After 25 years of driving up and down the nation's highways, he has witnessed countless horrific crashes and near-misses.

Now the Hampton Park resident has put together a heavy-vehicle awareness course for car drivers.

Last week, just a few minutes after the Journal climbed into the passenger seat of a huge B-double vehicle driven by Mr Wilcox, the cause of his concern was evident.

Car drivers carelessly darted into the "precious" space he needed to get the 62.5-tonne rig - the largest vehicle allowed on the arterial road system - safely around corners.

"When a truck starts to slow, it's not an invitation to dive in front of us. The driver's saving that space for himself, not you," he said.

Another pet hate is cars sneaking up beside the truck's left-hand side, where they can be easily obscured in blind spots.

"The public image of truckies is that we're bullies who think we own the road," Mr Wilcox said. "But every day on the road I see bad driving from people behind the wheels of cars. We hear about workplace safety in factories all the time. But if we can all learn to relax a bit, we can make our workplace - the roads - a bit safer."

Now a heavy vehicle driver-trainer and assessor at TDT Training in Dandenong, Mr Wilcox is the first to concede that truck drivers aren't faultless.

"You like to think the majority conduct themselves in a professional manner. But I am appalled at the quality of some of them out there."

On the flip side, $90,000 worth of damage was caused to Mr Wilcox's truck when it overturned in 1998 after he was forced to take evasive action to avoid two drag racers who suddenly appeared around a corner at Dixons Creek.

"I skidded for about 120 metres with my a--e hanging out the passenger window," he said.

His ambition is to get the course into all driver-education programs at secondary schools. "We need to educate learner drivers and hopefully other road users about the amount of space these type of vehicles need."

About 26 students, mainly learner drivers, attended the first course at TDT about a fortnight ago.

Mr Wilcox hopes his course will go some way to making the roads safer for everyone and save lives. "If that happens, awesome. If it doesn't, well, at least I've had a crack at putting in my two bobs' worth for road safety."