Semis drafting is not a recent invention; I was doing it with other CWX trucks across the Grapevine & up the San Joaquin Valley in 1990 !!! The key to avoiding Armageddon on the Highways, then and now, was the CB Radio !!! Having all truck drivers on the " road " channel helps truckers avoid accidents every day ( and more at NIGHT). The CB was absolutely essential in that damned Tule Fog; No one would run with Old Gary in that stuff because he didn't run a CB.
I wouldn't be typing this if not for Bryan ( in the lead truck ) flashing his clearance lights to clear the CB channel, then telling me to ..." get back in the right lane ", just before we both would have plowed into another set of doubles that had dropped the back box in the number 3 lane of S/B I-5, between Gorman and Hungry Valley Rd. ( This stretch of Southbound Interstate 5 was about a 4% downgrade, which meant we were both in " the mileage gear " -- neutral --, and rolling at 75+ MPH. Would have made a hell of a wreck. )