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It's about Health, Courage, Pay, Family, Support, Team work and much more ... Oct. 2000
I know many of you have been writing and asking where have I been? Well I was kind of tucked away over here staying to myself and minding my own business for a while. I working on other things, busy with my graduation, homeschooling, home improvements and other things.
I haven't really felt like being nice and friendly these days. Up to my ears with being stomped on like a (excuse me) piss ant. There's no other way to say it. Like I said, I'm really not in a good mood and because I haven't been in a good mood, it's sometimes better not to bother anyone, then to say anything. If I vent, I can promise this will not be a family friendly site any longer. I'm that disgusted with everything out there.
There's another side to me. I'll admit that. I'm a fighter and when I am ticked I'm not a pleasant person to be around at all. I am finding that I have a side of me that is capable of hate. I find myself encouraging my husband to throw in the towel. It's a losing battle we are fighting out there. I find I hate trucking more and more every single day. Not the people who drive them. The business it's self. All our pride, dignity, integrity and fight has been drained from us. It's POWER verses the "TRUCKERS!", it's the PEOPLE verses the "TRUCKERS!", it's the MEDIA verses the "TRUCKERS!" ... " We the People " and " You the truckers." Well that's just how I feel and I'm entitled to my feelings aren't I?
Simply put, I hate seeing what it's doing to my husband. He's wrung out trying to make ends meet. We're doing it, but damn it's hard. He's burnt out and just seems to have no zest to him. I feel so bad for him. It's wringing us both out to be honest with you.
But now, I am tired. I don't have the strength to hold him up like I usually do. We've been leaning on each other, holding each other up to see this all through. We look at each other and wonder if we are aging faster then we should be (which I'm sure we are), we're both so tired. Always tired. At our young ages we find we want more naps and need more naps. I'm sure it's depression causing this and all the medicines in the world aren't going to make it any better. It's this damn industry doing it to us. Man we don't get a chance to take breath when the government wants to hammer us with something else. They must think we're walking bank rolls.
I am just so, so tired (literally) of being depressed, stressed, sick and worried. I am really sick. Can't afford medical attention so I shop for over the counter drugs for ease and comfort. My surgery has been postponed because we can't afford to have it done. Little hard when you don't have insurance and it all comes from the pocket. It don't come in as fast as it goes out. What do you want me to do? LIE! I have sat endless hours, night after night, writing letters, working out ideas to try and help our truckers and I wrung myself out to the point of no return. A small handful can't possibly make a difference I've come to realize.
I'm still sick of hearing our truckers being compared to dogs. I'm sick of hearing damn near everything wrong out there on the highway is the truckers fault. It's not all the truckers fault. The little piss ants in their four wheelers can't seem to see their errors and want to go crying to anyone who will listen to their BS story. And chances are they'll bump into some big wig who just so happens to be anti trucker also. Because of that they'll beat our men and woman down with BS. Just because they say it's so, doesn't mean it's so ....
The drivers didn't invent it, they just drive it. They didn't design the highways and where they are located, they just follow directions and maps. They didn't make the rules, they just followed them. Seems when they follow all the guidelines and rules, our government and all the blood suckers out there (ACTIVIST!) who can't find anything else to pick on them for, then they decide to go ahead and make up new rules as they go. Well sorry if you can't play fair, then I don't want to play at all. Baseball has rules, football has rules and you don't change them as you go just because it seems like the thing to do, just because you are bored.
It just never fails when things are going good, there's always something to take it away. I don't want to hear VOTE!, man I vote and what has it gotten me? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! They get my vote and they get in office. After they are in office just go try and talk to them. You'll find out their try feelings. Believe me they tell you anything you want to hear to get their asses in those seats! After that we're history. No voice, no face, no heart .... they treat us like we have no feelings or we can feel no pain. Yes, I'll vote so all you who write and hammer me when I make my voting comments, can "relax."
