How come when the weather turns really bad, the authorities have no problem getting as many Police officers, and D.O.T to the bottom of every mountain pass, to make sure truckers chain up?

Plow trucks cost considerably more to operate than a cruiser. Just because it has wheels and an engine, that doesn’t mean that they’re anything like your car. Well, unless you own something that gets well under 10 MPG and requires filling the back up with sand every couple of hours.

They also cost considerably more to purchase. Sure, the fleet-model cars you see used as cruisers cost a bit more than a regular showroom car of the same make/model, but they still cost a bit less than a snowplow…. and considerably less than the truck that that snowplow is attached to.

As for privatization lowering quality, well, that can’t be true… unless Conservatives have been lying to us all these decades.

Hey, I’d leave it to natural selection. You don’t want to chain? Fall off the mountain. Thin the herd.

@jerv I am not comparing equipment as to hourly of what each person makes, and the officers have to make more than the lowly snow plow driver.
As for the end of your answer I guess your right because the conservatives would never lie to us.

@Seek I do like that answer but than we the tax payer are faced with the bill of cleaning up the carnage (wreck).

You shouldn’t have a truck drivers license if you don’t know how to handle the rig in snow. Especially in Canada. I think @seek is right. The dumb ones don’t survive.

@elbanditoroso you have no idea just how dumb some of these people are, this one guy thought chaining up was laying them down in front of the tires driving over them and see how far you could make it then run back drag them to the truck and do it again.
BUT that isn’t the point you shouldn’t have to chain up on a main highway,that is if it is being maintained properly,which due to privatization of our highway system they are not.

In some way, I think you answered your own question, @SQUEEKY2.

The highway department is privatized, so out of the governments hands.
The government still controls the police, and make the laws (semi must have chains).

If a tractor/truck loses control, that often means that all traffic in that direction comes to a halt. That must be avoided at all reasonable cost, including enforcing the law that chains are required on semis in bad weather.

Even if the main highways were magically clean and dry, there is the problem of entering and exiting them and the local roads that that leads to.

The question that comes to my mind is, “In the long run wouldn’t it be cheaper to properly maintain roads during winter weather, than to have semi trucks in mandatory chains pounding the hell out of the roads?”

You would think so^^ having semi trucks pound the shit out the roads with chains doesn’t make a lot of sense .

I was talking about the price to purchase, operate, and maintain the truck. I mean, I took a look at found this one and it’s $30k… and also fifteen years old. I’ve also seen what it cost to get just one set of plow blade inserts for a plow and truck you already have, and just the inserts on the bottom of the plow blades cost a couple grand per truck, and they have to replace those often enough that it’s gets into the millions real quick even if you already have the truck and plow paid for.

It’s worth noting that every place I’ve lived, only private property was privatized; businesses and homes had to pay, but the roads and streets were done by government employees on the taxpayer dime. And in recent years, getting the funds for enough sand/salt/whatever (ice was dealt with in different ways in different places) started to be an issue around Christmas time.

Bald tires equate to the going over the edge.
Chains on icy roads mean that you and and the load get to the end.

@Tropical_Willie I would never go out with bad tires, we get brand new snow tires installed on our trucks every year.

Hearing @SQUEEKY2 talk about privatization is why we who work for the government always say privatization is not best for the taxpayer. It’s presented as a bargain, but it is not.

@jca I dare you to tell @Jaxk that!

@Tropical_Willie I’m thinking chains only really help if you have enough weight to push them into the ground. While most commercial trucks (anything 12,000 GVWR or heavier) can get chains to dig in, pretty much the best you can hope for in the lightweight cars I’ve driven, things 200–800 pounds lighter than anything currently on the market, is to avoid hydroplaning.

Then again, the cars I drive don’t usually have nearly the inertia of a heavier vehicle either (“heavier” meaning anything that weighs over 2400 pounds empty) so if it starts to slide, it’s a lot easier to regain control than, say, a Kenworth, or even a 3,000-pound car like a Taurus.

@jca exactly, all our rep/con friends will stand on their soap boxes and shout just look at these numbers look how much privatization is saving, and I say FUCK the numbers, coming from someone who sees road conditions every day at work, I am disgusted at how these private contractors get away with as for road maintenance .
Give me back the day when road maintenance was in the Government hands, I mean you want to waste my tax dollars you go right a head and put that extra load of traction sand down on that mountain pass,instead of treating it like gold dust.