Trucking can be like a bad marriage...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJYREFafQ9s

This song is dedicated to all the rough riders out there...you know who you are...

The old time, easy going hippie cowboys, the 'come on back' types...the easy riders....

Your dedication, and thankless road hours are appreciated...rock on!...drive on!....

 

It's odd in that...every single driver on here is married to a company...and we're all kind of tied together through the abuse or joy we derive from that marriage...

No one else understands our plight...to work 18 hours days...or to stay awake that long do to demands of the job...

to sneek in a 1am to 430 am nap...to make it to the warehouse and load that your stupid dispatch should never of given you...

Yes, some other jobs require late hours or awkward hours...but it's one thing to lay your head down on your desk at work for a minute or two...

It's another thing to do it while driving with 43,000 lbs of momentum behind you...

All companies preach logs, to cover themselves...but I don't think most dispatchers even know what logs are...don't know what rest is....and or think your suppose to get sound sleep during the day while at a warehouse with a yard jock dropping trailers all around you...thump!! Bang!!...pow!!...

And then some companies don't want you to idle...or penalize you after so long....

Dispatchers just don't get...the level of arrogance is beyond me sometimes...they don't know how to drive, have never driven, but can do it better and more efficiently than you...

Bad dispatchers give you these loads that require you to stretch the limits of your body...while they sleep soundly in bed at night...

Almost like a man, who gets his wife pregnant...the sex part is fun, assigning the load...but when the babies due, the ladies there all alone bearing the pain....and the driver is driving all alone, at night, sleepy, fatigued and tired, while his dispatcher is at home sleeping in a craft matic ajustable bed...

So we gather here, like in a hair parlor, and discuss the particulars of our relationships....

 

Rest area attendants can be odd and wierd at times...expecially at night or early morning...

Some of them lurk around, very territorially, like Egor in the movie 'Frankenstien'....

But that aside...I prefer state ran restroom over truck stop restrooms...the state rest area restrooms are cleaner, better maintaned and ventilated...

When you walk into a truck stop restroom, you never know what to excpect or see or smell or even hear...

 

Another thing I like about working for, being married to, a owner, vs a large corporate company...is that they often add unexpected bonuses to your check...

I mean if your one of 2 or 3 drivers working for them, and make them happy by giving them a good week, they often suprise you with, well...a gift...

Being married to large 300+ fleets, that will rarely if ever happen...your dispatcher will take any bonus you have coming your way...

I'm saving this guy in fuel, treating their equiptment right, performing my duties properly...and giving them good conversation on the phone...

So I guess they were just in a good mood and felt like sharing by adding money to my check...wow...

Positive feedback...it does a lot to boost moral...the larger companies need to realize that...

 

Hi, I feel wore out right now...maybe cause I had a 4am delivery...got done at 5am...drove a bit, took a nap...ended up hitting the snooze button 20 times...finally made it back...did a bit of running around in vain...now, well now...I don't wanna do nothing but sit and write...

Working for this owner operator really helps me to see why some people are succesful, and others are not...

Succesful owner operators or business people are simply very very 'consistant'....

People who fail, are very sporatic...short attention spans...and give up easily....

Owner operators who succeed, think long term...those who fail...think short term...(shiny rims, vacation, women/men, new car ect ect)

So far what's kept me in this 'marriage' is compatibility...in other words they like me, they like me a lot...and their nice to me...

That being said...it makes it hard to leave...not that I want too...but I'm just saying...

It's easy to leave a company where your one of 400 drivers...but when you your 1/3 1/4 the company...if you leave, your impact is felt more...

My only thing is I've already given up countless days away from being home on weekdays, on the balcony in lawn chair drinking a cool one....

How much more of that do I want to give up?

And I mean while your still somewhat 'sexy'....or 'sporty'....

I mean the whole point of being on your balcony in shorts and cladly dressed is in hopes that someone will see you and realize how sexy you are...

All I'm saying is it's not as fun being 'sexy' at a flying J truck stop...I mean who's going to notice or respond to your sexiness out there?
The Janitor??



i don't want to waste away whatever few years is left of my 'sexiness' at Pilots and flying J truck stops and rest areas, where way word Janitors look at you...

I'd rather be at the beach...where your sexiness can be appreciated by all and many....

Anyways...I'm getting kinda off point here....

All I'm saying is your only young and beautiful once....is the highway really a place you want to loose that to, or give it up too...

Cause no one appreciates it out there....

To be continued...

 

I like feeling sexy...I'm sure you do too...sexyness is a part of life...

But it's hard to feel sexy at a Pilot truck stop...or appreciated....

All I'm saying is many a male and female, have given up their youth while out on the road...no one appreciates it out there...

And I'm not sure I want to give away what's left of my 'young years' to lonely nights at rest areas or truck stops...

I enjoy being around people...laughing, interacting...I don't know if there's a paycheck that can compensate me for that....

Do you know what I'm saying??

 

Today I went out to my employers home for a cook out, and kind of a round table meeting with another person he's bringing on...(this new guy reminds of of Sammy the Bull Gravano) I even told him that...

But this guy brings much to the table, he brings to the table the side of trucking I always wanted to know more about...

Seems all the things I was saying before were correct about how trucking can give you a very comfortable lifestyle, if you do it right...

But just solely as a driver know...there's lot's you have to learn...

You have to get into the brokering side of it...and authority side of it, if you want trucking to work for you...

One thing this guy told me that really makes sense is..

'Trucking will be around till the end of time'...

Things will always have to be shipped...the freight will always be there...the question just becomes, who's making a profit off of that freight?

The lowly driver working for Ozark trucking at the Pilot truck stop...
Or the business savy driver/business man/ Own Authority/own brokered freight guy/?

I'm very fortunate in running into these people...I just wish I could of met them 5-8 years ago....

Many drivers wash out of this industry cause they lack a plan...and have no succesful business model to follow...so instead many end up wasting a lot of time, energy and money, and eventually life...just going in circles...

Anyways...time will tell...and I'll keep you updated...