I am just fed up with all this. Trucking has got to be the only industry or business out there where the employees have no say, no protection and the nation is free to do what ever it is they wish to do to us. If I worked in a factory and had complaints you can bet ya someone would sit up and take notice to those complaints and problems. You can bet on it. If I were an employee in a factory you can betcha I wouldn't be hanging around the work place for hours on end not getting paid. But that's exactly what they do to our truckers. Our truckers are paid by the mile WHOOPIE! BIG DEAL! So what? They send him to deliver and then they tell him to go wait at a truck stop, call in later for a backhaul. In some cases drivers stand around for hours and days waiting for a backhaul. But he's still on the job! There should be a law passed that when drivers are on duty they should be paid the going hourly rate. It is not the drivers fault that dispatch can't find him a load to keep the wheels moving. Face it being paid by the mile isn't a picnic because when he stands around he's not making a penny. He's only paid when the wheels turn. Where is the fairness in this? It's not fair. If I did that in a factory I could go tot eh labor board and complain that I stand around during my shift un-paid. When the wheels aren't turning ... PAY 'EM BY THE HOUR!
Trucking is the only job in this nation I know of where we have to pay to work. Sometimes I swear we put out more, then we take in. Pay for lumpers, pay for tolls, pay fines, pay for showers, $1740.00 for tags on each truck, fuel taxes, road taxes, pay, pay, pay!!! What other occupation can you think of where you have to pay, to get paid? It's totally insane. Black boxes, EPA, media, talk shows, you name it, their cutting our throats and chopping us up like liver. I ask who the hell are these people anyway? What do they know about my family, my friends and me to be comparing me to others out there? They don't know me and mine and they have no business comparing me to the rest. I know many of you feel the same way. You have to.
Oh believe me trucking hasn't always been this way. Some little piss ant born way back when (when trucking was GOOD) grew up and decided he knew what was best for our truckers. These piss ant activist think they know everything. Chances are half of them never experienced what they fight against! They are looking for attention all the time. Half of them I think try to see who comes up with the better campaign and battle. Forget the fact they probably don't know crap about what they are fighting. Sounds good to them! So they'll fight it! I’ve never been one to understand how things can be twisted all out of shape based solely on people’s opinions and impression of things.
Come on, our truckers work their butts off. They're harassed constantly. They have no protection and are commanded and ordered to do things as others see fit. They work feeling proud throughout the week and in a split second it can all be sucked out of them by blood suckers all across the nation. Anyone who wants it gets it. The judges are in everyone else's corners. Sure as hell aren't in ours. Why do you think so many drivers just pay the fines and move on? We know we don't have a chance. So why lose a days work, the cost of attorneys and all the other crap we have to go through? Worst part of all is everyone knows it to. Right or wrong, let's drag the trucker down if we need funds, he/she will just pay it and move on.
Don't compare my spouse, friend or family members to others. Even in a court of law if three individuals are in a home and a crime has been committed, each individual stands trial on seperate charges until proven guilty or innocent by a jury of the crime. In the media, we the truckers and family members are guilty of all crimes committed by others and compared as equals to others faults and errors. I resent this and I am offended by this. I consider this verbal abuse because it leaves me feeling personally, and professionally attacked, I feel like my family is being attacked. I feel humiliated for myself, my family and my friends who drive truck.
How could I possibly feel that way you ask? Well see when the media and these night time shows want to bash truckers, cut our throats, don't want to share our side of the story it's not a good feeling. We have so many good qualities and they should be shared as well. Not just the negative. When I watch these shows or hear these news reports I can honestly say I am embarrassed to walk out my front door the next day. I am embarrassed for my husband to start his truck the next day, because I don't know how many of my neighbors might have watched that report as well and what they might be thinking about my family now. I try to stay positive, but it's kind of hard considering the media and these officials know how to talk a good line of convincing crap. And they're splashing it every where they possibly can to make us all look bad.
My neighbors know we are good people. At least the people we talked to on the front porch last night were nice people and liked us. Least until they heard that report on the news last night. Now they have to wonder in the back of their minds how much of what they heard is true, and how much of it we do out there on the road ourselves. What a way to live huh? Paranoid that you'll wake up and find your truck damaged, that your neighbors might not talk to you. That someone might of put some hair brained idea in their heads to fight us and force us out of our home, and our town. It's happening all across the nation. People don't care if you drive truck to feed your family. Let's just get them out of here.
