I had worked locally as an End-dump trailer truck driver and heavy equipment operator for four years while taking a break from OTR. Having a relapse of “Rambling Fever”, I started putting applications in with various companies, one them being Swi..wi..wi…. (deep breath) I put an application in with Swi..wi..wi… (sigh) I put an application in with the company, that runs big white trucks, with the letters S-W-I-F-T on the side of them.
They called me in for an interview. As I am sitting across the desk from the interviewer, she stops paging through my application and looks up. With a smile she says, “Everything looks good, we can put you to work but… seeing you haven’t had at least one year of over the road experience in the last four years, you will have to ride with one of our trainers.” Stunned, I ask, “For how long and when the “trainer” sees that I know what the hell I am doing, can I get out from under “training”?” She says, “No, you would have to complete the full six weeks of training.” I ask, “At what rate of pay?” She says, “Pay for trainees is $240 a week.”
Getting up from the chair, looking her directly in the eye, I tell her, “I will not work in a team operation for $240 a week. Take my application and roll it into a tight tube. Then bend over your desk and slowly push it up your @$$. Have a nice day.” Within three weeks, after my interview with Swi..wi..wi… (sigh) the company that runs big white trucks, with the letters S-W-I-F-T on the side of them, I was driving solo, coast to coast, for a company specializing in the transport of utility poles up to 105′ in length, for 36% of the load’s gross revenue.
It Is Not The State Of Virginia’s Responsibility To Provide You With A Place To Park.
About an hour or so after sunrise, as I drove southbound on I-81 in Virginia, with the sun beating in through the drivers window, I became drowsy and needed to find a place to take “power nap”. I pulled into the next rest area, parked next to the 2 hour parking limit sign, pulled my pillow out of the sleeper, laid it over the steering wheel and slumped over it, of course only after drawing a line, bringing myself into an on-duty not driving status (O.o)
I was jerked awake by a Virginia State Trooper, nearing the end of his career, pounding on my door. I rolled my window down and the Trooper told me to wake up, get my credentials ready for him and he would be back to “take care of me” in a few minutes. Shaking the sleep from my head, I watched as the Trooper strolled down the line of three or four trucks pounding on their doors, I suppose repeating to them the same orders as he had just given me. When I glanced further down the line of trucks past the Trooper, I noticed he had parked his cruiser cross ways, blocking the exit of the rest area.
After about a half of an hour, it is now my turn to walk with the officer back to his cruiser to sit beside him as he wrote the ticket. As I climbed down from my truck I shake my head, having noticed the blue chalk mark on my steer tire. As I walk beside him, I explain that I only pulled in because I needed a short nap and had overslept a little. The officer told me that I should have set my alarm clock for less than two hours because when he had “knocked” on my door I had been parked there for two and a quarter hours.
Sitting beside him in his cruiser, as I watched him write the ticket for “Failure to obey a highway sign”, I told him, “The next time, I hope that it will not be a member of your family that I roll over the top of, as I fall asleep at the wheel because I sure as hell won’t be going through this again.” He said, “Well, that is your choice.” I asked him, “Where am I supposed to park for a nap, if not in a friggin’ rest area.?” He said, “It is not the state of Virginia’s responsibility to provide you with a place to park.” I said, “But the state of Virginia sure loves the revenue and commerce brought into its state by these trucks.” He shrugged, looked at me smugly and said, “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Sign here.”
The Plain Truth
The song goes:
“It takes a special breed to be a truck drivin’ [person]
AND a steady hand to pull that load behiiiind.”
What kind of person does it take to be a Truck Driver? Does it take a person with nerves of steel and a keen awareness of what their equipment is capable of? Yes but that is not what has to be special about the individual. With experience, anyone can gain the skill and temperament to handle forty plus tons at speed, in all situations and conditions. The trucking industry employs hundreds of thousands people but being a Truck Driver is more than just a job, it is a lifestyle. One that is completely foreign to the average work a day citizen. It is a nomadic lifestyle, fraught with uncertainty and constant change. What needs to be special about a person thinking about becoming a Truck Driver is their understanding of and contentment with themselves. A Truck Driver must be able to handle the hours, days and months of living in a space the size of a large closet, with only their own thoughts to keep them company.
The iconic term “Prisoner of The Highway” is quite appropriate, as a Truck Driver drives his or her cramped little “cell” down the road, constrained by pick up and delivery schedules, unable to go and do as they please. While there is off duty time, it is nothing like punching a clock and going home. When a Truck Driver is finished with the tasks of their day, no matter where they are, whether it be in the south side of Chicago or on the featureless plains of South Dakota, they ARE home. While the latest developments in communication have come a long way in helping Truck Drivers to keep in touch with friends and family, much like an inmate, locked down in a conventional prison, it is extremely difficult for a Truck Driver to develop or maintain a loving, intimate relationship with another human being.
If it takes a special breed, to be a Truck Driver, it takes an equally special person to commit to a relationship with a Truck Driver. Such a person must be able to be physically separated from the object of their affection for days, week, or possibly months at a time, with only a phone to keep them close. While riding along with their loved ones may provide closer contact, to much of a good thing, living within eight feet of each other 24/7 can be just as stressful, especially for someone acclimated to a stationary lifestyle of readily available restrooms and shower facilities.
It has been said, “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it” If you dream of becoming a Truck Driver, this is especially true. The lifestyle is not for everybody, for either the person trying to do the job or the one waiting for them to return home. Be very careful, because like any highly addictive substance, curiosity may cause some to take a taste and realize that it is not for them but there are some who once they have tasted of the unique freedom such a lifestyle can provide, their life will NEVER be the same and the effects, that it may have on personal relationships, can be just as traumatic as that of any addictive drug.
As you now stand on the outside looking into this lifestyle, you may think that you have some idea what you are getting yourself into but as someone, who has twenty-three years of experience driving trucks since 1981 and has been involved in the lifestyle for over forty years, I can tell you that until you have actually sat behind the wheel, pushing that truck down the road, faced with making a critical on time delivery, in a torrential downpour, surrounded with bumper to bumper idiot four-wheelers, you have no idea. Nor will the person who you might be interested in, know what to expect from a relationship with you.
It is always possible for two compatible people, to meet and overcome all seemingly insurmountable obstacles, fueled by love and commitment, to nurture a loving relationship but it is, by no means, easy. Especially if you can not commit to being in any one place, for any length of time. If you should find yourself in a relationship, a few questions that you need to ask yourself are, if you are looking forward to starting a family, are you prepared to subject your offspring, as well as yourself, to an occasional relationship? Are you willing to give them, what will be, for all intents and purposes, a single parent home?
Trucking can provide you and your possible family a good living but the quality of your lifestyle and relationships you become involved in, depends entirely upon the amount of effort you are willing to put into them…. having been forewarned. Blessed Be.
