Have you ever watched how people act when they are driving their cars? Many make one scratch their heads in wonder. With all the education one gains people watching, truck drivers could be considered anthropologists.

Herd Mentality
A trucker may go for miles with little or no traffic. Then all of a sudden, a cluster of cars shows up all running in a group. The one in the lead is going a mile per hour faster than the herd, and the last car is changing from lane to lane trying to move up in the pack. They will run that way for miles as each jockeys for position so they can become the leader. Do they think there is safety in numbers? Of course there is that single car that gets scared perhaps being out there all alone, but finds safety in numbers by tucking in behind a handy semi truck and will stay there for miles.

NA NA NA NA
Let a car break down or for some other reason stop on the shoulder and all the rest of the cars have to slow down to see what is going on. It gets worse if another car is stopped by law enforcement, The other cars almost come to a stop and one knows that the drivers are looking to see if they know the stopped car. This also happens in case of an accident in spades. Cars slow down and you can see the drivers almost breaking their necks to see if they can see bodies or blood. If one could see little cartoon bubbles showing what the drivers of these cars are thinking or saying, they would read “NA NA NA NA, you wrecked and I did not!”

Alpha and Beta Males and Females
In animal herds and packs, there are alpha males and females. These are the leaders of the herd or pack. Beta males and females are submissive to the alphas. One can tell the alpha car drivers easily, they are the ones with shiny, high-powered cars that drive aggressively and do not like to have anyone else pass them. Beta drivers, too, are easy to spot. They are the ones with their hands at ten and two that putz along five miles under the speed limit, holding everyone else up until an alpha goes by. Then they zoom off trying to keep up with the alphas.

Lone Wolves
Anthropologists know that in any herd society, there are those that keep to themselves. It is no different in car society. These may be alphas or betas, but they definitely march to the beat of a different drummer. These may have drivers who are reading a book, texting on their phones, or doing something other than just driving the car. The cars speed up and slow down, take an exit from the far left lane just at the exit, and cut off a semi truck just because they can. Makes one wonder if they have a death wish. No, they just are different than most. Lone wolves do not care about anything but their differences.

Now you know how truck drivers can be anthropologists from studying the natural acts of people around them, not that one can get a college credit for it. It will not show up on the job description of a truck driver either. However, it can get you through those boring hours of navigating the herds of cars day in and day out.