Trucker's Mom has a question!

We had this problem with the internation we use to drive. Had it all summer long. The only solution I found was to either idle, hook up toidle aire and then plug the cooler into the ac outlet or to shove a couple of baggies of ice in the cooler for the night.




the nanafied group has to much time on their hands and needs to find a hobby.

 

I'll tell the girls & the one boy (I think it's a boy) to stop!!! But it will hurt my percentage right before Christmas!

 

bgirl, a CB is a must out here on the road. Aside from the points already made about a CB, many places we load and unload at require us to check in on it. Believe me, your son's mouth can't be half as bad as mine is and I've yet to have any problems because of it. There are plenty of CB Rambo's out there who run their mouth and talk about how they're gonna fight another guy, but you never see it happen. For the most part, we drivers just enjoy a good conversation now and then. Also, as previously mentioned, I can't tell you the amount of times I've avoided a huge traffic mishap thanks to the CB. There's also been times that the CB has saved me from possibly rear-ending someone because over a hill or around a curve the traffic was at a dead stop. I can't imagine any driver not having a CB, regardless of how much they use it. Just having one and having it turned on can save you a lot of headaches.

 

IMHO - If your son is really lonely on the road, and has his mother posting about it, he may be happier being closer to home with a job that involves dealing with people. Local, regional maybe.

Most of the happiest long-haul drivers are independent, self-sufficient people who are happy to be alone for extended periods of time.

Somebody had to say it . . .

 

Don't look for that to happen anytime soon.
IA has ALREADY filed for "Protection" and assets have ALREADY been sold.
IA did the same thing that caused Park-N-View to go belly-up. Too Fast expansion coupled with steady increasing prices. IA has done what P-N-V didn't do: lower their prices.
IA infrastructure is already in place and there will always be a "value" to that infrastructure.

 

I'll chime in about the loneliness problem. It depends on the person, your son in this case. If his personality is one that needs lots of company, he's in the wrong business. Some things he can do that may make things more pleasant are get a satellite radio so there is always something to listen to on the radio, get an MP3 player like an Apple iPod or one of it's competitors so he can have interesting music or interesting "talk radio" content 24/7. The best solution I ever found for loneliness in the truck is a pet. However, probably 90% of trucking companies don't allow pets in the truck. These companies consider an unauthorized pet the same as an unauthorized passenger and that usually means immediate firing of you break that rule. Don't break that rule but it may pay to look for a company that allows small pets. Don't assume that if you, or your son, sees a small pet in a truck from company X that company X allows pets. Call that company and ask if they allow pets. at least half of all the pets I've seen in trucks were unauthorized in company trucks. I've even seen pets in trucks for my current company and those are absolutely unathorized. Most of the reports that company X, Y, or Z allows pets is based on someone seeing an unauthorized pet in a company truck. Get the real answer from the safety department of the company before you believe that company allows pets. Companies that do allow pets usually put a weight limit on how large of a pet they will allow. If you don't have a pet, I'd suggest a dog about beagle size or smaller. I find the 20-30 lb size is easy to manage in the truck without taking up too much room. Dogs are also good extra security for the truck in that the right one will make lots of noise when strangers approach the truck.

I drove a year plus without my pet dog and it was the lowest point of my life, for various reasons. I went back to my previous job, my previous lowest point, then gave that up and got a pet and returned to trucking. The next few years were great because of the company I worked for and the benefit of having the dog around.

One thing about the satellite radio versus the MP3 player, your son's taste in listening material is the key to choosing one or the other. If you/he has regular access to broadband internet you can fill up the MP3 player at no additional charge. The satellite radio will require a monthly subscription. Since I'm a talk radio junkie I get them free off of the internet and put them on my MP3 player but many drivers use satellite radio instead. There is no managing content with the satellite radio. You just turn it on and listen to whatever is available at the moment.