficult and challenging in India, I feel sorry for their plight.

Plus one to that , i completely agree with HV sir on the fact that i find a majority of the truckers well behaved on the highways especially during the night and they will invariably be the first one to stop and help if you're in trouble on the roads.

Sometime when in the cities i do find then little erratic as i guess the traffic and the constant cutting off gets on their nerves, but who wouldn't be pissed off , with their over loaded rides and constant harassment from the cops

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

...I don't agree, I find most long-distance highway truckers drive more responsibly than the M800s and Mercs driven by supposedly educated people with culture and etiquette. The truckers dip headlights, give way to overtake and generally drive in a more orderly - and safe fashion - compared to buses and private cars...

Thoroughly agree with this. I am pleasantly surprised when they do dip the headlights in response to my dipping it (and this happens most of the time), compared to the other 4-wheelers, esp self-driven cars. Also what I observed is , when they are overtaking another truck, most of the time they move over (with indicator) to the same lane of the truck that they have overtaken.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

... I believe the truckers' job is one of the most difficult and challenging in India...

Agree, one of the unfortunate truths in India.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

...My occasional but frequent driving...

Oxymoron ?!