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A Short Introduction to Trucker Lingo

Truckers spend hours and hours every day driving around and taking care of precious cargo.

What people might now know is that truckers actually have their own “lingo”.

Do you speak trucker?

When truckers are driving, they always have their radios on and are just about always communicating with each other.

So, are you ready? Do you “got your ears on?” That’s trucker slang for “are you listening?”

Yes?

10-4? (That’s highway slang for “okay”).

Here are a few of our favorite trucker slang terms that you might not have heard before.

 

A few trucker terms:

All Locked Up: Weigh station is closed

Chicken Coop: Weigh station

Bear: Police officer

Black eye: Headlight is out

Double nickel: This means you’re driving 55 miles per hour

Go-Go Juice: Diesel fuel

Travel agent: Dispatcher

Fender bender: You probably know this one, but it’s a term for a minor traffic accident. Truckers use it too!

Rolling roadblock: a vehicle (usually a construction vehicle) moving very slowly.

Nightcrawlers: When there are a lot of police cars in the area

Those are just a few terms that truck drivers use, but truckers also use Citizen’s Band radios (C.B. Radios) to communicate with each other to find out about traffic, weather, and of course, if there are “bears” in the area.

Here are a few of the C.B Radio “10 codes”. You already know one of them from earlier in this article.

10-9: Repeat message

10-13: Advise weather conditions

10-20: Your location. “What’s your 20?”

10-36: The correct time

10-100: Restroom stop

Closing Thoughts

These are just a few of the many terms that truckers use when they communicate with each other throughout their journeys across the interstate (oh, by the way, they call the interstate a “big slab”).

If you want to learn more about C.B. slang, check out this comprehensive resource on all things tucker slang.

If you want to check out more helpful articles that can help you on your journey as a young trucker, follow this link to check out every single one of our blog posts!

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