Well I don't fond on the idea of seeing the septic truck that sits in my neighbors yard, or the bug exterminator truck that sits in another neighbors yard, but I don't call the boro hall and complain to get rid of the man. It's his home and it's his job. It's none of my business. My concern should be in my own front yard and back yard and not what is sitting in my neighbors yard. Hey he pays his taxes and all in this town to. Who am I to make him miserable just because I don't like looking at something?
Yes .... I personally consider all these reports VERBAL ABUSE, because we all don't fit even a fraction of what they are yakking about in these news reports. One person does something that gets attention and sure enough we're all guilty of the same crime.
I resent having our equipment referred to as dirty equipment in news reports and magazines. It's shiny and it's clean. Don't matter how clean it is someone refers to trucks as dirty all the time. Well I've seen some cars that I wouldn't even give away. But hey! It's a public street, and you have as much right to park there as I do. It's none of my business. So why is it that the general public makes my life and everything I do, their business? Mind your business and I'll mind mine. You don't mind your business, I'll fight back. (some cases where we did fight back coming soon). I'm not one to sit back and let the world stomp on me. You can try, but I'll tare you down and make you lok as bad as you try to make me. You don't care about me ... why should I give a damn about you? Two can play your game!
My thoughts on this EPA report, wasn't it amazing how they target the trucks and buses? Well what about the four wheelers that use diesel? I heat my home with fuel oil. What about that? No we're going to clean up these dirty trucks and buses. This is where the general public gets these ides to refer to our equipment as dirty and ugly. What was wrong with leaving the dirty and ugly out of the topic? What was wrong with it is, it wouldn't give that negative impression and it wouldn't drawl the viewers and jack up the ratings. They may not see anything wrong with their reporting, but I personally see a lot wrong with it. Talk about trucks, but don't deface the person who drives them. People don't look at the truck, they instantly zero in on the man or woman inside the truck.
Then there are those truckers who drive truck who have to chop others down for their thoughts, feelings and opinions, with their, know it all attitudes. They attack the way a person sounds, sex, beliefs, equipment. Give me a break if you are so smart and have all the answers then why aren't you running for office? We bitch about discrimination out there, but in so many cases truckers are the biggest part of discriminating comments and remarks towards their own brothers and sisters who drive truck. Just listen. You'd be amazed at some of the stupid remarks and comments being made out there and how rediculous it really sounds. How hurtful it was. Go figure!!! Treat those as you yourself would want to be treated.
No it hasn't happened to me personally, but I have seen it happen numerous times out here. I could care less really what you say to me. I just turn off the radio or hit my delete button.
Some people can say things and word things better then others. Shyness and intimidation make it really hard for one to talk sometimes. You could all mean exactly the same thing, but hearing it differently. If he or she didn't say it right, tell them in a nice way. Teach them. Don't be arrogant and sarcastic about it. We have to watch over each other. You turn one person against you, then that's one less person fighting these battles we truckers and our families are up against ... These are your brothers and sisters. Take them by the hand and guide them. Would you send your brother or sister off into the dark woods if they were afraid or confused? I don't think you would. Then again, I believed when I arrived to the internet world six years ago (now 12 yrs. ago) that we were all in this together and working as a team. I've seen anything but team work out here. What team work I have witnessed has been in small handfuls. Very small handfuls. So maybe you would send your brother or sister into the dark woods as long as you didn't have to go yourself.
Point??? It's no different then what is happening to our brothers and sisters (other truckers) out there across the nation. As long as you don't have to do it, why worry about it? Let someone else fight the battles, let someone else write the letters, let someone else make the phone calls, just as long as you don't have to do it yourself. Don't put you in the position right? Why not? You are just as guilty of what they're accusing us of, so why not speak up if you feel you have done nothing and you do not deserve this treatment. It's not just one or two truckers, no when the news reports come out, it's very clear how they say it, "Truckers" .... If you drive truck, then you are included.
