This video probably tells a lot about the public perception of trucks and trucking and may suggest that any idiot can drive a truck. In fact, there is no doubt these driver are appearing to act like idiots, whether they are or not is for you to decide.
The premise behind this video is to drag two trucks off against each other over the quarter mile. Presumably the producers thought it would be funny to see car show presenters driving something they know even less about, than usual.
From the point of view of trucking, as a whole, it probably shows us two other things which we need to be aware of.
Firstly, these guys really have no idea what the are doing, but due to the leaps and bounds in automation, computerisation and stability control, they are not going to kill anyone and actually driving the trucks and their trailers is easy for them to do with no training.
Just compare this with the situation twenty years ago, with no ABS, ESC, power steering, AMT, etc, etc. They would not have got off of the starting line, rolled the trailer or simply jack-knifed themselves into oblivion.
Secondly, the video seems to be giving the impression that there is nothing to driving a truck and that all of the hard work is done for you. Watching this video, one could be forgiven for going away thinking that truck driving is a low skill job and low status.
The trucking industry is full of highly skilled practitioners of the art of truck driving and all of the associated skills with getting freight from A to B, but here it is brought down to a genuine idiot level.
If there is one smart guy in the room, it is Daniel Louisy, the owner of the trucks. He gets plenty of publicity and he can be sure that his trucks and trailers with be safe and well at the end of the shoot, any idiot can drive a truck, despite the best efforts of these two idiots.
