I remember the day as a third grader on Walker Air Force base that my desire to be a truck driver started. My dad of course was on a bomber crew and flew off to all sorts of interesting places, but I lived on the base and barely knew what it was like to go to town.

I imagined being up in that truck taking food and supplies to people all over the country like my grandpa and uncles did in trucks from Missouri.


I want to see sunrises over distant mountains, and then to go there and see those mountains. At 60 years if age I still feel the same way.

The comments about dirty truckers have been going around since I was 20 years old... they haven't changed much each new generation of drivers blaming everyone but themselves..

Late night trucking radio programs beat the internet at allowing drivers to address groups at a distance. I remember when the first clean up the truck stops campaigns started...
The idea that a truck instead of complaining about other truckers would simply take a walmart bag out and pick up a bag full of trash on his/her way to the truck stop and begin the reclaiming of the filthy parking lots.

I can say that many parking lots are much cleaner now than 10 years ago. But the task seems never ending. ( just like the complaints.)
Over the years I have seen confrontations between truckers, between truckers and truck stop workers, and even a few times between truckers and greyhound bus passengers about filthy personal habits, BUT in my world it is the cleaner truckers who belong, and the filthy people who are interlopers hiding among a group known for tolerance of others ( truckers).

I have seen the pendulum swing back and forth, drivers sending pictures of other drivers to safety offices ( a driver standing on his steps peeing in the parking lot in full view of a restaurant full of people including a small child pointing out the window at him) Pimps and prostitutes working parking lots sent to police chiefs and news paper editors, Filthy restaurants sent to truck stop chain head offices. All tactics that address particular problems, but that don't change the dynamic that this industry is in constant flux as new people come in and are assimilated, or are fringers thinking they will be allowed to be that way by a group that is by nature of the task transient.

None of these problems are in fact TRUCKER related only, there are smelly unwashed people working at many jobs, and an unsupervised away from home type job has it's share.

Is trucking a last chance for the almost usless... NOT really, it is a second career choice for many displaced workers, but unless they already have a good grounding in SELF and work ethic, they will be ground up by the bottom feeding aspect this industry ( like every other) has of abusing those who do not stand up for themselves because they don't have enough self esteem to resist pressure. As tolerant as most drivers are with each other, there is a limit and even companies have to defend themselves from BAD employees at some point.

Turn over in the dry box training fleets is high, I first heard that in 1968 and it has not changed... But the driver learns either to use the system for greedy selfish ends ( more money by training the unknowing) or learns how to get out of the high turn over part of trucking into something not dependent on unknowing slave labor at low wages.

Condemning the "trucking industry" for problems SOME people in the industry have and some others are exploiting is condemning humanity for the few oppressors while ignoring the mass of good people.

Bring solutions instead of complaints...That is what truckers need... we can all already repeat your complaints in our sleep...

As to the C B Radio... I haven't listened to one in years... X M RADIO Sirius, and books on tape are much more interesting.. My cell phone allows me to talk with people no matter what part of the country I or they are in... I even put my cell phone number on the back of my trailer under "comments call" LOL.

truckinbiker might be right! anyone with a pulse can get hired! He did! now that said, I feel sorry for him. his mind is made up.After his "vast experence" he has made up his mind. sorry biker, but your WRONG! The young learn from the old,if they want to.ome do, some don't, They sort themselves out over time. the whiners and complainers will leave , Why? no backbone. they won't stick it out thu the tough jobs to get the easy job they want. they leave. so they either get experence or move on. biker? how long before your gone?

The adolesence mindset is here to stay. Having the ability to read, I can make an intelligent consensus of the trucking industry. When the Mexican trucks coming into the US was 1st reported, boy the truckers start running their pieholes, but thats all they did. Foaming at the mouth, blah,blah,blah. Now the fuel prices are the big issue, what are the truckers doing, WHINNING AND COMPLAINING. Its because they cant see the big picture, whether the lack of intelligence, or their so called independant attitude. ME,ME,ME. Instead of accepting the truth, some attack the messenger. But I enjoy the attacks because it proves my point of the lack of backbone. Was I the one who allowed the trucking companies to take a big dump on you? No that belongs to OLD truckers, and did I let in continue? No thats your fault. I have respect for myself. But I cant teach that to you. If I could I would sell respect and courage to you all on Ebay. Your welcome for this lesson.

