Photojournalist Needs Ride-a-Long

If the OP wanted a true image and wanted to write a realistic article based on truth then he wouldn't be writing for the huffington post.

 

you know fallinangel I too had that same perspective until i visited his site.It is difficult for most any seasoned driver to give a lib,or at least a lib publication ,the benefit of the doubt simply because we,as an industry, have been judged so unfairly over the years and still are overall.
After visiting his site i say give him a chance BUT he needs to get w/a crusty old veteran and write the story AS TOLD/SEEN from that seasoned and crusty driver's perspective and allow that driver final say in what is published.He stated that he would do that I think.

Who knows.It could be a good boost for the trucking industry during the current administration's failed policies.After all there are LOTS of unemployed people out there and obama is certainly doing his best to keep them unemployed it seems. You know that the HuffPo is read by obama's disciples.

Besides,Jerry just may could work out a meet and greet w/Ms. Huffington in person. She has not always been a lib so she could very well be reasoned with and brought back from the depths of liberalism-

 

Can I ride along with a Photojournalist?

 

I don't presume to speak for the OP but, he said in his opening post that he is looking for a perspective from a new driver that entered trucking due to the slow economy.

Personally I think he has a good hook for a story. There are dozens of stories on this board from people in that position. The trick is finding one that is in a position to allow him access, and who would like to cooperate with the article. Not easy, but not impossible either.

Besides, big company OTR is not all that's out there. It's too bad the OP wasn't around to help document PharmPhail's adventures. That story is worthy of publication, I just wish it had a more pleasant and promising ending.

BTW, Jerry, you may also want to look at some of the Expedited forums. Some of those drivers (or husband/wife teams) have come into trucking from other careers and usually work with smaller fleets. You may have more luck gaining access there. Heck, even some of the fleet owners are fairly new to trucking, coming in from unrelated fields due to sagging business elsewhere.

Trucking is a very diverse industry.

 

Why not consider doing this...

Go to school, or train with one of the major companies, be a driver YOURSELF, and get a REAL feel and idea about what it is these drivers do, and put up with, from EVERY angle?

That would be a SERIES of articles for you.

Judi Kay

 

The original post to this thread indicated our O/P wasn't interested in real truckers. He wanted a displaced-worker-couldn't-find-a-job-so-stuck-being-a-lowly-truck-driver sob story.

 

not to mention all the diversity you'll encounter as you meet drivers.everything/everyone from phd's to middle school dropouts and all in between.

good point 86file

 

You pay me and I'll take you out. As long as you don't smoke, stink or like men

 

"I'd prefer to find a trucker who has been driving less than a year and became a trucker because of the slow economy we're in."

My question is.....why truckers? Why people who lost their jobs and went to trucking b/c of the slow economy? Why not interview and get the stories of CEO's who lost their jobs at fortune 500 companies and are now working at walmart/bestbuy/sears/jiffylube/________ etc etc
Why Trucking? What is it about trucking and the slow economy that entices you to do a peice on people who want to be a truck driver?

Truck drivers are already in the "limelight" enough(and normally not in the good light)
due to the stereotypes out there....now granted, SOME truckers/drivers are rude, fat, stinky, toothless, lazy, bad drivers, etc etc etc etc.....but so are SOME CEO's, 4wheelers, police/fire depts, construction workers, city workers, state workers, federal workers, govt workers.......

So why truckers? And why someone on the liberal side? What will benefit from this story? Who will benefit from this story?

How much of the story will change from editing before it gets published...editors do their job....EDIT! What parts are they gonna edit out?

.............to me no one can be trusted.....i know, im in the military! journalists are reckless and portray the truth into what they want it to be......ive seen it happen FIRST hand! And it aint my first rodeo either!

 

Had a trainee one time.Asked all kinds of questions,but none pertained to learning trucking.After the first day I figured out that he was trying to do a book or something about the sleazier side of trucking.After three days of his B/S,I put him out in a snowstorm in Michigan.Only ######### out of all the ones I`ve trained.