A perfect example of very little team work and support, was the recent fuel increase. There were drivers who traveled all across the nation to Washington D.C. to have their concerns and voices heard. They went on all of our behalf. But 100 to 200 drivers is nothing compared to the millions out there. Why would Washington listen? I ask why? After all, they figure with such a small turn out we were going to live by the old rule of thumb, "Oh well what can we do about it?" It was the perfect opportunity to be heard and make a difference in a peaceful demonstration. To protray ourseleves before the nations eyes as mature, responsible, concerned citizens. But no, we were worried about that almighty dollar weren't we, verses standing together as one in something that concerned and involved all of us. While you were losing money, we could have been standing side by side making ourselves heard. With fuel up so high we didn't make anything anyway. What was one day? It was lost money or was it. Burnt money that went into your tanks. What was the profit? What was the benefit? We can't win if we don't stand together. It was a small sacrifice, that could of had big benefits for all of us. The general public, the media and our government see so little support of each other in this industry, they must sit and tell themselves, why waste the paper work and the time. It's easier to say No and forget about us.
Battles are won in forces, not in handfuls. Knights fought (some of them our ancestors) with courage for their kingdoms. Our soldiers (some of them our family and friends) put their lives on the line and shed their blood for us when they go to war. During the Civil War the young men (North & South - Some of them our ancestors) ran towards the cannon to defeat their enemy, they didn't run away from the cannon, they stood firm and held their ground. They were in a battle to win and they fought it with courage. How much more does it and will it take to get everyone in the same corner? Courage doesn't always have be a war, harsh words, or weapons. Courage comes in many forms, it can be something as simple as picking up a pen and writing a short letter, opposing or supporting a topic or issue. It takes courage to be heard and say what we feel. And deep down inside we all have this COURAGE! we can all make a difference. No we won't win the Congressional Medal of Honor or any badges for courage, but they'll know we are here and they'll pay attention to the actual facts, not the fabricated facts.
Battles are not won with a handful of men and women. They're won in forces. These young men and women put their lives on the line, yet we truckers can't put one day on the line. One day, one single day! Unlike our soldiers, we get to return home at the end of the day. They remain behind until released to return home. It's time for us all to take a courageous stand.
Where will we be when all these bills and regulations successfully cross the desk and they are signed? Maybe we'll be without a job because we didn't stand up for our brother or sister (fellow drivers), or our company. We are all in this together and I'm here to tell you, my husband works for a wonderful company. They are great! This man, who owns the company has 70 years in this company and prior to Jan. 2000, it was very successful. It's falling quickly and it's showing in the bossman's eyes and face. It's showing in our pay checks, it's showing in where we run and the loads we haul. He (the bossman) don't deserve this. His father started this business and bless his heart when his daddy passed away, he fought to keep it what his father made it and keep the family tradition of treating drivers as you yourself would want to be treated. I will stand in his corner if called upon.
You know we are not the only ones losing this battle out here drivers. Smaller companies are losing the battle also, and they need us to stand with them to get through this. I know I gripe and complain throughout my pages about bad companies and all, and there really are some bad out there. But if our employers lose, we lose completely too, we have no job. If we are leased to a company and they lose, how will we make those truck payments? I don't personally think it's going to be as easy to find a job in a couple months down the road, as it has been in the past. So it's time to rid of the know it all attitudes and stand with each other, help each other. If you do by chance know more than, or have a better understanding then another share it, but without the sarcasm some of you sometime use in your tones. We are all in deep dodo here and it's time we all grab our boot straps and ban together.
When I first came here everyone was all gung ho to write and fight. Well I don't know how long it lasted, but surely not long enough. Look at the mess we are all in now. And I stress "ALL" of us. Hey we should all be writing letters, not just complaining and moaning about everything out there. We can talk till we are blue in the face to our buddies, our spouse or people we don't even know, but unless we send it to the right ears and eyes, our concerns don't and won't mean diddley. Pick up a pen and put it on paper. Pick up the phone and make a call. You'd think with millions of truckers and their families out there, we'd be able to make a difference, and I sincerely and truly believe that we could if we were all writing letters and sticking together. Takes more then a hand full to get something done and to get something heard.
Have they all beaten you down to where you don't feel you are worth it? This is not a circus, where we are being beaten with whips, although at times it sure feels like one. They are trying to beat us down, and they will succeed if we don't FIGHT BACK! We are better then this and we (YOU!) deserve better then this. We are not animals and we don't deserve to be treated as such. What will it take to get you to fight back and defend yourselves? What will it take to convince each and everyone of you, IT'S TIME! It's time we stand together or we deserve what we get, if we don't stand together. What's unfair about this is that all of us will be punished ... those of us who write letters endlessly, make phone calls etc. We're going to lose, because it's just a hand full .... NOT A FORCE!