Ohhhhh brother.....

I hear a lot of talk about lack of backbone.. Actually, each day you see a TON of drivers out there with a hell of a lot of backbone. These are the drivers that continue to get out there and do their job, regardless of fuel prices, politics, etc. These are the drivers that ignore fancy talk, and get the job done.

Want to see some backbone? Go out today and count the number of trucks on the road. Those are the guys with backbone. Those are the guys that ignore the rabble rousing speeches. Those are the guys that actually know what it takes to get out there and "git 'er done".

Right about that.But maybe the exsperienced do this because some times the inexsperienced think they know it all anyway.

Come on now, I have to agree with onexcop. I have been driving my own pete for a little over three years. As for me, I am an accomplished bass guitar and trumpet player, with degrees in engineering and marketing. I sold a profitable home improvement business to do something that I've always wanted to do and that's drive a big rig. And yes, I consider myself a professional. While attending truck driving school I witnessed 4 people that I'm sure could see lighting and here thunder, but they could not get a grip on how to drive a truck. So, you see Weggie, a lot of us are in this profession by choice not by chance being the only thing we know how to do. And, we should not be clustered into the same catergory as those drivers that could care less about this unique profession. I'm one that upon last checking have a spine and don't mind getting off my but to help another driver back into a spot at the T/S or to a dock. . The willingness to help one another. That's what I got from Truckinbiker's remarks.
Peace

What has this got to do with the price of chicken in Searcy,Arkansas?I don't think about the troops when some greenhorn idiot tears the hood and fender off my truck pulling out of a rest area parking spot after his two week "schoolin'" and his 1 yr road vet "trainer" is laying in the bunk breaking wind.And I love guys who talk crap about "super truckers" and "big radios"...Tie in behind one sometime tough guy and then compare checks at the end of the month and then talk all you want to talk after that.

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"I have trouble remembering names,may I just call you Scrote ?"

NO HABLA JIBBER JABBER

"Haven't I told you a million times not to exaggerate"

Every so often, I like to stick my head out the window, look up, and smile for a satellite picture

CBA # 454

HAHHAHAHHA - Man that is funny!

I for one always cringe when I hear a former enlisted man start a bunch of "HERO" talk...


- hey?!?!?! where did "iraqvet" go? he probably has a take on this!

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TEAMSTERS LOCAL 100


Faster than a 60 MPH bullet....

LOL...I didn't mean to sound rude,but man,I get sick of that crap and I'm sure a few more guys/gals on here do to.

I REALLY get sick of the "super trucker" talk by some goober scratcher in a company truck choked down to 62 mph....If you can't run with the herd,get out of the way and shut up about it already.If you're jealous,tell the company to shove that dog and get in something that will run...Don't mouth the guys/gals that can stroll just because you can't....These same Neidermiers are the ones mouthing about to many lights,big mouth radios,straight pipes etc etc...If you don't like that stuff,cool with me,but shut your yaps about it to the guys/gals that do like it.No big deal.If you are just saying it because you think you are going to impress your "training engineer" or your "DM" or whoever else for suck up points.FINE....But if you are just yapping because you're jealous,PM one of us and we'll tell you where to buy you a linear,train horns,cheap chrome and lights etc etc....Hate the game,not the player ,I think is the saying for this generation.

__________________
"I have trouble remembering names,may I just call you Scrote ?"

NO HABLA JIBBER JABBER

"Haven't I told you a million times not to exaggerate"

Every so often, I like to stick my head out the window, look up, and smile for a satellite picture

CBA # 454

Ya know I can honestly say that I've never scratched a goober or at least don't remember ever doing so. I am however decided unimpressed with many of the super truckin' big steppin' horn squeezin' or what ever we wish to call them these days. I know it is a shock to some but I really don't mind easing down the road in the "Ol red racer". I get a chuckle every time I see so guy that relies on pushing eighty get hung up waiting on whomever is passing me at the time (Owner ops, company rides, union wiggle wagons, RV's, mini vans, and assorted old ladies in big caddies). I feel for some of these guys that have to run that hard to make the next payment on that mobile home. Live and let live, that's what I say, except for those guys ripping hoods off they can be shot. I've only seen it happen once though and it wasn't a rookie driving the offending vehicle, some jack hole in a hurry.

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Bad spellers of the world...UNTIE!!!

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.