Driver's Seat
Trucks and truckers
By BOB DRIVER, columnist
| Article published on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005 |
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I got to thinking the other day about truckers. It’s been roughly 30 years since America went wild over trucks, truckers, citizen-band (CB) radios and the over-the-road chatter about Smoky bears (police), breaker-breaker and good buddies. Ordinary people bought so many CB radios the federal government had to almost double the number of useable channels.
I once heard a retired trucker say that latter-day truck drivers are more like job-hopping chauffeurs than dedicated knights of the road. I did some reading recently, and the evidence says otherwise. Most of today’s truckers have been on the job for several years, at least. More than half of surveyed truckers say they’d choose to do it all over, but only 39 percent said they’d recommend truck driving as a calling for their children.
Trucking is not an easy life. Three-quarters of drivers (in the same survey) said they are underpaid. The seesawing of fuel prices doesn’t make it any easier to make a dollar’s profit.
Highway tolls, taxes, police stops, weigh stations and legal restrictions are other problems over-the-road truckers must contend with. Corrupt workers at loading docks can demand bribes or otherwise harass a trucker.
Truckers are no longer universally admired, as they once seemed to be. A town in New Hampshire won’t allow a trucker to park his rig on his own property when he’s home. In San Diego, there are no truck stops. Some legislators think that truckers and their employers are taxed much too lightly, considering the immense wear-and-tear the huge trucks inflict on our nation’s highways.
Toll-wise, the eastern U.S. is much more expensive for truckers than the region from Atlanta to San Francisco. To cut expenses, a veteran truck driver becomes an expert at carefully planning his routes. He chooses low-toll, low-tax highways, as well as roads that have fewer hills to climb.
As he rolls down the highway, the trucker is always thinking a mile or more ahead, gauging traffic, looking for hazards. A huge rig cannot be swerved or stopped on a dime. Many motorists forget that, and will not give a trucker the room he/she needs for safety. Truckers are quick to move a full lane away from a state trooper making a roadside stop. More police are killed by sideswipes than by armed criminals.
Today’s police have modern communications to help them. Computers let them record a truck’s license plate and, within minutes, learn whether the trucker they’re about to deal with is a good guy or a convicted drug runner.
Police examine a trucker’s logbook and toll receipts to see whether the driver is obeying HOS (hours-of-service) laws. These limit the number of driving hours before a trucker must stop to rest or sleep. In the old days, dexedrine kept truckers under way for long hours at a stretch. The new laws have cut down on that.
Some of today’s truck stops are huge, sophisticated enterprises. They not only have food, phones, prayer chapels, showers and maps, but such things as an Internet room and a chiropractor.
When he stops to sleep, a trucker can either rent a motel room or sleep in his cab, letting his diesels idle to supply needed heat or air-conditioning. A Knoxville company named IdleAire has opened a number of truck stops with ducts that attach to a truck’s window and supply the desired heating or cooling. Cost is less than $2 an hour, which is an improvement over the cost of an hour of diesel fuel, even at idle.
An estimated 2 million tractors and trailers roam our nation’s highways. Next time you’re driving near one, give it plenty of room. When you follow too closely, or when you’re alongside a big truck, the driver may not be able to see you. Don’t assume anything. You can make your moves much quicker and easier than he can.
Send Bob Driver an e-mail at tralee71@comcast.net.
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Article published on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005
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