Let me tell you a story about visiting my Senator face to face in April of last year. Just a tiny example of how little they know about the job you do. Yeah, he's one of those wonderful people who just made the news in a truckers magazine asking for the fuel tax to be temp. dropped. I personally believe that his request for a fuel tax break was for the people and not for the truckers. This same man is fighting to keep trucks out of our area.
I met with him personally and this gentleman said to me, face to face in his office one day, "ANYONE CAN DRIVE TRUCK." He said, it's like getting a teachers license. You go to school, you get a license. Real comforting huh? Said he could go out there and do it himself it's that easy. Yep, said he rode with his brother-in-law one time, he looked at all those gadgets and thingamajigs and just happened to think to himself while looking around, "anyone can do this." I'd of paid good money to see him get in there and just do it, with a loaded trailer. After all anyone can do it. RIGHT? My goodness he wasn't even smart enough to know they are called gauges and a shifter .... but anyone can do it!
This is a example of what the Representatives know about the job you do and the big trucks you drive. Anyone can crawl in them and do it. It's that easy. Maybe sometimes it's just a little bit too easy to get licensed to drive tractor trailer. But it's nothing like getting a license to teach. He made it sound like it was like learning to drive a car and in a snap you have it. I really would have paid to see him try. Really!
It's always amazed me to see commercials on television and in magazines how one needs 8 months of schooling (training) to work a computer in a doctors office, but in 1-3 weeks we can train someone to drive a tractor trailer and place 80,000 pounds of equipment in their hands. Which if placed in the hands of someone inexperienced can become 80,000 pounds of lethal weapon, It took months of training before I felt secure enough to let my sons take their drivers test in a car, and then I wasn't secure enough. Yet we're pumping young drivers through these schools like we eat M & M's. In 1-3 weeks to drive 80,000 pounds of machinery. I'm not saying they aren't good, but I am saying I don't think enough of the truth is told in these classes, that enough experience is handed over to help them with the real world of trucking, and yes, I am talking from experience (will share, coming soon).
So see maybe if we were all writing letters and making phone calls sharing our thoughts, suggestions, ideas and anything else that's on our minds, we could make a impact in this industry and take a stand for ourselves. Not one letter or two letters, write constantly until we are heard. When I was growing up my grandfather would always scold me when I'd say, "I cant" .... He'd tell me, "Can't, never tried" and now that I am older I understand what he meant when he'd say that to me. You have to at least try. Don't say you can't or it won't do any good until you've tried. He would also tell me time and time again. "Quitters never win and Winners never quit" so let's be the winners that we know that we are.
Let's see ..... So far we've dealt with? Closing rest areas and parking areas, tried to pass a CB bill, lane restrictions, HOS, EPA, rising fuel prices, denied fuel tax cuts so we could sustain ourselves and our equipment, speed restrictions and increases. Just a few I recall at the moment.
I am very proud of my trucking family and friends. They do a wonderful job of delivering the goods this nation depends upon, in a timely, safe manor and fashion. They do not deserve the bashing they constantly get from day to day, by the media or anyone else. I was raised to treat others, the way I myself would wish to be treated. Well I don't like the unfair treatment and press we (truckers and families) are getting and I sure as hell wouldn't treat others as I myself or my family have been treated in the past couple years, by a nation that we tend to each and every day. We are stolen from, lied to, mistreated, abused, neglected, unheard, and stomped on by damn near everyone we come in contact with. Why? Because we drive a truck or we are a trucking family.
Think back to Oh let's say, 20-30 years ago. Truckers were the nations hero's. Man when a trucker walked into a truck stop or coffee shop he was treated like a king. His coffee cup was always kept full and his food was always hot. People knew him by name when he came through the door. The elders would sit out front and tip their hats to a young man who was driving a truck past their establishment. I remember riding with my step father through some tiny towns and the elders would be in front of the general store on the corner. They'd all wave at him when he was passing through or tip their ball caps to him. Then one day he was just like everyone else passing through town. They didn't wave anymore, they didn't tip their hats anymore. How do people suddenly transform into cold hearted, hateful individuals.
