Truckstop Manners

By 2012 cb’s were fading away, electronic nannies were coming in, Foreigners were flooding in. Drivers had already forgotten how to dim head lights for passing trucks. By that time cell phones had taken over & being personable had left the chat.

At 14yrs experience you have no idea what the old days were like.


There was a time when you sat at the counter and struck up a conversation, or just sat there and listened to the old timers tell their stories.


Now everybody has google, an air fryer, apple music, and don’t give a #### about anybody but themselves, and you’re a glaring example of that @Trucker61016

 

Lots of veterans now are just newbies that haven't quit. In the past being a veteran suggested a certain amount of experience and common sense. Today some veterans are little more than newbies in the 7th round. Some use the term veteran in the wiser/more experienced sense and others use the term meaning X years on the job.

 

It's funny that while everything changes, nothing really does. Everyone blaming the other is the name of the game.
It is a Biblical fact if you look far enough back to Adam, Eve, Cain and Able. Just a tiny bit further back and you get to the origin of the never ending conflict.

The real fact is, times change.
We no longer need CB radios or to stop to help a driver change a tire. Everyone is in constant communication nation wide, not just in a 5 mile radius or when you can get to a pay phone.
Our companies have networks of repair options, as do O/O's.

Another perceived fact is, many people seem a lot more selfish and sadistic these days.

 

You all would've hated me in 2011 when I was running dry bulk tankers OTR. The company I was with loved to send me to get my tank washed out in between some loads. Happened every time I was in Toledo area. I'd go to the Eagle truck wash, usually late at night and get washed out. My reload was only 20 miles away so I had to dry the trailer out before reloading. Conveniently there was a truck stop next door, and I spent more nights than I care to admit drying the trailer out.

For those that don't know, drying a pneumatic tanker out involves running the very noisy blower at full speed, pressurizing the trailer through some very noisy aerators, and releasing the air out the discharge pipe on the bottom of the trailer. If you do it correctly, you'll maintain 12psi of air pressure in the trailer, and have your product valves cracked open just enough to let enough air escape to maintain pressure.

Between the blower noise and the air blowing out the trailer, it sounds like a 747 getting ready to take off. It's very loud. And if it's really cold and damp, this drying process takes upwards of an hour.

So there I was, at midnight in a truck stop, making enough noise to wake Helen Keller from the dead. Amazingly I never caught any grief from anyone about it. I dunno if I'd try such things nowadays