As you ponder how having a short fuse may be seen as useful in an industry where patience is most certainly tested regularly, allow me to flip script! This is not the type that can land you in a fist throwing brawl, or even worse, kicked off a customer's property for good. You see, there is another "short fuse" that can make for some unsafe conditions on the road if you are not in its possession. You don't quite realize the importance of this type of fuse until you need one and don't have one. This means I am of course sharing some information on those all too important "short" electrical fuses that protect our electrical components.
It was a dark and cold morning...okay, so California is not "cold" per se, but stay with me here! I started this morning like any other morning; hook my loaded trailer, conduct a pre-trip safety check, update my log, then off and away. as I pulled into the receiver for my first delivery of the morning I noticed that my corner marker lights were not working, front nor rear. I proceeded to back into the dock to unload and began troubleshooting as they began to unload me.
Knowing it was a trailer light problem, I immediately headed for the light fuse box located on the firewall of the engine compartment on the drivers side. This fuse box, unlike many I have had the pleasure of dealing with, makes it easier to inspect fuses quickly. Still, being dark and cold outside, it was not a delightful task by far. I was able to locate the blown fuse after having to pull a couple. The culprit...a 30 amp fuse for the trailer marker lights. This was most likely due to a short from the rain the previous night.
Figuring it an easy fix, I headed into the tool storage under the bunk to dig into the pouch in my tool bag where I keep the spare fuses. Rats...no 30 amp was there to be had, but I did have plenty of 15 and 20 amps! With this 30 amp fuse blown, I was lucky to still have turn and tail lights in the rear, but knew it would not be safe to go any further without getting a new fuse in the hole. With five other trucks 
unloading on the docks with me, I assumed it would be easy to find someone that could spare an extra fuse. There's that haunting word again..."assume"! I could not believe that out of five trucks there no one had any fuses whatsoever! Low and behold, the only one that I was able to get one from was the guy working on the forklifts for the warehouse. Since that fateful morning, I have bought a complete fuse repair kit, including a fuse tester/puller.
A fuse is most likely one of those things in your tool bag you will only need once in a blue moon. Be sure to know where your fuse boxes are (engine compartment, glove box, etc.) and always have plenty of all sizes you may need. The one thing you don't want is to be stuck somewhere, or have to contemplate unsafe operation of your truck because you were unprepared!