Who was the first snot nosed brat of the 19th century to write a negative report about truckers to see what the reaction of the nation would be? Who was it that managed to turn damn near a whole nation against a man/woman once known as knights of the road. It started some where, but when, where, who and why? Since the 70's, the sequence of events has become more bizarre in what truckers are accused of, blamed for, bad publicity has taken away almost all his/her pride, dignity and integrity. The general public feeds on negative news. They don't care if it's fact or not. If it's reads good and sounds good then that is all that matters to them. The media and the government need to get off our backs and let us do our jobs. Unfortunately, very few people who read these stories, hear these reports or listen to hear say have had the privilege of meeting our men and women who drive truck or their families. This is such a loss on your part. Just because the print says it's so, does not always mean it's so.
Survey's are a hurtful thing in a truckers world. I recently read a report where a University did a report about truckers, HIV, prostitues, drugs and so much more. I'm not saying it isn't fact, because it's possible it could be, but I am the type of person who wants proof that in fact truckers were interviewed when they did these investigative reports. How did they verify they were in fact talking to truckers? Did they get copies of their CDL's, or anything else? I ask this because I can walk up to anyone on a public beach, city street, and inquire if they know anything about trucking and truckers? Any man or woman can say, "Sure I do!" I am a trucker myself. Based on all the negative reporting that takes place across this nation of ours, we can educate the whole nation on the negative and they can repeat it word for word. Don't mean this person really is a truck driver or even knows anything about trucks. But with all they read, they sure could tell a good tail. It can then be printed as fact.
A shortage of truck drivers ... well what do they expect? Of course there's a shortage of truck drivers out there and personally I think it's going to get worse. After all if you read and hear enough negative reports you aren't going to be interested in the field or the business. I myself wouldn't work some where, where I seldom hear any good about the business or the people in it. Then again it's advertisement for the slimballs who want to travel around from town to town and make a name for themselves. If they are outside their hometowns no one knows what they are like. No one can slander him/her. Wouldn't want that in their hometown. So let's just travel from town to town where no one knows us and have a grand 'ole time out there. They might be having a grand 'ole time, but they are making all of us look bad. Trucking use to be flashy, but now it's trashy to many because of hear say. The media's negatives stories are nothing more then free advertisement in my opinion for the hookers and druggies out there. You talk about truckers and hookers, truckers and drugs it's advertising. Some one is having financial problems, where do they turn to make a easy buck? You betcha to the trucker.
I am tired of the media and agencies across the nation, feeble attempts to provide what they consider education and understanding of a occupation they know nothing about. Their comments, dialog and bashing is nothing more in my opinion then prejudice and stereotyping us. We are a nation that seems to like to find scapegoats for all the problems out there, and so far the scapegoats chosen have been our truckers and their families.
Well we need to change this image that they are giving us (I stress GIVING, we are not making this name for ourselves. They are giving us this bad reputation.) and we need to stop letting them use us as their scapegoats .... Unity! Family! Working together! We can not allow them to destroy our family unit. A family is supportive of it's family members. A family respects and understands each other and works together to achieve certain goals. We as a family might not always agree with other family members thoughts and decisions, but they are family non the less. If they have the determination to succeed or follow through on something, family most generally sticks by them whether they agree or not. Why? Because Blood is thicker then water, and family comes first! We are a trucking family ... don't matter if we have ten wheels or eighteen wheels riding under our behinds. We are a family. remember that old saying, "When you hurt, I hurt too" ... well we're all hurting and now is the time to ban together and show this country that we're not going to take it anymore. We'd do the same thing if one of our children were being bullied in school, or if one of our relatives were being abused. You can bethca the whole family would be there defending and standing up for the individual. Why should it be any different in trucking? TRUE SUPPORT - has no price tag, no membership dues, no special requirements. TRUE SUPPORT - comes from the heart, because we care for people and because we want to see our friends, neighbors and family members smile. It's comforting another in times of need without asking for anything in return. One can't put a price tag on that.
You can contact me by sending e-mail to:
Brigette
I got a new guestbook because the server kept going down on the other one.
Please sign before you leave and share your thought. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Brigette
