My husband is a Very clean cut, always shaves, wears cleans clothes everyday, has very good personal hygeine and keeps his truck just as clean as himself. He is constantly getting hit on by lot lizards which is just as irritating to him as it is to me. He shows them his wedding ring and tells them he is happily married and they still do not get the picture. Anyway, my point is this...There are more good and decent truckers out there than bad but it seems to me the bad ones have stuck out like a sore thumb and have given them all a bad name. I find it totally unfair. Just my two cents and I hope that one day the public will see that we have so many hard working, moral and ethical drivers out there that need to be appreciated and set apart from the bad ones.

i know exactly what you mean being a driver and parking at walmart only to have a security guard tell me i cant park there any more because too many truckers were leaving urin bottles lying arround...

I mean has anyone actually looked at just how dirty Truck Stops are that crap didnt get there by accident truckers too lazie to bend down and pick up a paper or something that fell out of there truck... theres no excuse

and as everyone says your only as good as your last mistake so no one cares what good you do they are only intrested in the negative... its sad

__________________


There are Old Truckers and there are Bold Truckers, But there are no Old Bold Truckers.

I've been laid into by my family for thinking about becoming a trucker rather than continue teaching for this very reason. In my limited experience as a cabbie, 90 percent of the truckers have always been professional and NOT into the whole sex, drugs, and rock and roll persona. I have driven a few stereotypical truckers, but they are the minority. I (hopefully), like the people I've met, see this as a business. Accordingly, you should act businesslike. It may represent some freedom in your life, but you shouldn't let your hair down.

There are LOTS of clean, well mannered truckers out there, they just get lost in the crowd. Society places stero types on people and they just stick....I do not know how to improve the image because the "good guys/gals" get no attention. The rude,dirty,foul mouthed people draw attention to themselves. You dont see to many clean cut, honest, hard workin, polite truckers on tv.

__________________
LuvMyHubby

I've tied a knot in my rope and I am hangin on!

There's no news in a polite trucker. Just like all you ever hear about or see on TV (or used to at least) about motorcyclists were gang members and violence.

__________________
Al

It is a good point that was made about the Urine bottles and lazy
truck drivers. One of the hazards of getting into truck driving
that I have seen is that truck drivers don't get enought exercise.
The job just makes you tired when you work for long hours
behind the wheel and your quality of sleep is not as good as
you get in your bed at home. I have see a lot of truck drivers that
gain a lot of weight and their health goes down hill. Some of
those truck drivers that are too lazy to walk 100 yards (to the
bathroom or whatever) not only makes it harder on the rest of us
with more parking restrictions but their lousy health increases
everyones health care costs. Whats the point in working your
way into a good paying job and building up your 401k if your
not healthy enough to live past 65? I have seen drivers put
themselfs out of work for 6 months or more by slipping off a loading
dock ladder or falling when they get in or out of their truck.
Then I got lose sleep to listen to safety tell me how to properly
do these things. Sorry about the rant but it is somthing a nooby
needs to know.

I agree with all of you. If all the truckers would just pick up after themselves conduct themselves in a moral and ethical manner not to mention proffessional than truckers would get more respect from the public. That would be in a perfect world so little chance of that happening. I was just venting a bit because it is hard for me (a trucker's wife) to sit back and see my husband work his tail off use moral, ethical and proffessional judgement when he is out there just to be disrespected, and looked down upon. I personally wish there was something more I could do to change some of the stuff that the good truckers have to go through. Just my two cents thanks for letting me give it.

Jenn

I go between four different warehouses each night I am at work. I barely notice the clean cut well behaved truckers that pick up and deliver. There are alot of them I just don't notice them. The ones that always stick out are the rude discusting ones. You know the ones that think the lot is there toilet or there trash can. The company I work for is really good about letting truckers park on there lot and take there break but because of the few bad ones they are changing there policy.

until the "hollywood types" stop portraying us as the scum they "think" we are, the general public will go on thinking poorly of us.

then there are the morons who have so many accidents/tickets, that when they crash, it is so spectacular a news event the public again reafirms their thoughts about us.

the only "good" image that i saw recently was in the Disney move "CARS", in which Mack, the truck was tired and needed his rest, telling the little race car the DOT regulations mind you. i thought that was cool.............but, he continued to drive on, because the little race car "pushed him".............that wasn't cool............

we can talk all we want here on these boards about the industry and what we can do, wnat we should do, but in all reality, it can't be done, and the Government will get into us more and more.

keeping ourselves clean, and shaved, well dressed (at least clean clothing), keeping our rigs clean, obeying the road laws, being courteous, and such works fine for us few that subscribe to this, but there are so many others out there that don't give a flip, and we all suffer due to that, and it will never get any better.

we can change trucking "one driver at a time", but my gosh, there's a few million of us now, and so many leaving and coming into the industry that changing "one driver at a time" will become a futile attempt at best.

I got a kick out of that truck stop with all the "sleeping trucks" snoring/idling.

__________________