Why doesn't anyone talk on the radio anymore?

Ye ye ok...so it's been a while, probablly not long enough for some...

But I kept getting yahoo updates on this thread...and finally, well I just had to respond...I just couldn't help myself...the cat always falls for the trap...

In regards to 'Why no one talks on the CB radio anymore' I have the following to say...

You basically have two types of drivers...
1. CB radio old school the 'Keep on trucken' types...Jerry Reed types or what I like to call 'Hippie Cowboy' types...fun loving silly types who's personalities and styles were shaped by the whole woodstock generation thing....

And whether they were hippies or blue collor industrial types...they were, are, still somewhat colorful and animated in how they express themselves...

I caught the tail end of these drivers as I first came into the industry...in other words...they were on the way out do to an array of reasons....which we will discuss later...

The second type of driver is the idol-air generation...
They came in when tech companies decided to convince the trucking industry that if they buy their products...they could make life much easier for the modern trucker...

Idol air was just the beggining of a whole avalanche of tech products released into the trucking industry that would forever change the way drivers related to each other...

The funny thing is..is now idol air has become all but absolete...a dinasour, a relic....
Victims of their own movement...

Any how...the idol air generation has traded their cb radios for cell phones, blackberries, gps, xm radios and whatever other gadgets they can obtain to keep them in isolation from other drivers...(infact, they really never leave home)

This has ushered in a whole different mentality of drivers...

Drivers use to hit the road with the sole purpose of intermingling with other drivers...of keeping the past traditions alive...

Where as now drivers enter the road to stay in total solitude...and see no value what so ever in getting to know other souls...
This mentality has changed the whole enviornment of trucking and has caused some very devistating effects...


To be continued on next thread...

 

The only people drivers are hurting by this or their 'isolationist' attitude...is themselves...

When I first entered trucking...the CB radio was like a telephone...
And the information traded on it was powerful....

Information is power....

Trucking is the only industry where you have hundreds of thousands of people who do the same thing, sleeping next to each other every night at truck stops and rest areas, but yet no orginized representation....

As a result...it seems every week a new government agency forms and passes this law or that law, or tosses it around, as if to test the resolve of truckers.

But since many drivers have convinced themselves that they can do it all alone...these crazy inhumane laws keep getting passed and tossed down the pike...

Why? Cause truckers don't stand together no more...

Let me tell you...half the stuff of today would of never gotten past the truckers of 30 years ago...they would of never stood for it...
Again...information is power...and the cb radio is what helped relay that information...

And being in constant communication with your fellow driver made you feel close to him, them, her...like a family....

And when you relate to those you work with like a family, your much more apt to take a stand.

This alienate, isolate, yourself mentality has destroyed that 'bond'...has instead turned drivers into self serving entities that see no connection between their own well being and others....

As such, companies now are at liberty to impose all kinds of wacky ridiculious rules on drivers, that years ago would of never flew...

United drivers stand, divided, they will fall...one by one...
And the CB radio was key to making sure that didn't happen...

The cb radio made other drivers feel like your brothers and sisters, rather than complete strangers...

Sorry, but the new, no cb radio talk, xm radio only generation of drivers is or has destroyed 40-60 years of previous built up good will and community that drivers once shared...

All that is all but gone now...and replaced instead by drivers who just stare straight ahead at the road, totally oblivious to what's around the next corner...cause their to caught up in their entertainment of xm...to listen to what's going on in the real world, their real enviornment...which in my opinion makes them more dangerious...cause they drive with their minds elsewhere, instead of on the road...

Example...a month ago or so...while driving west of memphis...a semi truck came to a complete stop on the interstate...falshers on and all....
I only noticed because as I got on the get on ramp...I saw them in my side mirror...

dozens of new generation drivers past them...and not a single one of them mentioned this to anyone else....they swerved around this disable truck without saying a word...

I know, cause my radio was on the whole time while at a truck stop...
Also, not a single one of them stopped to assist or anything...
I ended up calling 911 and notifying state patrol...and no one had even bothered doing that either...

It all comes back to the cb radio...and the bonds it creates...without it...we're like strangers out there amongst each other...and become as blind as the four wheelers...
Ok, rant is done...

 

bloodrider71....

Don't know what your were trying to proove by posting a old photo of mine...

I guess it was to show others on here how 'wierd' I am.....

Feel free to do that...but please don't let my personal style...distract from the larger issue...

Ok...for the sake of the trucking industry...stay on topic please...