Selling Copiers "On The Road Again"

Most days, you'll find me driving around Central New Jersey visiting existing accounts or cold calling accounts that I've pre-planned. On the average I can do about 2,000 miles a month or more on my Eclipse (knock on wood 129K and still working).

When you're on the road that much you pretty much see it all. One morning going through Long Branch I was stopped behind a pickup truck at a railroad crossing. The train had passed and the pickup did not move. I waited for about 20 seconds and proceeded around the pickup, and believe it or not the guy at the wheel was slumped over the steering wheel! Well, my first thought was that he had been ill, or died while waiting for the train! As I look back in my mirror the driver behind me beeped the horn as he passed the pickup and low and behold the driver head bobbed up, apparently he fell asleep waiting for the train!

On that same road last year, a driver pulled up on the right of me and passed on the right, and then continued to pass on the right as he sped up to pass a large truck, little did he know the right lane was going to end up ahead. I saw the car dart in front of the truck, the truck slammed on the brakes, you could see the smoke from the tires of the truck, and the next thing the driver who had passed me lost control of the car and veered off the right of the road and into the woods. A large tree had stopped the car after about 30 feet. I pulled over and rushed through a patch of briar's to see if I could help. Two passengers were in the car, both were alive, a man of about 5o or older was in the driver seat and an elderly lady was in the passenger seat. Thank God all were ok.

So, I could go on and on about the stupid things I've seen on the road and I've pulled a couple of stupid maneuvers in my time. However today I picked up this article from the web "Texting Top Driver Distraction, New Va. Tech Study Finds". Well.... I have to say that yeah text'd is distracting and you need two hands to text, so what's left to steer the car?

So, what's my point, if you can't drive while on the phone and you can't text, then you shouldn't be able to eat, drink, put your eyeliner on, brush your hair, put lipstick on, change your radio station, or light a butt. Why don't they make laws for all of that also? How bout those navigation units where you have to take your eyes off the road or the new LCD displays for navigation.

My feelings, if you can't do two things at once, then you shouldn't be driving a car! Some people have a hard enough time just going straight! Maybe, new driver courses should include talking on the cell while driving, text'd and eating your lunch, then we'll see who's ready for the road and who's not! This type of new driving test would eliminate most of the problems right? Or if you can't drive in a straight %^$%^& line, then you fail!

So, the next time I'm driving down the road and I see some idiot swerving and causing a hazard, I'll think back to the good ole days when there were no phones in the car, just my eight track player, radio and a couple of good friends.

Let me know what kind of drivers you've seen on the road and what they were doing!

-= Good Selling=-