I don't know how hitting a bridge can even happen? How can you not know how high your truck is? Its simple 14ft high 13ft bridge not gonna fit if you can't compute that shouldn't be driving,last thing used to do after checks and hooking up is check the height it's your truck and trailer and your responsibility.
As for transporting liquid whole different bag of cats you think you have stopped in a hurry till the liquid hits the front of the tank and shoves you feet down the road not a nice feeling
the "typical" height is 13' 6"...
this does not include over-sized loads, which in some states require an escort service. this also does not include say a defective air bag system, which raises the height a few inches.
this also does not include the mounted height of the 5th wheel, or tire sizes.
it IS up to the driver to KNOW his or her equipment
Just speculating, but the demand for truck drivers over the last few years has gone up dramatically. As such I think there are a lot of commercial truck drivers on the road with minimal experience/training. All of the increasing automation, navigational aids, phones, etc isn't helping. Heck, some of them even have laptops mounted next to the driver's seat. I've seen some truly scary examples lately of 18-wheelers swerving all over the place on the interstate because the driver isn't paying attention.
the so-called "demand" for truckers is as old as me.......70+ years. so not the last few years.
everyone "thinks" that since they can drive mommy's mini van around the block, he "likes to drive" and wants to be a trucker.
no, driving a truck is NOT rocket science, but some sort of at least "average IQ" would help.
when someone is "pioletting" an 80,000 + missile on the roads, you'd expect that person to be a professional, not a schmuck, drug addict, drunk, ex-felon.
many trucking companies just want "seat-meat" and will hire such people, and deal with the death, destruction, mayhem later....as long as the load gets there......
i couldn;t be any happier i retired, and i pretty much NEVER recommend anyone to get into it.
too many hours, rules, restrictions, inconvenient life style, expenses, parking shortages, road rage, aggressive driving......all for what..???
put in at least 70 hours a week, (but you get paid by the mile), and actually you might be working well over 80 hours a week, and you cannot log that time legally, what kind of paycheck do you end up with...??
nearly under the $15.00 per hour, minium wage............NO