Forgotten values ,responsibilitys

I agree SOUTHERNPRIDE, Our industry has gone to he## in a handbasket over the years. It used to be nice when you were driving on a 2 lane and met another trucker and eachof you waved and maybe spoke shortly on the radio. It felt good to have a few words with a friendly driver and sometimes put a smile on your face for a few more miles.
Nowadays, I mostly turn the radio off, especially when I'm close or in a T/S, cause I don't want to hear all the #####in, fightin and arguing going on. Heck, I can go home and hear all that, LOL!!!
Drivers, don't generally stop and help out each other anymore, although I had an older gentelman loan me some tools so I could do a fast fixit on my truck in Waterloo Ia. last week.That is how it used to be.
Alot of this is due to the younger generation and how they were raised. Even my kids, ages 7-26, have noticed the difference in the drivers. And they just drive a 4 wheeler down the road. They still are cautious and courteous to big trucks but that is how they were raised.
Alot of "truck school drivers" are just out here because someone told them they could make $ 50000 a year and it sure beat making what they were # Burger King. They aren't aware of the hard work, hours and responsibility required to drive a truck and drive theirs like their 4 wheeler. I am afraid it is only going to get worse as the Gov. will be stepping in and taking more control of our industry because we can't take care of our own.

 

Great post. As a young driver I see your point. I come from a trucking family and use to spend my summers in the early 80s with my father on the road. I tell most of the young drivers my age that my best times in a truck were with my dad in those times. We would stop, lend someone a hand, chat on the c.b. All the time, and meet some real nice people out here. My favirote memory was when I was a kio and my dad was talking to this guy on the radio. My dad told me to tell him to buzz off, so as any 11 year old would do, I did. The guy said he was going to find me and new what truck I was in and named our truck, I started getting scared. At that time my dad said let's pull in this rest area, I was like no way dad, that guy said he's going to beat me up. We pull in the rest area and my dad said don,t be scared be a man and check the tires on the trailer. So I did. When I went to the back there was this big dude with a hammer in his hand, he said my name and I about dumped my pants. At that time my walked back there and both of them were cracking up at me. Come to find out he was an old friend of my dads and they were playing around with me. Those were goodtimes back then, every trucker was you friend, its just not the same any more. Don't get me wrong, there are still some great people out here, just not near as many. These days I spark up conversation most of the time with old timers, and I can see the second look they give me at first for being a youngster, but iam like a weed, I grow on them. Most of the time it turns out to be the best talk I've hade in days, no cryin and bickering, just talk of all the goodtimes. When I talk to guys my age its talk about how good they are, or how they were going to beat someone up that cut them off, stupid stuff. Just remember old timers, they still some youngsters that were showed the ropes by you guys, but I see your point, its just not like it was back then. The part I don't miss, sleeping on the doghouse in a 70s white freightliner.

 

That's just the story of life, not just trucking. With all the crazies in the world today, it's hard to trust anyone you meet. I just keep to myself. You meet someone and try to befriend this person, next thing you know he's trying to screw you over. Bad times out here!!

 

It's not fear, it's being cautious. I don't mind helping a person out. There just to many people that don't repsect the value of life.

 

LOL! Now, THAT brings back memories!

 

Not just trucking,the whole world is nuts.I miss the way it was.America looked out for each other,offering whatever they could without thinking of benefitting themselves.I would gladly go back to driving an old cabover with no frills and no power if trucking would go back to the things I loved about it.Kind of miss the stuff we used to get away with,too.

 

My old man tells me all the time I should of been born in the 50's and 60's. He said he used to leave the keys in the ignition of his car.. never had to lock the doors to his house.. Everyone watched out for one another. Must of been nice.

 

I understand your complaint and much of it is true. However, recognize that 30 years ago drivers were complaining about "the new drivers". Since history began elders have complained about the brash young guns not caring about the business or failing to meet the standards of the old hands. Thus shall it ever be.

One thing to keep in mind is that people are not all alike. People that go into accounting or engineering are not, on average, carrying the same personality and collection of personality traits as people that go into trucking. There is a reason why many jobs have stereotypes associated with them, whether that's the persnickety accountant, the rude computer tech, or the modrn truck driver. Nobody has to adopt the stereotype and there are lots of exceptions but let's face it, it's the exceptional driver that tries every day to improve his skills, maintain strict professional conduct/appearance, and doesn't suffer from lack of decent human contact.

Any driver can choose to fill his time studying literature or astronomy during the hours driving or they can choose to listen to booger jokes and swearing on the CB or AM/FM/Satellite radio. It's just as technically easy to listen to one as the other but yet one is more commonly done than the other. And it's more commonly done for a whole host of reasons, not just because the type of people that are attracted or agree to do the job are a bit different than the type of people that go into other work.

I don't see any reason every driver doesn't hold himself to the highest levels of professional conduct, but it's not arguable that the culture of this industry has very little regard for such. This industry, unlike many more dangerous industries with much better safety records very much lives by the "you drive your truck and I'll drive mine" attitude which does zero to enforce professional conduct among the group. That attitude, all by itself, is enough to get people in other professions kicked out of the industry, even if their work is always professional.

It doesn't cost any more to speak clearly than to mumble and hold onto whatever local dialect (hillbilly or ebonics). In trucking it;s a mark of pride that someone holds onto a difficult to understand dialect years after they ought to know better, otherwise that person trying to improve is claimed to be looking down on others.

Many people get into this industry for various reasons, and one reason is it's a lot easier to work as a driver and give little regard to being clean and well-mannered in trucking than in insurance or accounting.

One bad trait among many cultures is a high value placed on group loyalty. It's easy for many people to understand the dysfunction of a group in a bad neighborhood protecting drug dealers and petty criminals because they belong to the group while making their own lives worse. The group is harmed because they make it easy for criminals to stay in their midst and prey on them. I think trucking gets a bit like that when we all accept bad practices of other drivers and are expected to look the other way. Our first loyalty ought to be to high standards and offer a hand in helping everyone live up to the high standards, even as we will lapse from time to time. But instead too often we are expected to support another driver just because he's another driver. A driver doing the wrong thing ought not to be supported because he tars all of us with his behavior. For most people outside of the industry trucking is one of those jobs you can always get, even if you get a criminal record, get busted for dope, can't get along with people. We shouldn't feel sorry for ourselves that outsiders hold us in low regard we should work to shame the low-lifes to leave the industry and help the remainder improve. Few industries attract better people by accepting bad behavior.