Truck Drivers
Created | Updated May 23, 2005
This is an introduction into the world of trailer-truckin' Do you realize that everything we use, was in the back of a truck at one time or another. It doesn't matter what it is, unless you are someone who has lived off the land your whole life, and the seeds you plant came from the your parents, Truck drivers touch every aspect of your life. Your favorite fruit can be on the vine in California on Monday and on the table in New York City by Friday, thanks to the interstate system, and the guy pushing his big rig up the hi way. A team operation can get from Los Angeles to New York City within 3 days, a single driver can make it legally in four days. That's one of the biggest reasons our stores are always stocked with product. The only get your stuff quicker is by plane, but that's not an economical way to ship most products. Even when merchandise is flown in, some truck driver still has to come pick it up. Yep, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, those guys are hammer down bringing the goods to the shelves. If you bought it a trucker brought it.
And yet, truck drivers don't seem to get much respect on the roads any more. Every one is in a hurry. Many times road rage is just a car length ahead. Travel times that used to take 30 minutes now take over an hour, and smack in the middle of all of this chaos is a vehicle 70 feet long and 8 ½ foot wide. It must get intimidating to come down an entrance ramp and look up the see a wall of steel. It's really not a whole lot of fun watching someone coming off the ramp and wondering if they are going to stop, or are they going to get under the trailer, or worse yet the drive tires. It doesn't matter who is in the right, when trucks and cars tangle up, usually the car looses. Trucks can weigh up 80,000 lbs while a car weighs 2 or 3 tons. Most the time it's all because some one got impatient. This article is going to try to explain what a driver goes through on a day to day basis.
Oh, I can hear some you scoffing, saying "That's got to be the easiest job in the world. All you have to do is drive." If driving trucks is such an easy job, there wouldn't be such a high burn out rate. Only about 10% of people who graduate from truck driving schools are still in the trade after a year or two. The biggest reason most of them quit is the long hours involved. Most drivers work at least 10 hours a day driving.
The Department of Transportation or DOT is the government agency that oversees the trucking industry. The law currently states that a person can't drive more than 11 hours a day and work more than 14 hours a day. Under that law, that gives the driver 3 hours to work performing non-driving work. There is also a nice twist in the equation that states unless the driver spends time in the bunk, he has to complete his duty within 14 hours of starting work. This forces a lot of drivers who would rather pull over and wait out rush into going into the middle of everyone to get to work or get home. Drivers of commercial vehicles are require to keep a log book accounting for all of their time in a 24 hour period, and in some states, California in particular, the fines for falsifying logs can be as much as $2000.00 for making a 15 minute mistake. In a seven day period, the driver is not allowed to work more than 70 hours. So, just by complying with the law, a truck driver puts in almost 2 weeks worth of work to most people's one week of work. That alone will cause a lot of stress in a person. Unfortunately, there are times when the laws aren't just bent, they're twisted like a subcompact car that just got rear ended and shoved into a concrete wall.
Let's be perfectly clear, safety is almost every one's top concern. The first thing the driver does in the morning is inspect his truck. This takes any where from 15 minutes to ½ hour, which he must show on his logs. He is supposed to check every thing from the headlights on the truck to the tail lights on the trailer. How ever, even brand new equipment can break. Truck tires that blow out explode with tremendous force, throwing large chunks of rubber all over the road. They have enough force to bend the I beams under a trailer and can come right through a windshield. That is why people should never tail gate a truck. A good driver never lets his guard down. Anything can happen at any time. At 60 mph it can make things quite interesting. Tires can come off the vehicle in front of you and come bouncing right at your wind shield. People slam on their brakes for no apparent reason. A piece of junk in the road can cause you to blow out your steering tire. Sometimes a vehicle will pass just to get in front of you and slam on the brakes to hit the exit ramp.
So why would anyone want to do this for a living. Well, most the time the money is good, sometimes it's really good. But sometimes, you have a good day, and other times you have a great day, and sometimes you have those days when you wake up and see a view that makes a guy say "man oh man What a beautiful day. America has a lot to see, some things are breath taking. You can see things out the windshield of a truck you never would have been able to see.
And yet, truck drivers don't seem to get much respect on the roads any more. Every one is in a hurry. Many times road rage is just a car length ahead. Travel times that used to take 30 minutes now take over an hour, and smack in the middle of all of this chaos is a vehicle 70 feet long and 8 ½ foot wide. It must get intimidating to come down an entrance ramp and look up the see a wall of steel. It's really not a whole lot of fun watching someone coming off the ramp and wondering if they are going to stop, or are they going to get under the trailer, or worse yet the drive tires. It doesn't matter who is in the right, when trucks and cars tangle up, usually the car looses. Trucks can weigh up 80,000 lbs while a car weighs 2 or 3 tons. Most the time it's all because some one got impatient. This article is going to try to explain what a driver goes through on a day to day basis.
Oh, I can hear some you scoffing, saying "That's got to be the easiest job in the world. All you have to do is drive." If driving trucks is such an easy job, there wouldn't be such a high burn out rate. Only about 10% of people who graduate from truck driving schools are still in the trade after a year or two. The biggest reason most of them quit is the long hours involved. Most drivers work at least 10 hours a day driving.
The Department of Transportation or DOT is the government agency that oversees the trucking industry. The law currently states that a person can't drive more than 11 hours a day and work more than 14 hours a day. Under that law, that gives the driver 3 hours to work performing non-driving work. There is also a nice twist in the equation that states unless the driver spends time in the bunk, he has to complete his duty within 14 hours of starting work. This forces a lot of drivers who would rather pull over and wait out rush into going into the middle of everyone to get to work or get home. Drivers of commercial vehicles are require to keep a log book accounting for all of their time in a 24 hour period, and in some states, California in particular, the fines for falsifying logs can be as much as $2000.00 for making a 15 minute mistake. In a seven day period, the driver is not allowed to work more than 70 hours. So, just by complying with the law, a truck driver puts in almost 2 weeks worth of work to most people's one week of work. That alone will cause a lot of stress in a person. Unfortunately, there are times when the laws aren't just bent, they're twisted like a subcompact car that just got rear ended and shoved into a concrete wall.
Let's be perfectly clear, safety is almost every one's top concern. The first thing the driver does in the morning is inspect his truck. This takes any where from 15 minutes to ½ hour, which he must show on his logs. He is supposed to check every thing from the headlights on the truck to the tail lights on the trailer. How ever, even brand new equipment can break. Truck tires that blow out explode with tremendous force, throwing large chunks of rubber all over the road. They have enough force to bend the I beams under a trailer and can come right through a windshield. That is why people should never tail gate a truck. A good driver never lets his guard down. Anything can happen at any time. At 60 mph it can make things quite interesting. Tires can come off the vehicle in front of you and come bouncing right at your wind shield. People slam on their brakes for no apparent reason. A piece of junk in the road can cause you to blow out your steering tire. Sometimes a vehicle will pass just to get in front of you and slam on the brakes to hit the exit ramp.
So why would anyone want to do this for a living. Well, most the time the money is good, sometimes it's really good. But sometimes, you have a good day, and other times you have a great day, and sometimes you have those days when you wake up and see a view that makes a guy say "man oh man What a beautiful day. America has a lot to see, some things are breath taking. You can see things out the windshield of a truck you never would have been able to see.
