Trucking is a tough job even under the best circumstances. And often the circumstances are anything but. Whether it’s wage theft, driver coercion, or a carrier shutting down with no notice, truckers are forced to deal with problems that they shouldn’t have to all too often. Now there’s a new non-profit organization founded by industry veterans which has been formed for the sole purpose of helping truckers through times of need.
Truckers Emergency Assistance Responders (TEAR) was started by three currently working truck drivers who are also advocates for the trucking community as a whole. Idella Hansen has 50 years of experience in the industry, has been a driver advocate and a quasi-trucking celebrity, and is currently still driving team with her grandson; Dominic Oliveira has been a trucker since 2013 and was the lead plaintiff in a class action case against Prime which went to the Supreme Court and won truckers a major victory against forced arbitration agreements; Desiree Wood has been driving for over a decade, is the founder and president of REAL Women In Trucking, advocates for driver issues including truck parking, wage reform, and proper CDL training. For bios worthy of these amazing truckers, read more here!
According to their website, TEAR is a 501c3 charity that helps “truck drivers in distress that require immediate assistance.”
“There was a definite need to help some people get home, get to the next job, just enough money to feed them (and) house them for the night,” Oliveira told Overdrive. “Like I said, there are some groups that do that, but one doesn’t cover this one, this one doesn’t cover medical, and the other one doesn’t do emergency medical. So, we wanted to fill the gap. We’d been talking about this for a while and the opportunity came up to do that. We’re just filling the gaps.”
Hansen is no stranger to helping out other truckers. In addition to her advocacy work, she even talks to truckers one on one and helps them out. She often gets phone calls because her name is attached to a TA in her home state of Arkansas ever since she won their 2017 Citizen Driver award.
“I get a lot of the phone calls because let’s face it, my name’s on the truck stop,” Hansen says. “They see me, you know, and I don’t make my phone number private. I’m out here to help. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do was to help.”
While the three founders are no strangers to helping out drivers, there’s only so much they can do alone. So, they’re asking for other volunteers to be available to answer questions, make phone calls, and generally lend a helping hand to drivers in need.
“It’s not just a job for some of us,” says Oliveira of being a trucker. “It’s a lifestyle. It’s a way of life.”
You can learn more, offer assistance, or reach for a helping hand on their website.
When you have a flat tires or a bent rim on trailor why is it on your record as a accident
What are you talking about? I’ve had a bunch of flats over the years and they were never marked as accidents.
But if you run something over to bend the rim, that is an accident? How else do you bend a rim?
Probably because you ran some grap over.
You don’t just bend a rim and blow out a tire
It’s a little too late! Truckers aren’t just losing their jobs due to closures, but many owner operators can’t afford to fuel or repair their trucks due to brokers severely underbidding the industry and lining their pockets. It was a matter of time before it implodes.
Don’t haul cheap freight. … Duh your a owner operator it’s your business don’t run it in the ground
I’m a owner operator I don’t haul cheap freight.
Remember one thing it’s not fuelprices they always go up ? Is the secret no body’s talking about Double Insurance prices. Owner operators good record no accident or violation on my U S DOT still after 6 years 9600 per truck have 4 I know carriers with bad US DOT there like $19000 per truck do math.its a fug Joke pull ur heads out ur A Think?