The OTR loneliness

If you ever choose to get into the service end you will find a shop to train you. People dont like hiring people that went to school too much. They have a bad rap for being 19year old know nothing's that think they are god gift to a service department. It really the schools fault for propping them up like that.

 

Even trade schools?

 

Yep, unless you are going to obtain factory/federal certifications it isn't worth it most of the time. It isn't bad to go, I don't wanna make it sound like that but it's not the leg up in the industry the schools sell it as.

 

You're welcome!

I know that this industry is dominated by men, and all too often depression and related issues overwhelmed the male population. I can't help but wonder if everyone is ok, emotionally. I always try my best to be kind even when everyone else is being mean. if you fight fire with fire, you're going to burn down the whole neighborhood. Whereas if you fight fire with water you limit the damages to you and your neighbors immediate vicinity thus sparing everyone else around you from any possible damages. I remind myself to combat rudeness with respect, hatred with love, and pessimism with optimism.

I also remind myself to never underestimate my ability to make someone's day. Doing just a small gesture like this for example could be all it takes for someone to possibly change their mind about the life they are living. Earlier this July I made a post on my Facebook account concerning depression and suicidal thoughts:

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I kind of wonder, if it's true many truckers are lonely or battling depression, how they might feel if they'd stumble upon something like my words and random acts of kindness. I just hope i can help a rainbow shine through after one's stormy day(s).

 

It's not the high speeds that get you,,, it's the sudden stop at the immovable object that's tricky.

Look, I'll be straight with you and not sugar coat it, if you have some medical condition that makes you unfit to drive then you probably won't be able to. We're required to have annual medical exams and they keep raising the standards.

We had a guy working at our company for 5 years as a laborer, good work ethic, punctual, professional. Couldn't pass medical (diabetes) so he had "no upward mobility" and he left.

But there's still many many ways you can be helpful to us. Dispatchers, load coordinators, roadside assistance call centers, 911 dispatchers, heck even a cheerful clerk at a truckstop can make our days a little brighter.

So keep your chin up, and good luck.

 

I don't know what you do for a living, but you don't have to be a driver to work in the trucking industry. There are lots of office and support jobs. That might get you the chance to run a truck around in the yard every now and then, even if you can't get a medical certification.

 

Okay. I think it might improve,

You read that right. I do think I might have the chance provided I just wait until at least I've held a class c non-commercial license for three years. If all goes well, maybe I could drive a big rig someday like you guys.

 

Frankly I don't give a darn what you do. If you wanna roll 55. Fine. Whatever you are in, I'll just work around you.

The problem lies in companies governing trucks at 61,62,63 and get many of them unable to pass each other messing up I-40 east of Memhis and you are not able to make the require advance at 70 miles an hour to be on time for your customer in NYC come tomorrow.

I switched to full night time then so that the customer is happy and none of that traffic Speed BS. Fortunately for me the many switched to daytime only. (And that was 20 years ago.

The physics, speed the braking of etc is all taken care of by engineers. Braking is far better than my time. I think I needed about 8 seconds on the order of about 250 to 300 on dry pavement to get stopped from 70. Many trucks today can make the stop in sub-6 seconds and close to 180 feet if all things were perfect.

Thump a mr brake checker idiot. Rather than kill him. ( I lean toward the kill, Oh well.. Darwin rules...) but I digress.

=)

I offer one more thought. I have a palsy in a hand from severe arthritis from driving and lumping. It's a mess in there bad for organ music when it hurts too much some days. So I wait for a better day. Yesterday in the doctors Office the palsy hit the hand for all to see and I held it up flapping back and forth and shaking they understood. Handed me a small bottle dallop of oil on the top of them and 5 minutes no more shakey trucker. Back to writing well etc.

I asked them wtf is this stuff? They smiled and said FDA approved non THC CBD. Want to buy it?

The resulting converstation lasted another hour with 4 doctors and two nurses explaining and showing that essentially FDA says this is good, no THC, nothing about trucking, schedule one etc. Various other sub subjects of that converstation as I pressed them related to driving big rigs. They stood their ground. No pot card etc. IF the doctor hands you a paper stating (Declaring the various nos and yeas for driving etc for the Lawman)

Then I realized if you can get that into a Seizure person what can it do"? They smiled and say well... there have been some who take it in a different form and essentially renders the entire current medical establishment based on anti seizes irrelevant and medical drugs unnecessary for some.

I think that will be the next step once enough people made the same discovery as I have. Possibly important people with the influence to write law to possibly say that if you cannot drive big rig because of a medical condition whichis now certified by a doctor to be wiped out by a legal substance there has to be additional heavy lifting done at the federal level for trucking. Currently Pot, THC in particular is a banned schedule one drug and so... the battle continues for some.

I for one will not be buying that stuff anytime soon. It's about 120 dollars cash only for 500 ml liquid which lasts a long time for me but not for a seizure person who might go through it in a month.

 

Thanks for sharing your story.

My seizures are actually doing better thanks to the ketogenic diet, in fact all of my problems which impact my eligibility for a CDL has been resolved, and without pills.

Of course, I just only got my learner's permit for a non-commercial class C driver's license, so I need to get this and three years of driving experience down before I'd even attempt this. If this streak of improved health continues for years to come, i just might be able to drive a big rig.

I'll just have to wait and see though.

 

Man, if it turns out the cure to cancer was hiding in hemp all this time I'm gonna have a good laugh.