Time for some action!

Well, before you go seeking change and revolution, there is something you need to know. A slight detail that will unravel any changes that can be made to the industry. Get your one and paper and take notes. Ready?

Truck Drivers ARE Stupid. In fact, the only thing that's stupider than a truck driver is 2 truck drivers sitting there talking

There. Your biggest obstacle to change. Fix Stupid first.

okay! you're going to have to give some more details, Six.

You want a more positive image from the general public. Why? Don't you know that a driver can jump off a bridge to save a drowning baby and still get a ticket for parking his truck on the bridge? The news media will tell a story of how a man leaped from the bridge to save the kid, but some truck driver parked his truck on the bridge and the general public will figure that somehow that evil truck driver is the cause of the kid going over the edge. The general public is brain dead. What you are suggesting akin to trying to win a popularity contest on Resident Evil. Save your brains and stay away.

A bunch of grotesquely fat guys wearing sweatpants and flip flops in public. That's what the public sees when they see a truck driver. Buster Brown rolls up in an 18 in uniform and the general public sees the UPS Man. They don't see a truck driver because he doesn't look like that fat, smelly waddling people you see at the buffet that look like they eat children whole.

See the problem yet?

When Martin Luther King was doing those civil rights marches, and non violent protests, ever notice that he was in suit and tie? Clean cut, very professional looking. And the people that marched with him did the same thing. What would have been the results if the same guy got on TV, looking nasty and unwashed, pants sagging, acting wild and ghetto? You guessed it.

Before you go on strike, drivers are going to have to clean up their own first. Can't march on Washington, arm in arm with a bunch of fat, smelly pervert looking people and expect anything positive to happen.

So how does this proves that they are stupid?

If the only thing a driver had to do to better his situation was to take a shower, quit throwing piss bottles around, shave, and wear real shoes for a 25% increase in revenue, they wouldn't do it.

 

You forgot the 300 pounder wearing overalls, no shirt with a hat that says "show me your _____". Now that's attractive!

NOT

I think ATTITUDE has alot to do with it as well. Let that four wheeler out the side street. Wave them out. COMMON COURTESY is something that the motoring public will see long before they see Bubba ooze out of the truck.

 

I don't know if image has changed that much. When I was a kid I pictured truckdrivers as sort of grizzly, unshaven guys with a vocabulary that would make a sailor blush. grease stained jeans and would not be surprised if they didn't smell like roses either. That was my image, I thought it was freakin' awesome too !

If there's people outside of trucking who hate that image, so be it. I don't understand why drivers hate on themselves and each other though.

 

I did my part I emailed my two senators and my US rep. Don't like speed limiters, don't like proposed increases in truck insurance, don't trust 34 hour fmsca study, and I don't like DOT usurping Congress's powers.

Total time thirty minutes pecking on my phone.

 

True. Lots of guys just don't care about life in general, let alone what anybody else thinks of them. Can't do much for that guy. But there is one person I have total control over. Me.

 

Come to think about it, GOA (gun owners of America) have a link at the end of their emails that prompts you a pre-written email that gets sent to the appropriate senators. Possibly someone with some computer skills and some tact could write a letter to the senators, just fill in our parts and send it off.

 

My hero xoxo

 

MOGLAR, it's not impossible, but we've kinda brought alot of this on ourselves. And truly unfortunately, some (not all) drivers that have retired, and are no longer driving are also responsible for the stereotyping going on today.

Another thing that hurts us, is the way the media portrayal of truck drivers in general. When they play a clip, it's usually a shot of an older R model Mack belching black smoke everywhere. Definitely NOT a clean working show truck! They don't want that "clean, professional" driver presented for all to see. How much national coverage do you think we get for all the charities we do? Truckers for this or truckers for that.

I forget which communist leader said (paraphrasing here) give me your kids and in one generation, I'll change the world. We need more positive coverage for what we do. But most of us are humble and want no part of a spotlight. That really needs to change. I think maybe a good thing would perhaps be trucker buddies. It's a start, anyways.