Do Truckers Still Use CB Radios?

Log in to any trucking forum and you'll usually see a number of questions from new truck drivers regarding a specific piece of equipment-- the CB radio. Of course, those young enough to have been brought up on Smartphones and Cable TV appear to consider the CB Radio as some kind of technological artefact, a bit like CRT Monitors."Do I really need a CB Radio?" these new drivers inquire. And the response from most veteran truckers is always yes, yes you do. As one experienced driver put it, "It isn't a dying tool but it is a forgotten tool by many drivers. Any trucker that gives a damn has a CB Radio."These new drivers are too young to recall, but there was a time when everyone in the country thought they simply had to have a CB Radio.

For those who weren't around at the time to experience it, the CB radio craze of the 1970s and 1980s might feel inexplicable. Why would so many people get excited about a means of communication used primarily by truckers, contractors and hobbyists? How did phrases like "10-4, good buddy" and "What's your 20?" enter the vernacular? Why did people who never drove anything with more than four wheels adopt handles?

Sometimes fads are inexplicable. Anyone remember the fascination of Pet Rocks for example? The CB radio craze was largely fuelled by the 1972 gas crisis. The federal government imposed a national speed limit of 55 mph causing frustrated truckers and other drivers to turn to their CB Radios to trade information about cheap gas and speed traps. Once the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dropped its license requirement, it became a cheap way for non-truckers to join this exotic culture.



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