Be an Expert!

A couple of responses to the many questions and comments you guys have offered here:

1) Okay, I'm exaggerating on the "Expert" thing. I'm just looking for drivers with experiences who are willing to share them in small doses. You don't have to be some kind of genius driver or someone with 20 years of experience. I just want someone to say something like "take an extra blanket" or "always have a spare set of shower shoes" or something as their own personal tips.

2) While I have a background in journalism, I'm not necessarily working in a journalist's role for this project. I'm a writer working for companies representing trucking schools. Those schools are looking for content that would be of help to trucking students, so I suggested that we go beyond canned information and put forth the effort to talk to the people who are out there doing the work. I'm not a truck driver, don't have a CDL, and wouldn't be qualified to properly comment. You guys are the ones who know what you're doing, so I'm looking to hear from you.

3) I promise I'm not a scammer. I used the [at] rather than the @ symbol as a way to prevent hackers from taking my email address and spamming me. If any of you prefer, I'd be happy to communicate via this board's communication system (and I have with one or two other drivers already). But I am using my real name for this, and I'd be happy to show anyone who asks my writing portfolio (though it doesn't include any writing involving trucking to this point; hence my request of you all). Of course, if you are a source for a story I'll let you know which URLs the stories will appear at.

4) As for paying you to help me, I'm sorry, but I'm not, or even couldn't do that. It's unethical to pay sources for their information, and it encourages them to exaggerate and even lie (if I was paying people $100 every time you gave me a juicy tidbit about trucking, how would I know they aren't going to start exaggerating or flat-out making things up?). Aside from that, I'm not getting paid enough to share anyway. I would hope you guys would recognize the value of being listed as a source in a story. Besides that, it doesn't take that much time and effort, and for many people is fun. If you don't want to participate, feel free not to, but I've been doing this for years and don't feel like I'm exploiting or taking advantage of anyone.

Thanks again for your time. If you want to help me out, I'm very appreciative and please contact me either at my email address or through a private message here. I'l keep your information, won't bother or spam you, and will only keep your info for consideration for a comment or quote for a story.

If you don't want to help, I'm fine with that too. Good luck to you, and please keep having fun on these message boards (I enjoy reading the comments!).

 

https://joeshearer.contently.com has a listing of things I've written over the past year. It's far from comprehensive--I have a full-time marketing writing background as well that is almost unrepresented on my portfolio. Much of it is movie-related stuff I've written, along with some corporate work and a little bit of freelance journalism. I think Horseshoe will get a good laugh from my portfolio after his comment about me being part of the media. My work is anything but hard-hitting journalism. But hey, I once interviewed Weird Al Yankovic, so if you want to read that, it's there.

 

To tell the truth, it was a HUGE thrill for me--I was a really big fan as a kid. My son and I got to go to one of his concerts and meet him in person as well. Loads of fun.

Anyway, I'm still looking for some truck drivers!