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If you’re new to the trucking industry, it can be hard to make sense of all the truck driver slang you’ve likely never heard before. To help, we’ve compiled a list of 40 pieces of truck driving lingo you can use to decode trucking industry chatter.
Truck driver lingo examples
Alligator – A piece of blown tire on the road.
Backslide – Return trip.
Big slab/road - Interstate or large highway.
Black eye – A truck with a headlight out.
Bobtail – Driving a tractor only.
Bumper sticker – A tailgating vehicle.
Cash box/register – Toll booth.
Chicken coop – A weigh station.
Comedian – Median strip.
Double nickel – Going 55 miles per hour.
Go-go juice/Motion lotion – Diesel.
Greasy – Icy or slippery.
Grossed out – At the maximum GVWR.
Hammer down – Speed up.
Hammer lane – The left lane.
Schneider egg – An orange traffic barrel.
Skins – Tires.
Toothpicks – A lumber load.
Yardstick – A mile marker.
Zipper – Dashed lane divider.
Trucker terminology for types of vehicles
Covered wagon – A flatbed trailer with sidewalls and a soft top, also called a Conestoga, or curtainside, trailer.
Draggin’ wagon – A tow truck.
Four-wheeler – Any passenger vehicle.
Meat wagon – An ambulance.
Parking lot – A car hauler.
Pumpkin – A Schneider tractor-trailer.
Reefer – A refrigerated trailer.
Salt shaker – A snowplow that dumps salt.
Skateboard – A flatbed, or flatbed trailer.
Wiggle wagon – Double or triple trailers.
Common trucker “10 codes”
10-1 – Receiving poorly.
10-2 – Receiving well.
10-4 – Acknowledgement or "OK".
10-7 – Out of service (going on break).
10-8 – In service.
10-9 – Repeat message.
10-20 – Location (e.g., "What's your 20?" means "Where are you?").
10-33 – Emergency traffic (used when there's an urgent situation).
10-36 – “The correct time is...”
10-42 – “Traffic accident at...”
