Im not a truck driver, but I was recently driving in a sedan from Fresno to San Diego and truck drivers kept flashing their lights at me. What does that mean?
Drivers flash their lights to signal to each other that the lane is clear and that the vehicle doing the passing can move over. Once the passing vehicle moves back into the right lane, if the driver is polite, he/she will flash their lights to say “thank you.” Sometimes drivers flash lights to each other to signal that the other truck can go ahead. For example, if there’s a driveway and one truck is going in and the other going out, one of the trucks might flash his lights at the other. This is his way of saying, “Okay, you go ahead and I’ll hang back so you can make the turn.” The other driver proceeds, and by all rights, should flash “thank you.” Not all drivers are very good about saying “thank you.” Unfortunately this is a tradition that is slowly dying and fading. A decade ago if you didn’t flash someone “thank you” they’d likely tell you that you were a jerk! I’m surprised you had that happen if you were driving a car. Drivers don’t often bother flashing headlights at a car — th
