Drivers' Corner - Lookin' Back

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Well drivers, I'm back. I want to apologize for taking so long to write another story but my computer has been down and I have been working so much. I am still hauling sand out of Butler to Hiram in Georgia. Two trips a night, six days a week. But I am not driving the old Mack anymore. Now I am driving a blue T-6oo Kenworth pulling a three-axle dump bucket.

Drivers, I usually write about how trucking used to be years ago and this story is partially like that. Any of you old timers that read this will agree with me-it has gotten to the point that some drivers, especially families with children, will not run a CB radio because of the foul language. There was a time when the drivers would help each other any way they could but today a lot of them want to invite each other to pull over and open up a can of whoop-ass. If they like to fight so well then they should quit driving trucks and take up boxing or wrestling or enter ultimate fighting contests. I myself used to do some amateur wrestling in my younger days but I did it in a ring, not sitting in a truck seat talking on a CB radio. I even have some photos of me in a ring wrestling a 750-pound black bear. (The bear won.) But my wrestling days are over. I am going on 68 now and I am still driving a truck because I enjoy it.

Trucking got in my blood back in 1957 when I started at 17 years old. Today, there are so many new drivers out there on the road. Some of them seem to think that they need to be on the CB radio talking bad and they are the ones we call "CB Rambos." A lot of rookies think they need to burn their bright fog lights on a clear night to prove themselves, and many of these drivers come fresh out of truck-driving schools. Now I am not downing truck-driving schools. I was a CDL instructor myself for ten years and I trained some very good drivers but I also trained some that did not have any business being behind the wheel of a truck-or a car for that matter. It's OK to be a rookie. We were all one at one time. But there is a difference between a rookie and a stupid rookie. At one time I was a CDL instructor for two schools. I worked four days at one school and three days at another for two years, seven days a week and saw lots of different types come through. I will write about some of my experiences as a CDL instructor later but for now drivers, think about the other drivers out there and how you represent your profession. Some drivers have children in their cars or trucks. I've had quite a few people tell me that they didn't use their CB radios anymore because of the foul stuff they hear all the time. Remember, you CB Ramos out there are the ones that give truckers a bad name. The general public already has a bad opinion of us, let's not make it worse and let's try to change it.

Be safe out there. Drive like the life you save might be your own, it may be.