Support From Home And Safe Driving

Funny thing, this driving business. I mean, I do a job that when done properly, gains my family a paycheck and a minimal amount of satisfaction. Yet, if I make a mistake, there can be deadly consequences for me or the unlucky person that tangles with my truck at the wrong time. That is not to say that car drivers are incapable of making driving errors too. It is just that I am on a regular basis, making adjustments in my driving to compensate for non-attentive drivers. It is just a normal thing. You look and observe drivers every day and it is easy to see when a 4 wheeler is not being driven with 100 percent attention. That is clearly a different subject for another day however.

What I would like to address today is the most basic line of support that the driver gets from his loved ones at home. The daily call to home. This is one area in the truck drivers life that is routinely a source of agitation. Some people use the daily phone call home as a controlling mechanism. Constantly asking where the receiving party has been and agonizing about any lack of control. Others use the phone call as a game to play...what mood may I be in today. Will, I chat you up and make you feel like a million bucks or will I be cold and distant for some unmentioned sin. Others clearly use the phone call as a weapon, yelling and hanging up...I have heard them all. There are times where I call home and realize that I have absolutely nothing to say and yet, I want to remain on the line as that is my portal to the normal side of my life. It is my view of the place I am the most happy.

And yet, I really want the people reading this to understand that first of all, there are quite a few mental things going on in trucking. I am not sure if anyone would want to study the mental stresses that drivers go through on a regular basis and their effects on mental health. Drivers are constantly moving, get poor sleep, eat poor diets, have high stress and who knows what else goes into their jobs. Certainly, trucking must be a petrie dish of stable mental health if you believe all the crap that the trucking companies would have you believe. Just approach a few drivers in the truck stop and strike up a conversation with them on a random basis and you will find that a few of them are "odd". Better yet, after you determine that they are "odd", ask them what company they work for and I am sure you will find the big companies well represented. I think that much like society, mental illness exists in the trucking industry, but, to a larger degree. It is not addressed by trucking companies until something happens. There is really no mental evaluation in the hiring process. Trust me, I have spent some quality time in orientation with complete nut cases. And while I could bore the daylights out of you with theory on this, I won't. I am here to tell you that I have observed this behaviour for some time now.

There are some people, usually non-drivers, that look at the trucking industry as some sort of all fun party time where life on the road resembles something out of Smokey and the Bandit or Convoy (to name a lousy movie). The truth is that for the most part, trucking is a solitary business. Even if the truck driver is part of a team operation, the job is a matter of each driver handling their respective shifts while the other driver sleeps. There have been times that I have not had a meaningful conversation with another person for two to three days. I would have to speak naturally, during fuel stops. For the most part, it was just the radio and coffee for company.

I find that there is quite a bit that is frustrating about trucking as most all drivers do. But nothing is more aggravating than lack of communication with home...At least I dialed the phone today. There just was no point in doing so I guess. Dedication:(

OK

OK, Red soil and no sign of intelligent life anywhere. Oklahoma, the land of Oakies from Muskogie even though Ol' Merle Haggard I believe was from Bakersfield, Ca. Hey, it doesn't matter to me but I am just saying. And John Denver was from Texas...so there!

I am on my way to a non descript warehouse on the east coast, Alexandria, Va and a second drop in Maryland. It represents a stroke of luck in the accumulation of miles game that us truck drivers like to play in the name of paying the bills. For the first time, the other day, I had a pre-plan for my next load issued to me. I about wrecked the truck as I was in such shock. I naturally thought that perhaps my manager had simply called in sick and someone that did not know any better was actually doing their job. But, it turns out that ol' Bret was there and yet, I am getting a preplan...Don't get me wrong, I like it when things work the way they are supposed to.

Then after I get the preplan and drop my Santa Ana bound load, I get a message from Dave the weekend guy. He wants to get me into a Grandview, Wa load that delivers one day earlier than the one I currently had. I wanted to help him out as the other driver was shorter on hours than me. So, I said sure, why not? Bret came in Monday morning and saw what I was doing and had a fit and swapped me out and gave me the load I currently have. It all worked out in the end. I certainly am not complaining as the miles in the last month have not been there and I have tried to be patient with the company as I am used to the idea of it slowing down in the winter. I have been there before and see no need to rock the boat for a situation that no one really has control over. Preplans would have gotten some of the gaps between loads to go away however.

I was on I-40 Westbound on the way to California, being passed by a truck with "Jesus Christ Is Not A Swear Word" in large letters on all sides of the trailer. More specifically, red letters on white trailer. I noticed that his trailer lights were not working and I got on the radio to let this obvious fine gentleman know about it as I would want someone to let me know if there were a trailer problem. He replied, "don't fucking worry about it". Which I have to admit that there really is some irony in that somehow. So I decided to go back out to him and inform him that something was also badly missing on his trailer as well. He comes back with "and what the hell would that be?". I just love the culture and class that I am privledged to encounter in my travels, so I replied that the lettering on his trailer should include the words "and I am a stupid fat asshole" on all sides of the trailer as well. After all, I am not one to false advertize as you well know. He came back with all sorts of profanity and I just laughed at him and egged him on by saying that I was in a big black truck that somehow did not say that I am an asshole on it and the trailer is also black with Jim Palmer written on the side and all he had to do was slow down in order to "catch" me...that just seemed to make him more angry. I was having fun by this time so I added that maybe he was just too fat and lazy to even do that as he was certainly too lazy to take care of a simple thing like ensuring that no one rearends your trailer by checking the lights. By this time, he was yelling on the radio but others were laughing and making fun of the guy. Well, fast forward to yesterday, I parked at a lot in Seligman, AZ. I got in the parking area and sure enough there he was. I pulled right next to the moron and turned my interior light on and gave him a little toodaloo wave and stared at him. He didn't even get out of the truck. I said "you get your lights fixed yet?" He reached over and turned off his radio...I guess he didn't get them fixed yet. Perhaps he might change his trailer lettering to read "I am an asshole, but Jesus loves me" Dedication:^